On the gallery at Storm stood two anxious girls with eyes fixed upon the
big juniper-tree less patiently than the eyes of the waiting dogs. Their
mother was invisible, but the presence of the dogs betrayed her.
"We'll have to do it, Jack," murmured the elder of the girls. "I hate to
disturb her, but--there they come!"
She pointed to the road immediately below, along which an object that
looked like a large black beetle was rattling and panting and honking
its leisurely way toward Storm.
"The voice of the Ark will arouse her--just wait," advised Jacqueline.
"It would arouse anything. Professor Jimsy must have bought the original
trial machine made by the inventor, Blossom. How did he come to see
mother before there were automobiles?"
"I don't remember--but you may be sure he came. Regularly every Friday
night, and again Sunday, if encouraged. There! Mother must be stirring.
Look at the dogs."
Mrs. Kildare appeared from the other side of the great tree, moving
rather dazedly, as people move who have just awakened from sleep. The
dogs leaped and gamboled around her, and she put them down with vague,
kind gestures.
"There, Beauty! Never mind! No muddy feet, please, Jock! So, boys, so--"
"Mother, do hurry," called Jemima, with some impatience.
Mrs. Kildare hurried. It had long been her habit to obey her eldest
child, who made her feel at times quite immature and thoughtless.
"What's up, girlies?" she asked.
"Company," they said together.
"Oh, yes. Jim Thorpe's night for supper. But why so much excitement
about it?"
"Only that the automobile is now at the foot of the hill, and your hair
is coming down, and he's going to catch you in an old, faded gingham.
What _am_ I going to do with such a mother?" sighed Jemima. "I don't
believe you ever notice what you put on!"
"I don't," admitted her parent, humbly.
"And you think it's highmindedness, whereas it's just pure vanity. You
know that no matter what you wear, you're more beautiful than everybody
else!" The girl's voice was sternly accusing.
Kate laughed and kissed them both. "You spoil me, dears," she said; but
Jemima's shrewdness made her wince, as it often did.
It was quite true that clothes existed for Kate Kildare only as more or
less comfortable covering for her body; but of that body itself, the
fine, satin skin, the hands, the lustrous hair, she took a care that she
would have scorned to use in the days of her bellehood. She was aware of
her comeliness, and she treasured it; not, however, for herself. She was
a woman of one idea. Never for a moment, despite many failures, had she
relinquished the hope of securing Jacques Benoix' release.
She asked meekly, "What dress am I to wear this evening, please,
Blossom? Dear me! It seems to me you two have made yourselves rather
gorgeous for a mere godfather. He'll be quite dazzled."
Both girls looked down consciously at their pretty frocks. They
exchanged glances.
"It isn't exactly for Professor Jimsy," murmured Jacqueline. "He never
looks at any one but you, anyway. It's--_you_ tell her, Jemmy!"
"No, you!"
In the end, they told her together. "It's a party!"
Kate looked at them in surprise. Suddenly their eagerness, their
excitement, struck her as being pathetic. What had they known of
parties, of the gay, pleasure-seeking life usual to girls of their
class?
The county of which Storm was the chief estate occupied toward its more
aristocratic neighbor, the Bluegrass, the relative position of an
unpretentious side-street toward the fashionable residence district of a
city. It had a social life of its own--what portion of the hospitable,
gregarious, pleasure-loving State has not? There were many simple
gaieties, dances, picnics, and the like, which took no account of
distance or other obstacles to the natural coming together of young men
and girls, and of older folk who have exchanged gallantry for gossip. In
this life, the mistress of Storm held a certain place. No farmers'
dinner, no fair, or barbecue, was complete without the presence of the
county's one great landowner.
But her daughters were creatures apart, young princesses among admiring
vassals. The country people looked with awe upon their tutors and
dancing-masters and singing-teachers, their books, their clothes from
the city. It had never occurred to them to include the little heiresses
of Storm in their humble amusements; they belonged so palpably to a
different world. The fact that this world was closed to them, because of
the unforgotten scandal connected with their mother, left Jemima and
Jacqueline singularly friendless; princesses, perhaps, but lonely
princesses in their castle.
For the first time Kate realized this. Hitherto she had felt that they
three were all sufficient unto themselves, with Philip Benoix, and James
Thorpe, and one or two others who came regularly to Storm. Now she said
to herself with a sharp pang, "My poor babies! My little hidden, lovely
girls!"
Aloud she said, "A party?--that is splendid! Who are coming to the
party? Some neighbor boys and girls?"
"Hardly," replied Jemima, with a superior smile. "The party is coming
from Lexington."
Kate's face changed. She asked in quick dread, "Who are they?" It was
not often that she met people from Lexington, except in the way of
business, and then it was an ordeal to her.
"We don't know. Isn't it exciting? Professor Thorpe is bringing them."
Then Kate smiled. They would not be people who knew her. She could trust
James Thorpe.
"I must make myself presentable," she murmured, moving toward the
stairs.
The two girls heaved sighs of relief. It was evident that they had
entertained doubts as to her reception of the party. Jacqueline walked
beside her, rubbing a caressing cheek against her shoulder--a trick she
had learned from the horses among whom she spent much of her time.
"You see, Mummy, Blossom thought it was high time for us to be having
some beaux."
"Good Heavens--not yet!" murmured Kate.
"At my age, you had several babies," Jemima reminded her, firmly; and
Kate could not deny it.
"So we consulted our godfather," continued Jacqueline. "It seemed to us
we had at last found a use for a godfather--besides candy, and birthday
presents, and things like that, which don't really count. We asked him
if he couldn't find us some nice young professors at the
university--attractive, dancing ones, you know, not old fossils like
him."
"Pleasant for James," murmured Kate. "He must be very little over
forty!"
"But imagine him dancing," cried Jacqueline, and dismissed him from her
world with a gesture. "So Jemima suggested to him that the surest way of
having you alone, the next time he came, was to bring some young
professors to amuse us. And," she finished dramatically, "here he comes,
the Ark simply bursting with young professors!"
There was a loud honk at the door.
Mrs. Kildare fled up the stairs. Jemima, following her, said in a low
voice, "You don't really mind, then--about the party?"
Something odd in the girl's voice arrested her. "Mind? Why should I
mind, dear?"
"I don't know. I thought perhaps--you see you never do have any of your
old friends here, and--and sometimes that seems to me queer. You must
have had so many friends there, in Lexington, a woman like you. Or were
they all beaux?"
Kate's heart beat hard. It was not the first time the girl's observant
intelligence had frightened her, nor did the wistfulness of the query
escape notice.
"Yes, I had many friends, and beaux, too--just as you will have, dear,"
she said steadily. "But you see I have been too busy with the farm and
such things, since your father died, to keep up with people. That is
all."
Jemima looked immeasurably relieved. "I knew you would give us friends
some day, Mother, just as you have given us everything else. Only, I--I
got a little tired of waiting."
"Did you, dear?" said her mother sadly. "I thought you were quite
happy."
"We are, of course. But you see, we've _got_ to get married some day,
Jackie and I, and--there's no use waiting too long."
"I see."
Despite her dismay, Kate's lips twitched. It was so like this capable
child of hers to be arranging the future, at nineteen, ready to be a
mother to herself in case her natural mother failed her. But as she got
quickly into the dress laid out for her, her hands shook a little. It is
disconcerting to discover that one is no longer the parent of children,
but of women grown.
She had the weary, bruised feeling of one who has traveled too far--and
indeed it was a long journey she had made that day, from her own wistful
and eager young womanhood to that of her daughters. She brushed her
hands across her eyes to clear them of memories and dreams alike.
Introspection is always a difficult matter to direct and simple natures,
such as Kate Kildare's, but she forced herself to it now. Had she in any
way failed her children, as Jemima seemed to imply? Was it possible that
in her absorption in a fixed idea she had neglected them, taken their
welfare too much for granted? Was there anything she might have done for
them that she had not done?
Conscience answered, No. It was for their sakes, far more than her own,
that she had isolated herself with them, hidden them away from a world
which she had found unkind. It was for their interests that she had
worked harder than any man of her acquaintance, experimenting, studying,
managing, until she was recognized as one of the greatest agriculturists
of the State, and the unproductive property left by Basil Kildare had
become a stock and dairy farm which netted her an income that ran well
into five figures. More than wealth, she had given them education,
bringing to Storm the best tutors and governesses to be had in the
country. She had shared with them, too, her own practical knowledge and
experience, the wisdom not to be found in books.
Every step of the way she had walked beside them. She who could not give
them friends, had given them instead herself. Busy woman that she was,
she was far closer to them than mothers and daughters usually find
themselves, sentiment to the contrary notwithstanding. Between them, she
believed, were none of the unfortunate reticences usual in that
relation, no questions that might not be asked, nor answers given. Kate
would have said that she knew her daughters truly "by heart."
And yet already and without warning the time was upon her which she
dreaded--the time when she might no longer walk beside them, watchfully,
but only behind, and far behind. She knew--she had always known--that
only the childhood of her girls could belong to her. Their womanhood,
their future, they must face unaided.
It is a bitter moment for all mothers, but more especially for Kate
Kildare, who knew better than most what pitfalls lie in wait for young
and hurrying feet, and whose nightmare was inheritance.
Then a consoling thought came to her; came in the shape of Jacques
Benoix' son, Philip, with the steady eyes, and the great, tender heart
of his father. Inheritance is not always a nightmare. The future of
little Jacqueline, at least, was secure. (Thus Kate to herself, with a
characteristic self-confidence which took no account of chance or
choice, or other obstacle to her intent.)
As for Jemima--once more her lips twitched. Jemima was certainly very
capable.
Mrs. Kildare went down to meet her guests somewhat heartened.