Julie was in bed, but not asleep, when Hester came in that night, and
propped herself up on her elbow to listen with absorbed interest while
she gave an account of herself.
"Julie dear," the younger girl began, "never urge me again to go
anywhere where I am to be confronted by the fruit of our labor. I can't
stand it. I thought I should die when I first saw the boxes of cake
piled up in the hall--of course in a way it was a relief to know they
were safely there, but it gave me an actual pain to remember how we
nearly killed ourselves over them. Then a man I met nearly dragged me
out to see the bride cut the cake. That was too much and Mr. Landor came
to the rescue."
"How nice of him!"
"Yes," admitted Hester, "he _was_ nice and we were having a jolly time
when that awful man pounced down upon us, bride cake in hand, and I was
actually forced to eat some of it!"
"Poor child! Couldn't you have intimated that you had tasted it just a
few times before?"
[Illustration: JULIE WAS IN BED WHEN HESTER CAME IN THAT NIGHT]
"I was tempted to, but out of consideration for Mrs. Lennox I spared him
the shock. And then what do you suppose? I got the gold dollar! I would
not have bothered to put such a polish on it yesterday if I had known it
was coming back to me!"
"Did you throw it out of the window in your best high-tragedy style?"
"No, I gave it to Mr. Landor. He looked so cross when Mr. Bemis joined
us that he was absolutely funny, so I thought I'd just give him a little
present--'for a good boy on his birthday' or something of that sort, you
know, only he wasn't so alarmingly good and it wasn't his birthday,--at
least I don't suppose it was, do you?"
"Hester, you do talk the most idiotic nonsense!"
"Do I? Well, I've been pretty serious the past hour," she said soberly
as she slipped off her gown and seated herself on the edge of the bed
preparatory to taking down her hair. "Julie, we are going to have war!"
To Julie, who could not be expected to know her sister's train of
thought, this announcement seemed so irrelevant that she looked at her
wonderingly.
"It was not in to-night's paper," she said.
"No, but it is in the air. Mr. Landor thinks it is inevitable. He talked
with me to-night about a friend of his who's crazy to go. I did not
suspect a thing at first but afterward I did--it's himself, Julie--he
means to volunteer with the first call for troops."
"That is just what I should expect of him, Hester."
"Y-e-s," reluctantly, "but do you know from things he said it is
evidently going to be a tussle for him to make up his mind to leave. He
is all upset about it and oh! Julie dear, how I did wish you were there
to talk to him--you always say such beautiful, helpful things. It is
some one he cares about--perhaps it is his father. Do you suppose it
_could_ be any one else, Julie?"
"I don't know, dear"--certain suspicions in regard to Landor gaining
ground every minute--"perhaps it is Jessie Davis," wickedly, for Julie
could do her share of teasing too.
"That fashion plate!" scornfully. "I don't believe a word of it! She's
not fit to button his shoes!"
"Probably she would not care to," remarked Julie, intensely amused at
this taking up of the cudgels in Landor's behalf; and then, thinking it
best--this wise Julie!--not to prolong the jest, she said, "It is
probably his father. He is old, you know, and Mr. Landor may hesitate to
go off and leave him. I am glad he talked with you, dear, about anything
he had so much at heart, for it shows how much he appreciates and values
your opinion and you probably talked to him twice as well as I could,
you funny little baby owl!"
Hester's reply to this was to fling herself down on the foot of the bed
and cry in a muffled tone, "I'm so tired--so dead tired! I didn't
realize it until I kept so still coming home and then I ached so I
wanted to scream while Mr. Landor was talking to me!"
Julie's arms were around her in a moment. "The strain has been too much,
dear. You cannot stand the work and play too,--it is no use trying."
"But I like to play," cried Hester rebelliously, "and sometimes I feel
so wicked--as if I couldn't keep up my end another minute, and then I
want to run away--all of us run away--to have 'The Hustle' again and go
racing out of all this, and then,"--her voice broke,--"Oh! then Julie
darling, I am so ashamed of such thoughts--so humiliated to think I
can't be as patient as you are!"
"I know, dear," stroking her sister's hair softly, "and I am not
patient--not half as patient as I try to be--only I hold myself with a
fearfully tight rein for fear I'll go all to pieces. We are both pretty
much knocked out now, dear, with the strain of the winter, the newness
of things and--"
"Not to mention being half fed," inserted Hester.
"But we have paid all our expenses as we've gone along and kept out of
debt even if we have half starved to do it. You see, dear, up to now,"
said Julie, the accountant, "we have had to put such a large amount of
our earnings back into the business for all sorts of things."
"Imagine what cousin Nancy would say if she knew how we wriggled along
on almost nothing, you and I!"
"She'd say we were fools not to have accounts with the butcher, the
baker and candlestick-maker but we do not agree with her, and Daddy,
bless his heart! does not want for anything. Thank heaven, we've
accomplished that much! Isn't it a mercy, dear, that he does not realize
things? It would break his heart!"
"Oh! yes, but how I do long to have our darling old Daddy back!"
Julie said nothing. Her chin was very rigid but in a few moments she
said cheerfully, "I think the spring promises a good deal. Our work
increases every day and we can soon begin to live better. Bridget says
marketing is much cheaper in the summer, and if we only make enough now
to carry Daddy comfortably through the dull season when people are away
and we are not earning much, we'll get on famously. Just think what
magnificent times we'll have this summer just loafing around Daddy's
room!"
Hester, who seldom allowed herself such luxury of woe as she had just
been indulging in, sat up, wiped her eyes on the corner of the sheet and
said emphatically, "I'm a fiend and I ought to be cow-hided!"
"I'll paddle you instead," said Julie, picking up the hair-brush Hester
had dropped and making as if to apply the back of it vigorously.
Hester dodged but Julie caught her and, springing out of bed, planted
her firmly in a chair and said, "I'll brush that crazy head of yours and
help you to bed or you'll never get there! It must be all hours of the
night."
"You'll catch your death of cold," remonstrated Hester.
"I won't, and if you'll keep as still as a mouse and not scream when I
comb your hair--"
"You pull like the dickens; you know you do!"
"I do not and I wish you'd stop talking and give me a chance. I declare
you get worse every day--I tremble to think what you're coming to!--and
I've, oh! such a piece of news to tell you!"
She was wholly unprepared for the clutch of Hester's arms about her neck
as she cried, "Don't tell me to-night, Julie dear, I--I
know--all--about--it!"
"Do you?" holding her fast. "Then aren't you glad it has all come out
this way?"
"Yes, Julie darling," stifling a sob.
"Why, Hester, what is it? You must not cry, dear. I can't think what is
the matter!"
"I'm a selfish brute, but oh, I'm not really, Julie--not really. I think
it is the most beautiful thing!"
"What is 'the most beautiful thing'?" wondering if the child were losing
her mind.
"That he's been here. I knew it the moment you spoke. As if he'd fail to
come!"
"Hester! do you mean you think that I--I--"
Hester nodded.
"But I don't dear, not the least little bit in the world!"
"Oh, Julie!"
For a moment they clung together. Then Julie gave a hysterical laugh.
"What a silly old goose you were to go having absurd thoughts about me,
and how dared you, how _dared_ you think I was in love with any one?"
"I did not know," penitently, "you kept so still about Monsieur Grémond
and he _was_ in love with you, wasn't he?"
"Yes dear. He came this afternoon and I sent him away. We do not want to
have secrets from each other, do we, old girl, but I never talked to you
much about him because there was a time when I did not quite know
whether I cared for him or not. Perhaps back in the old days, if he had
asked me, I might have said yes, but I doubt it--it was more a sort of
fascination he exercised over me for awhile and now I am truly thankful
he has come and gone. He has removed every particle of doubt as to my
attitude toward him."
"Oh, I am so glad. I couldn't bear the thought of his carrying you off
to France."
Julie's eyes opened wide. "Did you suppose I'd go away and leave you and
Daddy and the rest?" in a tone of astonishment.
"Some Prince Charming is coming along to carry you off some day, Julie
dear," said Hester, who could bring herself to regard such an event with
some degree of complacency now that it was not an immediate fact. "I'm
not quite such a selfish pig" (she never spared herself in the matter of
epithets), "as to expect to have you always."
"I think we are sufficient unto each other now, dear," said Julie
seriously, "and we may always be, for all the years to come; but if some
day our lives should change--a new interest enter in--we'll share it and
make it beautify the lives of both of us just as we've always shared
every joy and sorrow ever since we were babies." She kissed her sister
solemnly.
"You blessed Julie!" was the response.
When the gas was out and Hester, the irrepressible, finally in bed, the
light of the full moon came streaming into the little room. And
lingering with a caressing touch it fell upon a white pillow on which a
curly golden head and a sleek dark one lay pressed close together. In
the solemn stillness the breathing of two slender forms told that the
excitement of the past forty-eight hours had at last ended in much
needed sleep.