NAN'S TROUSSEAU.
The wedding day dawned gloriously. The two girls were up early and as
soon as they were dressed, Nan drew her friend to the wide open window
and they looked out at the garden, where masses of yellow chrysanthemums
were glowing in the sunlight. Beyond, the wide silvery beach was
glistening, and, over the gleaming blue water a flock of shining white
sea gulls dipped and circled. Silently the two girls stood with arms
about each other, and, in memory, Nan was again in the long ago. She was
watching two children dressed in gypsy garb as they stood near the
rushing, singing fountain. One was a dark, eager-eyed girl of thirteen,
and the other was a mis-shapen, goblin-like boy of ten.
Tirol, dear little Tirol. How he had loved her, how he had clung to her!
Tears gathered in the girl's eyes as she thought of the little fellow and
she hoped that, somehow he might know what a happy day this was to be for
his dear Sister Nan.
"Look yonder!" Phyllis laughingly exclaimed, "Here comes a mounted
messenger at full speed."
"It's Bobsy, the gardener's son," Nan said. "He has been for an early
ride on my Binnie."
The boy, chancing to see the two girls at the upper window, waved a
letter, and, believing that he wished to give it to them, they went
downstairs and out on the veranda.
The boy's freckled face was beaming. "Mr. Robert sent this over," he said
jubilantly, "and he gave me a five dollar gold piece toward my new
bicycle."
Then away the boy galloped to tell this astounding news to his mother,
while Nan opened the letter and read:
"Good morning to you, Lady Red Bird. Can you believe it? This is our
wedding day! I want to shout and sing, but I have much to do before
that most wonderful of all hours, today at high noon.
"Since you promised that I might plan everything, I am asking my Nan to
be dressed in gypsy fashion. Then your kinsfolk and my kinsfolk are to
meet under the pepper tree as the bells of the old mission tell the
hour of noon. Last night as I went through the hedge, I told our tree
the great honor that was to befall it, and this morning the birds in it
are singing a riotous song of joy, and I am sure that the pepper
berries are redder than ever before.
"Then, at two o'clock will come the real surprise and the beginning of
our joyous journey. Nan comrade, may I prove worthy of you!
"Your
"Robert."
After breakfast Aunt Dahlia, Phyllis and Nan were wondering what the
bride would wear for a wedding gown, when Monsieur Alecsandri returned
from the station, whither he had gone at an early hour. A few moments
later an expressman brought a trunk which was carried to Nan's room. Then
her uncle Basil smilingly handed her a key as he said: "Elenan, do me the
honor of wearing one of the gowns that were prepared for your mother's
wedding."
Nan was indeed puzzled to know how she could please her uncle Basil, and
yet keep her promise to Robert.
When the trunk was opened and the garments which it contained had been
spread about on bed, lounge and chairs, Nan turned to the older lady, her
dark eyes aglow as she said, "Aunt Dahlia, dear, did you ever see fabrics
more beautiful?"
"This one is especially lovely," the little lady said as she smoothed the
folds of a soft, white silk. "I wish you would try it on, dearie."
And then, when the girl stood arrayed in the gown, Phyllis exclaimed,
"Nan, that surely was made for your wedding dress."
"But, Phyllis, you are forgetting Robert's request."
"No, I am not," the other maid laughingly replied. Then for a moment she
looked about the room thoughtfully. Spying the gorgeous scarlet and gold
shawl, which in the long ago Manna Lou had given the girl, she took it
and threw one fringed corner over Nan's left shoulder, fastening it in
front at the belt. Then, winding it about her waist, another point hung
panelwise to the bottom of her skirt. The spangled yellow silk
handkerchief was twined about the dark hair, and the picture reflected in
the mirror was truly a beautiful one.
"Tres charmante!" Phyllis exclaimed jubilantly. "Now, let me see, there
should be something old and something new, something borrowed and
something blue. The dress is new, to us anyway; that gorgeous shawl is
old. I'll loan you a handkerchief with a yellow and crimson border, and
now, what shall you wear that is blue?"
Miss Dahlia slipped from the room to return a moment later with a velvet
box which she handed to the girl she so loved. "My mother gave it to me
when I was eighteen," the little lady said, "and I want to give it to my
Nan on her wedding day."
The dark head and the fair bent eagerly over the box and when the cover
was removed, the two girls uttered exclamations of joy.
"Oh, how lovely, lovely!" Phyllis cried as she lifted a sapphire necklace
and clasped it about the throat of the happy Nan.
A busy morning was spent by the two girls, and, as it neared noon, Nan
resplendently arrayed, looked up at Phyllis as she said, "I wonder where
Aunt Dahlia is. She hasn't been here for half an hour past. Perhaps she
is in her room. Wait dear, and I will see."
Miss Barrington's door was closed. Nan, after tapping, softly opened it.
Miss Dahlia, with folded hands, was seated by the wide window gazing out
at the sea and in her sweet grey eyes there was such a wistful
loneliness. She looked up, as the girl entered, and smiled faintly, then
her lips quivered and the tears came.
"Oh, Aunt Dahlia, darling! How selfish I have been!" Nan cried, as
heedless of her white silk dress, she knelt by the little woman and put
her arms lovingly about her. "I never thought! Perhaps you didn't want me
to get married. But it isn't too late, Aunt Dahlia, if you do not wish
it."
"Dear little girl," the old lady said tenderly, "of course I want you to
be married. If I had searched the world over, I could not have chosen a
lad whom I would like better. It is I who am selfish. I was fearing that
Robert would take you away, and I don't want to lose my Nan."
"Lose me, Aunt Dahlia? Do you think that I would let you lose me? You are
dearer to me than all the world, and where I go, you shall go, but we
will always come back, won't we dearie, back to our garden-all-aglow
where we have been so happy. Hark, the first stroke of the mission bells
is telling that it is noon, and we must not be late at our very own
wedding. Yes, Phyllis we are coming."
Monsieur Alecsandri was waiting for them in the library. Together they
started along the flower bordered path toward the pepper tree, and Nan's
wedding music was the joyous song of the birds.