CONSPIRATORS OF HAPPINESS
“Who is he, Leila?” Helen Trent teasingly called out.
“Yes, who is he, and where did you first meet him?” Leslie Cairns,
usually the most silent among the group, could not refrain from joining
in the teasing.
“A fine Irish gentleman, of course,” Robin said with elaborate
positiveness.
“I must begin practicing old Irish airs,” Phil supplemented with an
energetic nod. “I may be asked to play at the wedding.”
“It is valuable time you will be wasting in the practice,” came in
ironic tones from behind the big bouquet. The bride’s flowery insignia
had dropped squarely into Leila’s open arms at the second when she had
dashed forward with the others. Her arms still enwrapping the floral
grace, she had ducked her black head until only the crown of it showed
above the top of the bouquet.
“Don’t pretend to be so shy! We know you aren’t blushing,” Vera
exclaimed.
“How can you know when you can not see my face?” came pithily from
behind the white shelter. Leila’s face popped up above the flowers. She
peered over them at her tormentors with an expression of such ludicrous
shyness as to produce a gale of laughter.
“Now laugh at me,” she said reprovingly, “and that after you have had a
fine time making fun of me. And it’s that embarrassed I am. I am all but
tongue-tied from bashfulness.”
“We’d never have suspected such a thing. So glad you told us.” Even
staid Lucy felt impelled to join in the merry badinage.
“Let me tell you more. If I am the one to be married next, then none of
the rest of you will ever be married. So you may practice your Irish
airs and play them to me, Phil, for my wedding day is like an Irish
myth, something that will never come true.”
“Such a cheerful prediction,” commented Robin Page.
“Is it not?” beamed Leila.
“You really can’t expect us to take you seriously, you know,” Helen said
with regretful scepticism.
“I expect nothing else except that you will be making me a sad lot of
future trouble by teasing me on all occasions. I shall soon have no
comfort at all, at all,” Leila made rueful forecast.
“Never mind,” Lucy lightly sympathized. “You have the bouquet. I was
hoping I’d catch it, just because it is so beautiful.”
“A fine bunch of posies it is,” Leila lapsed into brogue, “but it’s
yourself that may be catching a bridegroom wan of these days,
Luciferous, without the catching of the wadding bo-kay.”
“_I guess not_,” Lucy made vigorous protest. “Oh, there’s Miss Archer.”
She bolted from the group with heightened color for a point across the
hall where the principal of the Sanford High School stood talking with
Mrs. Dean. A subdued ripple of merriment followed her escape from
further teasing on Leila’s part. It was privately conceded among her
Hamilton chums that President Matthews’ son was in love with Lucy.
Whether, or not, Lucy cared for him was a matter for cogitation among
them. Never by word or sign had she betrayed, even to Marjorie, anything
other than an ordinary friendly interest in the young man.
“Just the same, _she blushed_,” Vera said triumphantly, laughing eyes
following Lucy’s prompt rush across the hall.
“She’ll soon be in line to blush some more. Donald Matthews is here,
somewhere about, only Lucy hasn’t yet happened to see him. President and
Mrs. Matthews couldn’t come to the wedding on account of a previous
engagement at a house party. Lucy took it for granted that Donald
wouldn’t be here, either. I didn’t tell her he was coming. She is
so—well, you girls know how she is. I was afraid she’d balk at being
maid of honor out of pure shyness, no matter how much she cared about
it. Lucy cares about Donald. I’m almost positive she does. You see I
still know something about everyone even though I’m no longer Jeremiah
Macy,” Jerry wound up with a droll air of wisdom.
Lucy’s green eyes opened wide, when, during her chat with Miss Archer, a
tall figure loomed up beside her, speaking her name with
politely-concealed eagerness. She was so fully engulfed by the pleasant
embarrassment of the moment that she failed to note the battery of
affectionately amused eyes bent upon her from the bridal group she had
so lately deserted.
“Come on, girls, let’s vanish before she happens to look this way,”
Jerry proposed. “She nearly fell dead with surprise, as it was, when she
saw her future husband. Let’s not add to the shock.”
The little group promptly moved on into the salon. There they became
immediately separated. Jerry was quickly hemmed in by further numbers of
well-wishers. Leila, Vera, Helen, Phil and Robin were warmly hailed by
Sanford friends they had made while spending holiday vacations with
Marjorie and Jerry.
From the midst of a knot of Sanford friends Marjorie’s roving glance
took in Leslie, standing at the edge of an animated group, her dark
brows drawn together in a frown. “Leslie feels out of things,” was her
instant thought. Excusing herself to her friends she hurried over to
Leslie, with intent to take her in tow.
“Oh, Bean. I’m glad to get hold of you.” Leslie’s frown disappeared in
an expression of patent relief. “I simply had to see you about
something, but I hated to butt in on you and your Sanford friends.”
“What is it, Leslie?” Marjorie asked with quick concern. She was yet far
from understanding Leslie’s complex nature.
“I’ve done something, Bean, something I thought would be nice for Jerry
and Mr. Seabrooke. I’ve got away with the first half of the stunt—and,”
Leslie paused, looking half abashed, “now I wonder how I’m going to get
away with the last half. I thought it would be easy, but—well—I find it
isn’t. It’s just struck me that Jerry and her husband may think I have a
colossal nerve to—to——” Leslie stopped, coloring. “You’ll have to help
me out, Bean,” she said desperately, with a short laugh.
“Of course I will. Tell me what you’d like me to do for you. I know
you’ve planned something lovely for Jerry and Danny,” encouraged
Marjorie.
“Maybe.” Leslie still looked doubtful. “All right. Here goes. You see
since my father went to London there’s no one except me to use his
private car on the railroad. I knew Jerry and Mr. Seabrooke were going
to the Adirondacks on their honeymoon, so I thought it would maybe
please them to go there in Peter’s car. If I had thought of it sooner,
I’d have told Jerry about it. It never occurred to me until day before
yesterday, and I’ve had to do some little hustling to get the car here
in time. Believe me, I’ve kept the wires hot between here and New York.
The car’s here; it came in at two o’clock this afternoon, and I was
right there at the station yard to welcome it. I dropped out of the gang
this afternoon, but they were all so busy they didn’t miss me. Now
that’s part one—very nice and easy. What?” Leslie’s deliberate smile
showed itself.
“Yes; What? You delightful plotter of happiness.” Marjorie’s face was
alight with appreciation of Leslie’s plan. “Now that you’ve planned the
surprise, and had all the trouble to make it come true, you want me to
tell them about it. No, siree; you’re going to tell them about it
_yourself_.”
“I can’t. I won’t. I thought once I could, but I’ve got cold feet now.
Please tell them, Beanie Bean. I haven’t the nerve.”
“You’ve always said you had nerve enough for anything,” came Marjorie’s
smiling retort.
“I know it. I say a great many foolish things,” Leslie admitted with a
faint chuckle. “Are you going to stand by me, or are you going to quit
me cold?”
“I’ll help you a little,” Marjorie conceded teasingly. “I’ll find Jerry
and Danny and steer them into the library after the company have mostly
gone upstairs to the ball room. Then you are to break the news to them.”
“Oh, no, I——”
“Oh, yes, you must. You haven’t the least idea of what a fine surprise
you are going to give Jerry. She’d like to hear it from you, Leslie. She
is very fond of you.”
“But she used to hate me like poison, both she and Leila Harper. I know
they like me now,” Leslie went on quickly. “They’ve shown that much.
Jerry, by asking me to be one of her bridesmaids, and Leila, by asking
me to be business manager of the Playhouse. I’m beginning to feel at
home with Leila, but with Jerry, somehow, it seems almost as though
there was a barrier still standing between us. I get it dimly that she
hasn’t, perhaps, ever forgiven me for the contemptible things I once
tried to put over on you. I felt really pleased with myself about this
car business, until I began thinking that _she_ might not be pleased at
all. You understand what I mean. It’s hard to try to explain.” Leslie
fixed suddenly somber eyes upon Marjorie.
“Yes, I understand, and I also understand that you are a big goose,
Leslie Adoree Cairns,” Marjorie made cheering response. “Let me tell you
something. Jerry would not be your friend today unless she had entirely
forgiven and forgotten anything she might have once laid up against you.
She would have held herself aloof from you in spite of yours and my
friendship. Nothing I might have said to her in your favor would have
induced her to change her mind. There; does that give you more nerve?”
“Some,” Leslie brightened visibly.
“All right. Go on into the library, and wait for us. I’ll bring Jerry
and Danny there as soon as I can.” Marjorie caught Leslie by the hands
with a friendly little pressure, then sped away on her pleasant errand.
At the doorway of the salon she turned to cast a reassuring smile at
Leslie who stood gazing soberly after her.
Leslie’s hand went up in acknowledging gesture, then she started slowly
for the library which was situated on the opposite side of the house
from the salon.
“Leslie would like to see you and Danny in the library,” Marjorie
presently murmured in Jerry’s ear during a brief lull in the new tide of
congratulation that was holding the bridal pair captive in the salon.
“Yours truly,” Jerry returned in an undertone. “This ‘wish you joy’
stunt will soon be over. Tell Leslie she may expect us. Now what’s on
her mind?”
“Wait, and learn,” Marjorie cryptically advised. Unauthorized by Leslie
she gathered together Leila, Vera, Robin, Phil, Helen Trent, and,
lastly, Lucy Warner, who stood talking to Donald Matthews with the
serious air of a sage.
“You’re needed in the library to attend a special session of the
Travelers,” she told each girl in turn. “Come along with me.” Nor would
she give out a word of information regarding the import of the special
session.
Outside the library doorway she called a halt in the procession. “We’ll
wait here for Danny and Jerry. Keep back out of sight of Leslie. She’s
in the library, but I’d rather she wouldn’t see you just yet.”
“What is it all about? As your business partner I think I’m entitled to
an explanation. Page and Dean aren’t supposed to have secrets from each
other,” Robin made plaintive plea.
“She is that aggravating.” Leila raised disapproving hands. “Wurra,
wurra! What shall we do with her?”
“Pull down her curls,” Vera made a playful dive at Marjorie.
“Steal her orchids.” Phil made a pretended grab at the cluster of
orchids nestling against Marjorie’s shoulder.
“Powder her nose till it looks floury,” Helen whisked a gold compact
from a tiny inside pocket of her corsage and advanced upon Marjorie.
In the midst of the pretended struggle, carried on amid much subdued
mirth, a calm voice inquired: “What’s going on out here?” Leslie, tired
of her own company, as she continued to wait in the library for Marjorie
and the Seabrookes, and strolled to the door, attracted by the sound of
familiar voices, gleeful with laughter. She stood surveying the group, a
trace of her former quizzical aloof attitude toward the Travelers in her
face and bearing.
“Now see what you’ve done.” Marjorie merrily declared as she extricated
herself from Helen’s grasp. Helen, at least, had determined to carry out
her part of the punishment. “You’re discovered, and all because you made
so much noise. Very well. You may now escort Leslie with all pomp and
ceremony into the library. She has done something perfectly dear for
Jerry and Danny. I took the liberty of bringing you girls here because I
thought they would like you to share the surprise that’s coming to them,
with them.”
She turned to Leslie, laying a soft little hand on the other girl’s arm.
“Do you mind, Leslie? We’re all Travelers together you know, sworn to
share each other’s joys and sorrows. If you do, then——”
“No, I don’t; not the least bit.” Leslie was smiling now. “I thought for
a minute I did; but not now. The gang will support me during the
ordeal,” she concluded humorously.
“Now it seems we know something of what we are about to be doing, and
still not much of anything. Let us do ourselves proud as escorts, and
then see what happens.” Leila made a sweeping bow to Leslie, crooking an
inviting arm. “Will you kindly be taking my Irish arm, Miss Cairns?” she
said gallantly.
“Take mine, too,” petitioned Phil, ranging herself on Leslie’s other
side.
“Robin and I are going to walk ahead of Leslie, backwards, into the
library, bowing all the way, and chanting her praises,” Vera announced
grandly.
“Then I’ll be advising you to watch your step, or you find your two
selves sitting down very suddenly,” was Leila’s mirthful warning.
“We might as well bring up the rear,” Marjorie told Helen and Lucy. “All
the best positions have been snapped up.”
Leslie had hardly more than been bowed to the big leather davenport,
invited by her flamboyantly polite escorts to be seated, when Jerry’s
voice was heard outside the room.
“Here we are,” she called out cheerily as she and Danny entered the
library. Her quick glance took in the group awaiting her with a flash of
surprise. Marjorie had merely said that Leslie wished to see Danny and
herself in the library. “We came down the back stairs and through the
kitchen so as to dodge the crowd. What’s stirring?” she asked lightly,
but her eyes directly sought Leslie’s face.
“Nothing much.” Leslie’s dark eyes were bent on Jerry with smiling
friendliness.
A brief instant of silence ensued. The other bridesmaids were wondering
pleasantly what it was all about. Danny was showing attentive interest,
though Marjorie read complete mystification on his composed features.
“Peter,” Leslie began abruptly, then laughed, “I mean my father, is in
London, you know. His private car on the railroad isn’t doing anyone any
good, just at present. I thought you two,” she nodded toward the bride
and groom, “might like it for your trip to the Adirondacks. I wired for
it, and it’s down at the railroad yard now, ready to go out with the
one-o’clock train. It will be at your disposal during your honeymoon
trip, if you’ll accept the use of it. If you wish to go to any other
place in it from the mountains, wire me at Hamilton twenty-four hours
before you start, and I’ll gladly make arrangements for you. Our
houseman, Emil, will be aboard to make you comfortable. That’s all,
except that it would make both my father and me very happy to have you
use it,” she ended almost humbly.
“Leslie,” Jerry put out both hands impulsively to Leslie who caught them
in a close warm clasp. “You take my breath. What a lot of trouble you
have been to just on purpose to make Danny and me happy. Isn’t it
perfectly celostrous, Danny?” she turned eagerly to her husband.
“It is.” Danny’s hand went out to Leslie. “It’s a knock-down,” he said,
his roguish smile breaking out. “I can’t think of anything to say except
‘Thank you, Leslie. You’ve surely added tonight to our happiness.’”
“Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah!
Rah, rah for Leslie and her private car!”
Phil’s hands waved themselves above her head like triumphant banners as
she sent up this joyful tribute. The other Travelers immediately took it
up with a will. As a result more than one guest’s head poked itself
through the arched doorway to be as quickly withdrawn with the chagrined
knowledge that the cheering going on in the library seemed to be a
strictly intimate matter of rejoicing.
“It’s time we were moving on, Travelers tried and true,” Marjorie
presently said after the hub-bub of buoyant talk and laughter had died
out. “I should like to have at least one dance with the groom before
these two,” she smilingly indicated Danny and Jerry, “have run away from
us; provided he should ask me for a dance,” she added innocently.
“Will you please trot a trot with me, Mrs. Macy?” Danny grinningly rose
to the occasion.
“I will; I’d love to,” Marjorie came back with equal promptness. She
knew Danny was feeling far more pleasantly embarrassed than appeared on
the surface at Leslie’s good will offer.
“If you were a bride in old Ireland you would have to dance with every
man who came to your wedding,” was Leila’s cheering remark to Jerry as
the library party started for the ball room.
“Good night! I certainly have something to be thankful for,” was Jerry’s
emphatic opinion.
Up the familiar two flights of stairs to the ball room, a climb now
doubly endeared by memory to the Sanford contingent of the light-hearted
group, an evening of further jollity awaited them.
Dancing had already begun, and a fox trot was in full swing when they
entered the ball room, soon to be whirled into the ever favorite
amusement of the dance. Jerry and Danny had a dance together, then did
not meet again until over an hour later when they led the merry van
downstairs to partake of the wedding supper which would be served in the
mammoth tent on the lawn.
The bridal table was a thing of beauty in the way of decorative art, and
at the many smaller tables roses formed the center decoration with a
rose at each place. There were favors for the feminine fair of
satin-covered, rose-topped powder boxes in delicate evening shades, and
for the men there were cunning Japanese rose jars filled with delightful
rose pot-pourri.
The bridal table seated the bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. Macy, Mr. and
Mrs. Seabrooke and the groomsman, Robert Seabrooke, Mr. and Mrs. Dean,
Hal and Marjorie, Miss Susanna Hamilton, Irma, Susan and Constance
together with their husbands, the six bridesmaids, the maid of honor,
and last, but not least, Delia. Jerry had ranked Delia as among her
“best pals,” declaring that Delia was too thoroughly a part of the Dean
menage to be separated from it at the wedding supper.
It was close to midnight when the last toast to the bride and groom had
been drunk down and the big tent had emptied itself of its merry
assemblage, the majority of elder guests to take their leave and the
younger set to return to the ball room for another hour of dancing.
“What Danny and I ought to do is to duck out the back way, cut and run,”
Jerry told Marjorie in the privacy of her room to which she and Marjorie
had slipped away from the throng after supper, there to make ready for
her wedding journey. “Make up your mind there’ll be rice enough thrown
at us to stop a famine in China. There’ll be confetti, too. Make no
mistake about that. By the time the Seabrookes dash into their car it
will be hard to say which they resemble most, the tag end of a Mardi
Gras parade, or a couple of rice stalks in full crop. Anyhow, we aren’t
going to duck. Danny and I are agreed upon that point. Nothing like
giving our friends a chance at us,” Jerry grinned philosophically as she
slipped into the smart beige colored ensemble she had chosen as a
traveling costume.
When at half-past twelve she and Danny boldly essayed their departure by
way of the broad flight of steps which led down from the port cochere to
the drive the rice storm set in in earnest. Amid showers of rice and
confetti, and a frantic hub-bub of gay-spirited farewells, the besieged
couple fled across the narrow space of stone walk, gaining the welcome
shelter of their waiting car. A moment, and William, the Macy’s
chauffeur, had sent the trim roadster shooting forward down the drive.
Jerry and Danny were started at last upon their real journey through
life.
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