QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
It was not until late that evening that Georgiana had a chance really to
learn the whole state of the case.
During the intervening hours had occurred the event for which they had
all been invited--the entertaining of at least two hundred people from
the surrounding country and the village. For this event, which Stuart
naïvely called a "party," Jeannette a "lawn fête," and the guests
themselves, for the most part, a "picnic," porches, lawn and trees had
been hung with gay lanterns, bonfires had been built, the small village
band engaged, a light but delectable supper provided, and as much
jollity planned as could be crowded into the hours between five o'clock
and eleven.
From the standpoint of those entertaining, at least, the affair had been
a success, for Stuart, long accustomed to the ways of his fellow
countrymen, considered himself fully able to tell from their manner, if
not from their expressions of pleasure, whether they had really found
enjoyment in the efforts of their hosts.
"They had a mighty good time, no doubt about it!" he declared, when the
last reluctant guest had departed in the last small car which had waited
at the edge of the roadway. (Not the least of young Chester Crofton's
enjoyment had been occasioned by the sight of the long row of vehicles,
from two-seated wagons to smart and even expensive motors, which had
lined the road for many rods.) "And a lot of them are well worth
knowing," Stuart added.
His eye chanced to fall on his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas Crofton, as he
made this assertion. The party were sitting in a group upon the
lantern-lighted porch and its steps, and the senior Crofton's face was
plainly visible.
That gentleman nodded. "You're quite right, Jim," he said. "I don't know
when I've had a more interesting conversation with any man than I did
with one of your neighbours, nor found a more intelligent set of
opinions on every subject we touched on. He wasn't the only one, either.
As a rule I found the people who came here to-night possessed of rather
more than the average amount of brains. I should like to try living
among them--for a change, at least."
"I struck a tongue-tied dolt or two," remarked his son Chester, "but
dolts aren't uncommon anywhere, even when not tongue-tied. And I did run
up against some chaps I liked jolly well. One of them invited me up for
a week-end; I nearly fell over when he did it. I didn't know country
people ever talked about week-ends. I thought they called it 'staying
over Sunday.'"
"You mean Wells Lawson," Stuart informed him. "If you could see the list
of newspapers and magazines, not to mention books, that the Lawsons
take, you'd open your eyes. He and his family have traveled a lot more
than I have, and their home is one of the finest model farms in the
county. There's no hayseed in their hair."
"I didn't discover much hayseed in anybody's hair," observed Dr.
Jefferson Craig. "I think it's gone out of fashion."
"There were some of the prettiest girls here to-night I ever saw," was
Rosalie's contribution to the list of comments. A figure of exquisite
modishness, she perched upon the porch rail near Chester. "I did want to
tell them not to let any one young man stick by them every minute the
way they did, but I could hardly blame the young men for wanting to
stick, the girls were so sweet, and some of them were quite stunning."
"You certainly gave them an example of how to make eyes at fifteen or
twenty fellows, one after another," laughed her brother, at her side.
"You'd have had them all coming, Rosy, if they hadn't been tied up to
their respective girls. A lesson or two from you, and those girls would
begin to play 'round in proper shape."
"Rosy's going to stay and take a few lessons herself," insinuated
Jeannette, who sat with her shapely young arm resting upon her father's
knee, as she occupied the step below him. "I'll promise to put some
flesh on her little bones if she's here a month. She's too thin, after
only her second season."
"Oh, I'll stay," promised Rosalie promptly. "I simply love it here; I'm
crazy to stay!"
"It's all very well now," came Aunt Olivia's low murmur in Georgiana's
ear--there had been many of such murmurs in the same ear during the
afternoon and evening, though why, Georgiana herself could not guess,
since the elder woman knew the younger to be unreservedly committed to
upholding Jeannette's whole course--"very well now, in June, with
flowers blooming and friends about, but how the poor child is going to
face a second winter I can't imagine."
"She faced the first one very happily," Georgiana reminded her.
"The first one was a novelty and of course she was determined not to
acknowledge how lonely she must often have been. I do not say that James
Stuart is not a very attractive and trustworthy young man; I am fond of
him myself--very. But I shall always feel that Jeannette has made a
terrible mistake. Brought up as she has been, it is not conceivable
that she should continue to find this sort of life possible."
It was with this moan in her ears that, a few minutes later, Georgiana
listened to James Stuart. He had drawn her away from the group and was
strolling with her across the lawn.
"Well, George, tell me your honest opinion. Is my wife happy?"
It was a blunt question, but Georgiana understood. He asked it not to be
reassured but because he was confident of the answer.
She spoke guardedly: "I never saw her seem more so, Jimps. You are sure
of it yourself?"
"I want you to ask her point-blank. Will you?"
"It's not the sort of question to ask anybody point-blank, is it?"
"It is in this case. Do you think I don't know the doubt in all your
minds?--yes, even yours, for you've become another person since you
married Craig."
"Oh, no!"
"Oh, yes! You've been thinking ever since you came that you're dead
thankful you don't have to come back to it--now, haven't you?"
"Jimps, dear, I lived all my life in the hardest, narrowest economy. If
I had had all this beautiful experience Jean is having----"
"I know. But you wouldn't come back, even to this place of ours----"
"That's begging the question. For Jean it's a wonderful change, and any
one can see what it's done for her."
"Physically, yes. But I want you to find out whether she's actually
happy or not."
"I will," promised his friend with a nod; for she knew James Stuart much
too well to imagine she could put him off without complying with his
expressed desire.
It looked as if Jeannette herself were anxious to assure her cousin's
mind, for Stuart had no sooner brought Georgiana back to the porch than
his wife took possession of her.
"Georgiana, dear, I want you to tell me one thing," began Jeannette, as
the two moved slowly a little away from the rest. "Do you think we are
making a success of it?"
"A wonderful success, Jean. I couldn't have believed it, even what I see
on the surface. How about it--inside? That's a pretty searching
question, and you needn't answer it if you don't want to. Everything
about you seems to answer it."
Jeannette stopped short and turned to face her cousin. "Haven't I
written you the answer, over and over?"
"Yes. That's why I want to hear it from your own lips."
"You shall. First, though--Georgiana, you knew Antoinette Burwell
married Miles Channing last December?"
"I heard of it. How do they come on?"
"Separated; she's gone back to her father. She was the most wildly happy
bride I ever saw. Think of it, George--in six months! What do you
suppose would have happened if you----"
"Don't! I didn't." And Georgiana's grateful thoughts went back to one of
the crises in her life, the one from which Jefferson Craig had rescued
her.
"Do you know the Ralph Hendersons? Married two years now--I'm sure
you've heard me speak of them. Everybody knows they quarrel like cats
and dogs; they're hardly civil to each other in public. And I know
several more of our old set who are none too happy, if one may judge by
their looks. Yet they all married 'in their own class,' as mother is so
fond of saying, as if I didn't!--I married _above_ it! And I am supposed
to have cast away all my chances for this life, not to mention the next,
by marrying my farmer! Georgiana, I'm getting to hate that word
_farmer_! Why isn't there a new word made for the man who reads and
studies and uses the latest modern methods on his farm? There are such a
lot of them now. College graduates, like Jimps, and men who have taken
agricultural courses and are putting their brains into their work. Why
isn't there a new word?"
"The old word must be made to acquire a new dignity," Georgiana
suggested. "Never mind the word; you're glad you married your farmer?"
"Glad! I thank God every night and morning; I thank Him every time I go
running down the lane to meet my husband coming up from the meadow! Of
course I know, Georgiana, that the life I'm living isn't the typical
life of the farmer's wife at all--thanks to Jimps' success and my own
little pocket-book! But it has all outdoors in it and lots of lovely
indoors; and I'm growing so well and strong--you can see that by just
looking at me. And I'm getting to know my neighbours, and like
them--some of them--oh, so much! Life never was so full. Mother talks
about how hard I'll find it to get through my second winter. It doesn't
worry me. We'll order books and books, and we'll go for splendid tramps,
and every now and then we'll run into town--for concerts and plays. And
best of all, Georgiana,"--her voice sank--"I'm sure--sure--Jimps isn't
disappointed in me."
"Disappointed! I should say not--the lucky boy!" Georgiana agreed, all
her fears gone to the winds.
* * * * *
When they returned to the porch it was to hear an outcry from
Jeannette's mother: "Chester Crofton! Have you gone absolutely crazy?"
"I think so, mother. Positively dippy. Got it in its worst form. It's
been coming on me for some time, but it's taken me now, for better or
for worse. I'm going to buy that small farm across the road and try what
I can do."
"I'll back you," came in Mr. Thomas Crofton's deepest chest tones.
"Hear, hear!" Dr. Jefferson Craig's shout drowned out Mrs. Crofton's
groan.
"O Ches--I'll come and keep house for you--part of the year, anyhow!"
This was dainty Rosalie, her silk-stockinged ankles swinging wildly, as
she sat upon the porch rail.
Georgiana was laughing, as her eyes met her husband's in a glance of
understanding, but her heart was very warm behind the laughter.
Beyond the gleam of the lanterns she caught the golden glow of a summer
moon rising, to illumine the depths of the country sky--the immense,
star-spangled arch of the heavens. Beneath lay many homes, big and
little, all filled with human lives, each with its chance somehow to
grow; each with its chance, small or great, as a beloved writer has said
inspiringly, "_to love and to work and to play and to look up at the
stars._"
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Under the Country Sky, by Grace S. Richmond