OLD FRIENDS.
Miss Lavillotte descended in the elevator and hurried out to her waiting
brougham, and stopped an instant with her foot on the step, to turn a
kindly, inquiring gaze upon the elderly coachman, who held the door open
before her. An amused twinkle grew in his honest eyes as he gravely
responded to the glance with the words, "No, Miss Joyce, I'm not tired
nor cold--where next?"
"If you are certain, Gilbert; but it was a good while, and"--"It's mild
and pleasant to-day, Miss Joyce."
"Well, it's good of you to think so. Then drive to the Bonnivels, and I
won't be so long this time."
"Take all the time you want, Miss Joyce."
He gently shut the door upon her and, mounting to the box, drove
carefully away through the thronged streets, turning westward and
leaving the neighborhood of legal offices to plunge into the somewhat
unsavory precincts given over to markets and fruit venders, passing
which, he gradually emerged into the less frequented lengths of avenue
leading far out into the suburbs. It was a long and not too pleasant
drive, but Joyce Lavillotte was too busy with her thoughts to mind, and
Gilbert Judson too intent upon the safe guidance of her spirited team to
care. The dreamer inside was indeed surprised when he stopped and,
glancing out, she saw they had reached their destination.
It was a corner house, frame-built, and of a comfortable, unfashionable
aspect, set down in a square which showed its well-kept green even in
winter. The lace-hung windows were broad, sunny and many paned, and a
gilded cage flashed back the light in one of them. Joyce flung it an
eager glance of expectancy and ran lightly up the steps of the square
porch, as if overjoyed to be there. Before she could ring, the door was
flung open with the outburst,
"I knowed it was you! I saw you froo de window." She caught up the
laughing child with a loving word. "Of course you knew me, sweetheart!
Where's mama, and Auntie, and 'Wobin', and all?"
The brown curls bobbed against her shoulder and the red lips met her own
in frank affection.
"Dey's heah, but Wobin's wunned away."
"Wunned away? The naughty dog! Ah, Dorette, there you are! How's the
blessed mother?"
"Better, Joyce; no pain in several days. Come in, dear--she'll be so
glad! Oh, Joyce I did think when all restrictions were removed----"
"Ah! no, dear. You knew I would observe every form of respect. I have
been nowhere yet."
She glanced down meaningly at her black gown, and Dorette's olive skin
flushed in a delicate fashion.
"I beg your pardon. You are right, as usual. Come in to ma mère."
Joyce followed the sweet-faced young woman, still carrying the little
child who was so like her, and thus entered the large and pleasant
living-room of the old house. In the embrasure of one broad window,
seeming to focus all the light which streamed in freely through the
thin, parted curtains, sat a woman in a gown of soft white wool, made
with artistic simplicity. Her face had the same soft cream tint as her
gown, and the hair, turned back in loose waves from her broad forehead,
was of a purplish black, occasionally streaked with gray. All the
features were clean-cut and delicate, but the expression in the large
black eyes was that vague, appealing one which too surely indicates the
utter loss of sight.
Evidently the woman, still exceptionally beautiful in her maturity, was
hopelessly blind.
Joyce quickly set down the little one, and advanced on winged feet.
"Ma mère," she said in a voice almost of adoration, as she dropped to
her knees beside the woman's chair, "Ma mère, I have come back."
"Dear one! Ma petite!" exclaimed the other in liquid southern accents,
reaching out a delicate, trembling hand, which the girl caught and
kissed devotedly. "We have longed for you. But we knew you would come!
Let me see your face, child."
Joyce turned it upward and remained very still while the other lightly
touched brow, eyes, lips, and chin, in a swift, assured fashion.
"Ah, you are truly the same little Joyce. There is the breadth between
the eyes like an innocent child's, the straight, firm little nose like a
Greek outline, the full curved lips--do you still pout when angry,
chèrie?--and that square, decided turn to the chin, more apparent than
ever. You have grown, Joyce; you are a woman now."
"Yes, mother, but still a baby to you, and I want always to keep the old
name for you, no matter how I grow. Ma mère, you have grown younger, and
are more beautiful than ever."
"No flattery, mignonne! It is not good for me. Sit down here and tell us
all there is to tell. You are very lonely, now?"
"I am alone--yes."
Joyce drew a chair close beside the other and sat down, while the older
women smiled slightly.
"Yes, there is a difference. They tell me you are very rich."
"Too rich, dear mother; it frightens me!"
"Money is a great power, my child."
"And a terrible responsibility, as you have always taught me, ma mère."
"True. We have both known happy days without it. Still----" "If it had
only come in the right way, Mother Bonnivel!" cried the girl in an
irrepressible outburst, "But oh! there's a stain on every dollar. I must
spend my whole life trying to remove the stain, trying to make it honest
money. Do you remember our little French fable? How the cursed coin of
the oppressor left its mark in boils and burns, until it had been
sanctified by relieving the starving child? I must sanctify what my
father--snatched--ma mère."
"And you will, Joyce--I know that."
"Yes, I mean to, God helping me. I have just come from a stormy
interview with dear old Mr. Barrington, but I have won him over at last.
Yet, it is you, mother, who will do it all, for I shall simply carry out
your plans and----"
"My plans? what, Joyce! I have never----"
"Oh no, because you had not the means, so what was the use? But all the
same it is you. Didn't you supply all the ideas, all the longings and
the foresight? Every bit of it is what you have instilled into me from
babyhood."
"They are your own dreams--yours and Leon's. Now let us make them
reality. But where did Dorette go, and where is Camille? I want you all
to hear--and good Larry, too."
"Then stay the day with us, dear. Larrimer will not be home till
evening, and there is so much to talk about."
"Shall I? Oh, how blissful to think I can! I will go out and send
Gilbert home, then. He has waited for me so patiently all the morning.
Dear Mother Bonnivel, is it wicked that I can't be sad and regretful,
but that the freedom is so sweet--_so sweet_?"
"It is natural at least, my love. Go and dismiss Gilbert until to-morrow
morning. It will be too late for your long ride home after our seven
o'clock dinner. Then hurry back. I begrudge every minute you are gone."
Joyce sped gaily away, and returned minus her hat and furs.
"I left them in the hall," she explained, as Dorette looked up
questioningly, having just re-entered. "Are you glad I'm to stay, Dodo?
Do give me some sewing now, Dorey, just in the old way. Is there nothing
to do for baby?"
"Nothing! Indeed you'd think there was something, to see the way she
goes through her clothing. She's a perfect terror, Joyce! Well, take
this bit of a yoke--can you hemstitch as neatly as ever?"
"Try me; I don't know. Ellen does everything now."
"You have a maid?"
"Oh yes, I could not live alone. But Ellen is scarcely that. She is too
staid, too old and respectable. She is my companion, rather."
"And you are still in that great hotel?"
"Yes, our rooms were taken for a year, and the time is not up for some
months yet, so it seemed best. And we are quite independent there. We
live as quietly in our suite of rooms as if we were in a separate flat.
And our places at table are reserved in a far corner of the great salon,
so that by timing ourselves we avoid the crowd, and we do not become
conspicuous."
"Yes, I understand. One can live much as one elects to anywhere," said
Madame Bonnivel, caressing little Dodo as the child leaned against her.
"I don't know," laughed Joyce. "There have been times when we didn't
think so--did we, Dorette? Oh, it is so good--so good to be here!"
Over their needle-work the talk ran on, largely reminiscent in
character, and mostly in a joyous strain. The young matron, Mrs.
Larrimer Driscoll, was evidently no ready talker, but her interest was
so vivid that she was a constant incitement to Joyce, who seemed to have
broken bounds, and was by turns grave and gay, imperious and pleading in
a succession of moods as natural as a child's and almost as little
controlled. Presently she who has been referred to as Dodo's auntie,
Miss Camille Bonnivel, entered and, after one swift look at the guest,
who stood smilingly awaiting the outbreak of her astonishment, threw up
both hands and flew across the room.
"Joyce!" she cried, "Joyce Lavillotte! So the proud heiress of a hundred
acres--mostly marsh-land, but no matter!--has condescended to our low
estate. Shall I go down on one knee, or two?"
"On four, if you have them, you gypsy! Come, kiss me and stop this
nonsense. Dear! How you have grown, you tiny thing. You must be nearly
to my elbows by this."
"Elbows! I'm well on towards five feet, I'll let you know. But you are
superb, Joyce--'divinely tall and most divinely fair'; isn't that it?
Come, stoop to me."
They kissed heartily, the dark little creature standing on tiptoe, while
Joyce bent her head low, then Dodo claimed attention from "Cammy," and
amid bursts of laughter and sometimes a rush of sudden tears, the talk
flowed on, as it can only flow when dearest friends meet after long
separation, with no estrangement and no doubts to dim the charms of
renewed intercourse.