A TANNED HERCULES
In spite of the fact that the holiday was over it was good to get back
to the old house on the Square, to hear Mrs. MacFayden's warm "It's a
gled day"; to smile at Thomas and Duncan and the maids; to hug dear Mrs.
Brandt; and to receive a hearty welcome from the other friends, who were
mostly still in town in the middle of June.
Then came eager summonses from Jeannette, who, with Aunt Olivia and
Rosalie, was staying at an uptown hotel for the finishing of the
trousseau. Georgiana found herself involved in a round of final shopping
and hurried luncheons, while Rosalie talked incessantly, Mrs. Crofton
argued maternally, and the bride-elect herself turned to Georgiana as
the one person--with the exception of her father--who understood her.
"I can't convince mother and Rosy that I'm not really to spend the
summer in the country with Jimps, and most of the rest of the year at
home doing the usual round," sighed Jeannette, unburdening herself to
her cousin during a half-hour's needed relaxation between luncheon and
a visit to a famous jeweller's.
"I know; you'll just have to be patient, let them equip you for what
they expect of you, and then--live your own life as you and Jimps have
planned it. After a while they will see that you really do mean to live
in the country, not the city, and that décolleté evening gowns don't
suit the fireside, nor afternoon calling costumes the five-mile tramp.
Meanwhile, don't let the poor boy ever guess at the size or quality of
your outfit. I think he'd run away and hang himself!"
"He never shall know. And, Georgiana, I really have managed to have some
quite simple little frocks made--by a young woman whom Madame Trennet
recommended when I whispered in her ear. And I've bought the jolliest
dark green corduroy suit, with a short skirt and pockets, and a little
green corduroy soft hat to match, for the tramps. Oh, I'm going to be a
real farmer's wife, I promise you!"
"Of course," mused Georgiana gently, lifting quizzical eyebrows, "I've
never happened to see any farmer's wife thus equipped, but there's no
reason why you shouldn't set the fashion. I suppose you will wear green
silk stockings and bronze pumps with this picturesque tramping costume,
with a bronze buckle in your hat to complete the ensemble. All you will
then need will be a beautiful painted drop of the Forest of Arden----"
"You unkind thing! If _you_ begin to scoff----"
"But I won't. I know there's heaps of sense in your pretty head, and
you'll make Jimps the most satisfying sort of a wife even though you
don't carry the eggs to market or milk the cows. There's no reason why
you should, with your own private income. Jimps is too wise to forbid
your spending it to decorate both your lives, for he knows you couldn't
stand real wear and tear, while a reasonable amount of country life will
make you stronger. Go ahead, dear; hang English chintzes at the
farmhouse windows, set up your baby grand piano in that nice, old
living-room, and hang jolly hunting prints in the dining-room. Wear the
corduroys--only, instead of bronze pumps, I should advise----"
"You needn't. I've got them. The heaviest kind of tanned buckskin boots.
And you all may laugh, but you just wait!"
"I'm not laughing; you know I'm not. I wish I could help you by
convincing Aunt Olivia that you don't need some of the things she
insists on including. But, since I can't, I'll comfort you by assuring
you that Jefferson says he's counting on your being one of the sort who
will prove the great contention--that beauty and poetry _can_ be brought
into the farmhouse."
Thus spoke Georgiana, though in her heart of hearts, as she watched
Jeannette in all her costly elegance, at counter after counter,
selecting supplies of one sort or another, she couldn't help having her
doubts whether a lifelong training in luxury could be turned into a
fitness for living, in spite of many mitigations, the truly simple life.
These doubts, however, she suppressed, only dropping a word of caution
here and there, which Jeannette took kindly, being eager to prove
herself practical, and undoubtedly sincere in her longing to bring to
James Stuart the helpmate he needed.
So came on the great day; and when it had arrived, and the Craigs were
guests of Aunt Olivia, making ready for the ceremony, Georgiana had her
chance to return to Stuart the support he had given her in the hour of
her own marriage. She had just completed her dressing, and was about to
descend with her husband to the waiting bridal party below, when Stuart
came to their door.
Craig admitted him, and he entered, the dreaded white gloves in his
hands, visible agitation on his brow.
"You young Hercules!" Georgiana cried. "Aren't you splendid!"
"I feel anything but splendid," he returned nervously. "I look like a
boiled lobster on a white platter!"
"Nonsense, man," denied Dr. Jefferson Craig, his hand on Stuart's
shoulder, "you're the picture of a healthy young bridegroom. I've seen
plenty of tallow candles standing up to be married; you're a refreshing
contrast."
After a minute of heartening talk, Craig slipped out of the room,
leaving the two old friends together.
"Cheer up, Jimps," Georgiana bade Stuart, as she gave a straightening
little touch to his white cravat, woman fashion. "This part won't last
long. And don't be frightened when you catch sight of Jean in all her
glory. She would much rather have been married as I was, you know, and
she's really precisely the same girl in spite of her veil. She worships
you, and everything's all right. Stop looking as if you wanted to run
away!"
"But I do--if I could just take her with me," he answered, in such a
melancholy tone that Georgiana laughed in his ruddy face.
"You can't; this is the only way you can get her; so stand up straight
and look everybody in the eye. You're perfectly stunning in those
clothes, and lots nicer to look at than most men. And Chester will take
you serenely through all the forms, so you've nothing to worry about.
That's right--give me a ghost of a smile. One would think you were about
to be hung!"
"I came to you to be braced up, so it's all right; but call off the dogs
of war now. I did pretty well till I saw the total effect, and then I
thought maybe Jean would wish she had a man who could turn pale instead
of crimson. But I'm going through with it, and I don't intend to look
knockkneed, anyhow."
"Good for you. Just remember that Jean would swim through a flood of
water to reach you, wedding gown and all, if the aisle should happen to
be inundated, so you certainly can stand at the altar while she walks up
that aisle."
"I sure can." And James McKenzie Stuart shook his broad shoulders,
lifted his head, and held out both hands to Georgiana Craig. "Much
obliged for the tonic. And, George--just remember, will you, that I'm
precisely the same brother to you I've always been! Nothing can ever
change that!"
"Of course you are," she agreed, with a rush of vivid recollections
which brought a curious little smile to her lips. "Now go, my dear boy,
and heaven bless you!"
Half an hour later, standing beside her husband in the flower-fragrant
church, Georgiana watched with a beating heart to see Stuart bear
himself like the man she knew him to be, in spite of all the pomp and
ceremony to which he was such a stranger. She had been half angry, all
the way through the preparations, that Aunt Olivia had insisted on every
last detail of formality and ostentation--or so it had seemed to her, as
unaccustomed as Stuart himself to the great church wedding with its
long processional, its show of bridesmaids and flower girls, its ranks
of ushers, its elaborate music, its pair of distinguished clergymen in
full canonicals. But now, somehow, as the age-old words sounded upon her
ears, it seemed to matter less under what circumstances they were
spoken, so that the answers to the solemn questions came from the hearts
of those who spoke them. And of this she could have no possible doubt.
By and by, when in her turn, back in the festally decorated house, she
came to give the newly married pair her felicitations, she was well
pleased to see Stuart quite himself again, smiling at her with the proud
look of the bridegroom from whom no human being can wrest the prize he
has just secured. And as she noted Jeannette's equally evident happy
content with the man she had married, Georgiana took courage for their
future. Surely--surely--they could go from these scenes of luxury to the
plainer life that awaited them, and miss nothing, so that they took with
them, as they were doing, the one thing needful.
"It's all right, I'm sure it's all right, dears," she said to them, and
she said it again to her husband when they were rushing back to New York
by the first train after the bridal pair had gone.
"Yes, I think it is," he agreed. "It's an interesting experiment, but
not more hazardous than many another in the matrimonial line. If it
succeeds Jeannette will come out a finer woman than she could ever have
been by any other process. It's amusing, though, to see her family.
Evidently they regard her as one lost to the world quite as much as if
she had gone into a convent to take the vows perpetual."
"All but Uncle Thomas. He knows; he understands, little as he says. He
grew up on a farm himself; he told me once that he could never smother
the longing to get back to one. Poor Uncle Thomas, chained to a mahogany
desk, with a Persian rug under his feet! That one little trip across the
water, when the family went last year, was the only vacation he had
taken in five years. And he came back on the next ship!"
"Jean and Stuart will have him often with them, see if they don't."
"I hope so. Change is what he needs very badly. Change! Oh, if everybody
could have that when they need it! How it does make lives over! I
know--how I do know! It's the deadly monotony that kills. Jean will
bloom under the old farmhouse roof, away from all the fuss and frivolity
she's so tired of."
"You've done some blooming yourself," observed her husband, "though I'll
venture to say you work harder than you ever did before, even at the old
loom."
She gave him a quick glance. "Oh, it wasn't play I needed--just
work--the sort of work I love. I have that now. I love the visits to the
hospital, the looking after the patients you bring home, the taking
notes of your lectures, the teaching of my evening class of
Italians--every bit of it is a delight. And then, when we do run away
for a few hours, like this----"
"We enjoy it all the more for the contrast. Yes, I think we do. It's a
pretty fine partnership, and it grows more satisfying all the time.
Here's hoping the two we've just seen start follow in our contented
footsteps. A year from now we'll know!"