A LITERARY LIGHT
Many hours afterward, the labours of the day over, Georgiana bent her
dark head above an old-fashioned writing-desk in a corner of the
living-room, and dashed off the contemplated letter to her almost
unknown cousin. How the invitation would be received she had little
idea, but since a letter of thanks was undeniably due in response to the
"Semi-Annual" box, it was certainly a simple and natural matter enough
to offer in return for it a possible pleasure and a certain benefit.
"I'll run straight down to the post-office and mail it," declared
Georgiana, sealing and stamping her letter after having read it aloud to
her father. "A run in this March wind will be good for me after baking
and brewing all day."
"Do, daughter; and take a tumbler or two of jelly to Mrs. Ames, by the
way. And pick a spray or two of the scarlet geranium to go with it." Mr.
Warne spoke from the depths of an old armchair by the living-room fire,
where, with a lamp at his elbow, he was not too deep in a speech of the
elder Pitt on "Quartering Soldiers in Boston," to take thought for an
invalid whom he considered far less fortunate than himself.
"I will--poor, disagreeable old lady. She doesn't admit that anything
tastes as it should, but I observe our jelly is never long in
disappearing."
Georgiana, now wearing in honour of the close of day a simple frock of
dark-blue wool with a dash of scarlet at throat and wrists, donned a big
military cape of blue, scarlet lined, and twisted about her neck a scarf
of scarlet silk (dyed from a Semi-Annual petticoat!), which served less
as a protection than as the finishing touch to her gay winter's night
costume. She was likely to meet few people on her way, but there were
always plenty of loungers in the small village post-office, and not even
a college graduate could be altogether disdainful of the masculine
admiration sure to be found there, though she might ignore it.
As she closed the house door, lifting her face to a cold, starlit sky
from which the clouds of the day had broken away at sundown, another
door a few rods down the quiet street banged loudly, and the sharp creak
of rapid footsteps was immediately to be heard upon the frozen gravel.
Georgiana smiled in the darkness at the coincidence of that banging
door.
"Well met!" called a ringing voice. "Curious that I should break out of
Mrs. Perkins's just as you came along!"
"Very curious, Jimps. How do you manage it? I stole out like a cat just
to avoid such a possibility. I knew you were there."
"Did you, indeed?" inquired the owner of the voice, coming up and
standing still to look at what he could see of the military-caped form.
His own strongly built figure took up its position beside hers as if by
right. His hand slipped lightly under her arm, and he turned her gently
to face the direction in which he himself had set out. "That's like your
impertinence. To pay you for it you shall come this way," he insisted.
"It's only a step farther, it's not quite so hackneyed, and it will
bring us out where we want to be. Look at the stars!"
"They're wonderful!"
"Carrying something under that cape? Give it to me, chum."
"It's only a bit of a basket, Jimps; never mind, you might spill it."
"You can't carry a bit of a basket when I'm around! Spill nothing! Hand
it over."
"Terribly dictatorial to-night, aren't you?"
"Possibly. I've been bossing a lot of new hands to-day, who didn't know
a pick from a gang-plough."
"But you've been outdoors every minute!" Her tone was envious.
"Every blessed minute. And you've been in, puttering over a lot of house
jobs? See here, you need a run. Let's take the time to go up Harmon
Hill and run down it--eh? There'll not be a soul to see."
She laughed doubtfully. "I'd love to, but--the jelly?"
"That's easy." He dropped her arm, turned aside to a clump of trees at
the corner of an overgrown old place which they were passing, and
deposited the little basket in the shadow. He came back and caught her
arm again.
"Easy, now, up the hill. I wish the snow wasn't all gone, we'd have a
farewell coast at the end of the season. But there'll undoubtedly be
more. Honestly, now, George, hasn't the coasting and tramping helped you
through this first winter?"
"Jimps, I don't know what I should have done without it--or you."
"Thanks; I think so myself. The first winter back in the little old
town, after the years away at school and college--well---- Anyhow, I
pride myself the partnership has worked pretty well. We've been about as
good chums as you could ask, haven't we now?"
"About as good."
"All right." His tone had a decided ring of satisfaction in it, but he
did not pursue the subject further. Instead he changed it abruptly: "How
does the new boarder come on?"
"Very well. We really don't mind having him at all, he's so quiet, and
Father enjoys his table talk."
"Father does, but daughter doesn't?"
"Oh, yes, I do--only he doesn't talk much to me. I sit and listen to
their discussions--and jump up to wait on them so often that I sometimes
lose the thread."
"The duffer! Why doesn't he get up and wait on you?"
Georgiana laughed. "Jimps, we're going to have another guest."
"Another man?" The question came quickly.
"Not at all. A girl--my cousin, Jeannette Crofton. At least I'm writing
to ask her for the fortnight before Easter."
"Those rich Crofton relations of yours who hold their heads so high for
no particular reason except that it helps them to forget their feet are
on the earth?"
"James Stuart, what have I ever said of them to make you speak like
that?"
"Never mind; go on. Is it the girl whose picture gets into the Sunday
papers--entirely against her will, of course--as the daughter of Thomas
Crofton? She's reported engaged, from time to time, and then the report
is denied. She's----"
"I shall tell you no more about her," said Georgiana Warne, with her
head held quite as high as if she belonged to that branch of the family
to whom James Stuart had so irreverently alluded.
"All right. I'm not interested in her anyhow, and you'll want your
breath for the run down. Come on, George; one more spurt and we're
up.... All ready. Take hold of my hand. Come on!"
In the March starlight the two ran hand in hand down the long, steep
Harmon Hill which led from the east into the little town. Stuart's grip
was tight, or more than once Georgiana would have slipped on the rough
iciness of the descent. But she did not falter at the rush of it, and
she was not panting, only breathing quickly, when they came to a
standstill upon the level.
"Good lungs, those of yours, George," commented Stuart, in the frank
manner in which he might have said it to a younger brother. "You haven't
played basket ball and rowed in your 'Varsity boat for nothing. Sure
you're not letting up a bit on all that training, now that you're back,
baking beans for boarders?"
"And sweeping their rooms, and carrying up wood for their fires,
and----"
"What? Do you mean to say that literary light allows you to tote wood
for him?" They were walking on rapidly now. "I'll be over in the morning
and take up a pile that'll leave no room for him to put his feet. What's
he thinking of?"
"Jimps, boy, how absurd you are! How should he know who puts the wood in
his room? I don't go up with armfuls of it when he's there."
"If you did, he'd merely open the door for you and say: 'Thank you very
much, my good girl.' I don't like this boarder business, I can tell you
that. Do you let him smoke in his room?"
"Why not, you unreasonable mortal? He smokes a beautiful briarwood, and
such delicious tobacco that I find myself sniffing the air when I go
through the hall in the evening, hoping I may get a whiff."
"Does, eh? When I bring up the wood I'll smoke up your hall so you won't
have to sniff the air to know you're enjoying the fragrance of Araby."
In this light and airy mood the pair went on their way, enjoying each
other's company as might any boy and girl, though each had left the
irresponsible years behind and had settled down to the sober work of
manhood and womanhood. To Georgiana Warne, whose necessary presence at
home, instead of out in the great world of activity where she longed to
be, Stuart's society, as he had intimated, had been a strong support
during this first year and a half since her return. The singularly
similar circumstances which had shaped the plans of these two young
people had been the means of inspiring much comprehending sympathy
between them. An almost lifelong previous acquaintance had put them on a
footing of brotherly and sisterly intimacy, now powerfully enhanced by
the sense of need each felt for the other. It was small wonder that
their fellow-townsmen were accustomed to couple their names as they
would those of a pair long betrothed, and that, as the two came together
into the village post-office, where as usual a group of citizens lounged
and lingered on one pretext or another, the appearance of "Jim Stuart
and Georgie Warne" should cause no comment whatever. To-night more than
one idler noted, as often before, the fashion in which the two were
outwardly suited to each other. Both were the possessors of the superb
health which is such a desirable ally to true vigour of mind, and since
both were understood to be, in the village usage, "highly educated,"
their attraction for each other was considered a natural sequence--as it
undoubtedly was.
The mail procured, the letter posted, and the small basket delivered to
a querulously grateful old woman, the young people set out for home.
They had somehow fallen into a more serious mood, and, walking more
slowly than before, discussed soberly enough certain problems of
Stuart's connected with the commercial side of market gardening. He
spoke precisely as he would have spoken to a man, with the possible
difference that he made his explanations of business conditions a trifle
fuller than he might have done to any man. But his confidence in his
friend's ability to grasp the situation was shown by the way in which,
ending his statement of the case, he asked her advice.
"Now, given just this crisis, what would you do, George?" he said.
She considered in silence for some paces. Then she asked a question or
two more, put with a clearness which showed that she understood
precisely the points to be taken into consideration. He answered
concisely, and she then, after a minute's further communion with
herself, suggested what seemed to her a feasible course.
Stuart demurred, thought it over, argued the thing for a little with
her, and came round to her point of view. He threw back his head with a
relieved laugh. "I admit it--it's a mighty good suggestion; it may be
the way out. Anyhow, it's well worth trying. George, you're a peach!
There isn't one girl in a hundred who would have listened with
intelligence enough to make her opinion worth a picayune."
"I'm not a girl, Jimps. I don't want to be a girl--at twenty-four. I
can't; I haven't time."
"That's a safe enough statement," replied James Stuart, looking down at
the dark head beside him under the March starlight, "as long as you
continue to act enough like a normal girl to run down the hills with me
after dark. Well, here we are, worse luck! I suppose you're not going
to ask me in?" There was a touch of appeal in the lightly spoken
question.
"Not to-night, Jimps; I'm sorry. Father Davy overdid to-day, in spite of
all my efforts, and I must see him to bed early and read him to sleep."
"After he's gone the literary light won't come down and smoke his
spices-of-Araby mixture by your fire, instead of his own, while you
entertain him, will he?"
Her low laugh rang out. "You ridiculous person, what a vivid imagination
you have! Every evening at about this time the literary light goes off
for a long tramp by himself, and often doesn't come back till all our
lights are out, except the one we leave burning for him. He is
absolutely absorbed in his work. We really see nothing at all of him
except at the table."
"Just the same, the time will come," predicted James Stuart. "Some night
he'll take his regular place at your fireside, as he does at your table.
I know your father's soft heart. Yours may not be quite so vulnerable,
but if the boarder should happen to look low in his mind after a
telegram from anywhere, or should get his precious feet wet----"
"Jimps, go home and be sensible. When Jeannette comes--if she does come,
which I doubt more and more--you may be asked over quite a number of
times during her visit."
"I presume so. And that's the time you'll have Jefferson down, and
you'll pair off with him, while I do my prettiest not to look like an
awkward countryman before the lady who has her picture in the Sunday
papers."
"Good-night, James Stuart--good-night."
"Good-night, Georgiana--dear," Stuart responded cheerfully. But the last
word was under his breath.