TOASTS
They drove downtown for many blocks, turning at last into an old and
still notable square which is one of the great town's almost untouched
residence districts, in the very heart of its teeming commercial life.
Here, all at once, the noise of traffic was quieted. Only as a distant
and not too disturbing murmur came the sounds of the warfare which raged
so near. At one of the dingy but still stately old houses the car drew
up, the chauffeur alighted and opened the door. He escorted the
travelers up the steps and rang the bell.
The door was opened by a lad in plain livery, and he was reinforced
immediately by a middle-aged housekeeper who came forward and took the
guests in charge. She had a rosy face and iron-gray hair and her accent
was distinctly Scotch.
"I am Mrs. MacFayden, Doctor Craig's hoose-keeper," she said. "Doctor
Craig is mair than sorry not to be here to greet ye baith. He tell't me
to say ye should mak' yersels quite at hame, and should hae yer dinners
wi'oot waitin' for him. If Maister Warne should be tae weary tae sit up
longer, he should gang awa' tae his bed. I know Doctor Craig will mak'
all the haste posseeble, but 'tis seldom he can carry oot his ain plans,
for the press o' sick folks aifter him day an' nicht."
"Doctor Craig is very kind," said Mr. Warne. "If it will not seem
discourteous I think I shall lie down upon my bed, for I am not
accustomed to travel and am a little tired."
"That wull be the best thing posseeble for ye," said the kindly
housekeeper, leading the way upstairs. "Tammas, ye'll bring the luggage.
I should advise, Maister Warne, havin' a small tray in your room an'
then attemptin' no mair than juist tae see Doctor Craig, when he cooms
tae say gude nicht."
She led her guests into a large, square, pleasant room, furnished with
old mahogany. A cheery fire was burning in a fireplace. She opened a
second door, and showed a connecting room, of lesser size but very
attractive.
"The Doctor often has special patients stayin' in these rooms," she
said, "but fortunately they were emptied three days agone, and kept for
ye. The Doctor has always some puir soul he wants to mak' comfortable.
I'm glad 'tis guests this time he has, an' no patients. He needs to
forget his wark when he cooms hame, but 'tis seldom he has the
opportunity."
She left them, saying that if the Doctor had not returned by eight she
would serve dinner for Miss Warne alone.
"No, please, Mrs. MacFayden," begged Georgiana. "If my father has his
tray here I will see him to his bed. I really do not care for dinner at
all."
The housekeeper smiled. "The Doctor would na' be pleased wi' me, if I
let ye go dinnerless," she said. "But I'm thinkin' we'll see him soon.
Wull ye coom doon to the library, Miss Warne, when ye're ready? 'Tis the
door at the right o' the front entrance. The door on the left is the
waitin' room, an' the Doctor does na' keep office hours at nicht."
With a fast-beating heart Georgiana set about making ready for that
descent to the library. The whole affair was becoming more and more a
strain upon her nerves. If Doctor Craig had met them at the station it
would have been far easier for her than this. But here she was, actually
in his house, combing her hair in his guest-room, going down to dinner
at his table--and she had not seen or heard from him, except by
telegram, since the hour when he had given her hand that meaning
pressure and left her with her friends. It was an extraordinary
experience, to say the least.
She wondered how she should dress for dinner--the dinner that she might
eat alone! She had only her traveling suit and one simple little gray
silk, dyed from a white "Semi-Annual" and made very simply, with a wide
collar and cuffs of white net. Anybody but Georgiana would have looked
like a Quakeress in the gray silk, but with her dark hair and warm
colouring she succeeded only in imitating a young nun but just removed
from scenes of worldly gayety! She decided that the hour and the
occasion called for this frock, and put it on with fingers which shook a
little.
Eight o'clock. She dared wait no longer, so, making sure that her
father, having eaten and drunk, was resting luxuriously on his bed, she
opened her door. The house seemed very quiet, and she went slowly along
the upper hall, and after pausing a moment at the top of the fine
staircase with its white spindles and mahogany rail, she began to
descend. The steps were heavily padded and her footfall made no sound;
therefore, as she afterward realized, a very close watch must have been
kept, for the moment she came in sight of the open library door a figure
appeared there.
The next moment Jefferson Craig had crossed the hall and was standing at
the foot of the staircase, looking up at the descending guest. The
guest, naturally enough, paused, four stairs up, looking down. The
light, from a quaint lantern hood of wrought iron and crystal hanging
above the newel post, shone full upon the dark head and vivid face
above the demure gray frock with its nunlike broad collar and cuffs of
thin white.
The man below looked for a full minute without speaking, but Georgiana
could not have told what expression was upon his face or whether he
smiled. She knew that at the end of that long look he stretched one arm
toward her, and that obeying the gesture which was all but a command she
came on down those four remaining steps. Jefferson Craig led her into
the library, where a great fire sparkled and leaped and filled the room,
otherwise sombre with books, full of welcoming cheer. He closed the
door, then led her to the hearth.
"Where shall we begin?" he said, in that low but very distinct voice she
so well remembered. "Where we left off?"
"I'm not," answered Georgiana, looking away from him into the fire,
whose light flashed in her eyes less disconcertingly than that which she
somehow knew leaped in his, "sure where we left off."
"Aren't you? I am. We left off where we had each seen, for just one
instant, into the other's heart. And having seen there was no
forgetting--no?--Georgiana?"
She shook her head.
"It was good of you to come to me," he said very gently. Her hand was
still held fast in his. "I did my best to have it the other way--the
usual way. There seemed a fate against it. I could have written, but
somehow I didn't want to. I preferred to wait--with the memory of your
face always before me, till I could see it again. And now that I see
it--bent down--and turned away"--he laughed a low laugh of content--"oh,
look up, Georgiana! Surely you're not afraid now. You know I've been
loving you ever since I saw you first, in spite of thinking I must not,
because of the one I understood you belonged to----"
She looked up then out of sheer astonishment. "Oh, no, not since you saw
me first," she disputed. "It couldn't be--and I thinking all the
while----" She stopped in confusion at the revelation she might be
making.
But he caught her up. "You thinking all the while--what? Tell me!"
"I thought--you hadn't the least interest in me."
"Did you care whether I had or not?"
"I--tried not to care," confessed Georgiana naïvely. She smiled, a
sparkling little smile. It was so clear now, that he wanted this
confession.
He looked at her for a minute longer, then he said: "Don't you think
enough has been said to warrant--this?"
It was then that Georgiana learned how little one may judge from outward
quiet of manner and controlled speech what may happen when the heart is
allowed to speak for itself.
"Forgive me," he said at last, when he had released her, all enchanting
confusion under his intent gaze; "but you know the breaking up of a
famine sometimes makes human beings hard to manage. If you could know
the times I've watched you, when you were bent over my illegible fist of
copy, and thought how I should like just to put my hand on your
beautiful hair----"
A knock sounded upon the door. With an exclamation of annoyance Doctor
Craig left Georgiana and opened it.
"Dinner is served, sir," announced Thomas, the boy.
His master turned back with a laughing, remorseful face. "I had
forgotten all about dinner," he said, "though now I come to think of it
I believe I had no luncheon. You must be famishing. Mrs. MacFayden tells
me your father is resting. We will go up and see him--before dinner or
after?"
"I think he will drop off to sleep for a little, he is so tired, and
then wake by and by and be ready to see you."
"Good! It couldn't be better. I am eager to see Mr. Warne, but I want
him to be ready for me--who have so much to ask of him. Meanwhile--shall
we go?"
He offered her his arm, such graceful deference in his manner that she
felt afresh the wonder of his wish to transplant her from her world to
his. As they walked slowly through the dignified old hall he said in a
tone of great satisfaction: "Mrs. MacFayden has ventured to hint to me
more than once that this house is of the sort which needs a mistress.
To-night, when she saw me come in, she said to me very respectfully:
'It's a gled day for ye, Doctor, an' now that I've seen the lassie I can
congratulate ye wi' all mae hert. She'll mak' a bonny lady to be at the
head o' the hoose, if ye'll permit me to say the thocht.' I assure you,
Georgiana, the conquest of my good Scottish housekeeper upon sight is no
small achievement."
"It must have been my gray gown and white cuffs," suggested the girl
demurely.
He looked down at the hand resting on his arm. "Now that I have time to
look at anything but your face," he said, "I see that you are wearing
something very satisfying to the eye. I like simple things, such as I
have always seen you wear."
With inward astonishment and congratulation Georgiana thought of all the
dyed and reconstructed "Semi-Annuals" which had marched in a frugal
procession across his vision during the past year. Suddenly she felt an
affection for the very frock she wore, difficult as had been its
achievement from the materials in hand. Certainly, women in beautiful
and wonderful clothing, such as he saw daily, had had no chance with him
against the attraction of herself in the cleverly adapted makeshifts of
her own fingers. It was the girl who had made the most of herself and
her home out of her restricted means who had drawn to her side this man
whose judgment must approve his love or he could never love at all.
Things hadn't been so unequal after all. The wise God, who had set her
life thus far in the midst of poverty, had given her with which to fight
it the wit and resource which fashion weapons out of materials which
more favoured mortals cast away. That greatest of gifts bestowed upon
the daughters of men had been hers--the creative touch. At last she
recognized it, and knew it for what it was. Using this good gift she had
learned other things than the making of clothes!
A great warm surge of joy and understanding enveloped Georgiana Warne as
Jefferson Craig, having led her into the dining-room and placed her
ceremoniously in her chair, bent over her where she sat, saying softly:
"This place has been waiting a long time at the bachelor's board. Now
that I see it filled--like this--I know how well worth while it's been
to wait."
He took the place opposite her. With a nod at the boy Thomas, he
dismissed him for the moment. He looked across the table, rich with the
finest appointments in his house, arranged by a housekeeper who heartily
approved his everyday simplicity of life, but who exulted to-night in
the chance to show the lady of his choice the fine old heirlooms of
silver and damask which were to come to her. Smiling, he lifted a
delicately chased goblet of water which stood beside his plate.
"To my wife!" he said.
Georgiana, raising the face of a rose, took up her own glass. She looked
at it a moment, her eyes like dark twin fires, her lips taking on lovely
curves. Then she lifted it toward the man opposite.
"To--_you_!"
"Still afraid?" asked Jefferson Craig, watching her as one watches only
that which is the delight of his eyes. "Never mind; I'll teach you by
and by the word I want to hear."
* * * * *
Upstairs, the slender figure on the bed stirred from the brief sleep
which had claimed it. Father Davy opened his eyes again upon the firelit
room and the pleasant comfort which surrounded him.
"Before they come," he thought, "I must tell my Father how I feel about
it. I was too tired even to pray. But I am quite rested now."
He slipped down gently to his knees and closed his eyes, folding his
thin hands on the heavy white counterpane before him.
"Dear God," he said, "I have the desire of my heart--the answer to my
prayers--and I am very glad to-night. Yet Thou knowest my heart is
heavy, too--with longing for my Phoebe. Tell her, Father, that her child
is happy in the love of the best man she could have asked for. And tell
her that David loves and longs for her to-night with the love that will
never die. For that love that will not die in spite of years and pain I
thank Thee. If it may be, give our child the same blessed experience.
And teach us to love and serve Thee, world without end, Amen."