WITH THE NORTHS
Lilian scarcely knew how to feel about these vacation days. It was
so strange not to be going back to the old home. Yet she was happy,
too, to be entering the new experience of a home in the same city
with Cathalina, to say nothing of Philip, whom she would see at this
holiday time. Judge and Mrs. North had taken an apartment
temporarily, perhaps permanently, though both were missing the
freedom and space of their former home. It was, however, much easier
for Mrs. North to look after a compact apartment than the big
two-story and attic place which had been theirs for so many years.
“It seems that I never can have a visit from you, Lil,” said Hilary,
on the day of departure from Greycliff. “Last year it was one thing;
this year something else.”
“Mother scarcely had any visit with me last summer, you know,” said
Lilian.
“Yes, I know, and there are other attractions in New York as well,”
and Hilary looked at Lilian with a quizzical little smile.
“I understand that somebody nice is coming to Cincinnati, too,” said
Lilian.
“Maybe,” assented Hilary. “Campbell said that he was trying hard to
plan it. He will just stop off, you know.”
“Oh, certainly—just accidentally call around, as it were.”
Hilary laughed. “Not very accidentally, I guess.”
“Ready, Lilian?” called Cathalina. “There is the ’bus.”
“Coming!”
Arrived in New York, the girls found two brothers to meet them,
Richard North and Philip Van Buskirk, with Phil’s car. Phil was
driving, and it must be confessed that he paid more attention to
Lilian than to Cathalina, whom he left to Richard, putting Lilian
next to himself in the car. Richard and Cathalina exchanged an
amused glance, then dismissed Lilian and Philip from their thoughts
and had a good visit, while Richard told Cathalina about the North
affairs and his good success in the office.
“I think that I am in luck,” said he, “to step into a firm in this
city with every chance of making good. And you may be interested in
knowing that we have our eyes on another young man. He has been
reading with another lawyer a little, but we think that we may be
able to offer sufficient inducement to get him to come with us.”
Richard’s lips curved into a smile. How he enjoyed using that “we”!
And Cathalina was all interest, for she knew a young man who was
studying law, going to law school when he could, or reading with a
lawyer.
“Of course Dad and his old friends will be in the game for a long
time, but they want a pair of us young chaps, and I’d like to work
with Van Horne.”
“Captain Van Horne!”
“Yes. I met him at your house, you know.”
“I’ve only seen him a few times since school began, and he didn’t
say anything about it.”
“He doesn’t know it, but I feel that he will consider it an
opportunity, and if he comes to New York on his vacation, I’ll have
him meet my father and his friend.”
“Is your other sister coming to spend Christmas with you? Lilian
said that no one had mentioned it, nor answered her questions about
it.”
“We have been so busy that I judge Mother hasn’t written very fully
to anybody, and I have not written at all. No, it is too far to
bring the kiddies in cold weather, and there is a little baby this
year.”
Philip, meanwhile, was making arrangements to see as much as
possible of Lilian during the vacation. “I don’t know how many
family parties they are arranging for this time,” Philip was saying,
“but unless you are invited, too, I don’t expect to be among those
present. Now, have you any special plans for your time?” Philip was
watching the traffic, but his voice was eager.
“No, I haven’t, Philip, except to be with Father and Mother and Dick
on Christmas Day, and go to church with them on Sundays.”
“Good. Now, could you let me take you to a lot of things that are
going on? There is some music that I know you will enjoy. Suppose I
come over this evening with the ‘program,’ and let you make the
dates ahead.”
Lilian turned to look at Philip and met a glance that made her drop
her eyes. “Do come, Phil,” she said, “I shall be delighted to see
you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t say ‘we,’ Lilian,” replied Philip. “And I’d
really like to carry you off somewhere tonight, for some ices and
cake or something—anything, you know, so we can talk. After I’ve
seen the family, of course. Are you too tired?”
“No, indeed. I think it’s lovely of you to want to make me have such
a good time.”
“I’m not altogether unselfish, Lilian,” said Philip with a laugh.
“I’ve been looking forward to this vacation. I enjoyed having you at
our house, but there were so many other people around that I had to
play host to. Now there isn’t anybody else?”
“Where is Ann Maria?” asked Lilian, mischievously.
“At Aunt Katherine’s, as usual. Why, Lilian!” exclaimed Philip, as
he began to understand the meaning of her question. “Did you—do you
think I care especially for Ann Maria?”
But before Lilian could answer that question, Cathalina leaned
forward with some remark to Philip, and then they had arrived in
front of the apartment building. Saying to both Lilian and Dick that
he planned to “run over” in the evening, Philip drove off with
Cathalina to the Van Buskirk home, where welcome waited for
Cathalina.
Lilian’s heart was not beating in quite normal fashion as Philip
asked that last question, but as she rode up in the elevator with
Dick she put the matter temporarily out of her mind, and prepared to
meet her dear people.
“Oh, what a dear apartment!” she exclaimed, after the first
greetings were over. “And here are all our nice old things, Father’s
law books and all, and grandmother’s old mahogany. Why, it seems
like home, after all. I guess home is chiefly folks and a few of the
things you love. And it will be so easy to do things here.”
“I found a good woman to come twice a week, and the rest I shall do
myself. Come, see the new gas range; and Father and Dick have
brought in all sorts of electrical utensils, toaster, grill—here
they are. But when you have rested, I want to hear you sing.”
“Oh, yes. You know I could not keep away from the piano, my beloved
piano!—and I have all sorts of pretty new things. Some of them my
teacher gave me, and some of them I just picked up from hearing what
the other girls sang. Eloise and I have been getting some pretty
duets. I thought perhaps Philip and I might sing together, too.”
“Has Philip written to you steadily, Lilian?” asked her mother.
“Yes, about every week.”
“You are pretty young, daughter, for anything serious.”
“Yes, I know it.”
“Are you sure that it may not be Philip’s fine home, and stylish
clothing, and the free way in which he can spend money that are
attractive?”
“Mother, Philip would be himself, wouldn’t he, if he didn’t have
those things? And Phil is really gifted. The first minute we met we
began to talk and haven’t it all said yet. He plays wonderfully, and
I guess he could make a living at that if he didn’t have any money.
Then he has so much good sense, too, and is so interested in his
father’s business. He asked me to let him write an accompaniment for
that little lullaby I made up, and sang for them last summer, and
I’m just crazy to try it. He has it finished, he says. Just wait
till you see him. He is coming over to see me tonight. Or perhaps
you have met him?”
“No. Mrs. Van Buskirk told me that he would arrive last night. We
were invited out there last week. I shall be glad to see the boy who
is so interested in my little girl, but I scarcely know what to
think about it, Lilian.”
“I don’t believe you need worry, Mother. But I like Philip, better
than any boy I know. And he seems so grown up now.”
“This is his last year in college, isn’t it?”
“Yes; and he told me last summer that if we get into the war he has
promised his father to finish out the year anyway. Have you met Mrs.
Van Ness and the Stuarts and the rest?”
“Yes, a number of the relatives. We put our letters in the church,
too, and have met some fine people there. But I have been so busy
getting settled that I have had time to think of little else.
Several times Mrs. Van Buskirk has telephoned and brought the car
around for me. We had lunch together, and went shopping for the
apartment. She is charming.”
“Indeed she is, and I know she is thinking the same thing of you.
Just wait till I see her. About the first thing she will say is, ‘My
dear, what a lovely woman your mother is!’”
Mrs. North laughed. “I am considerably older than she, I think.”
“I don’t know about that. You may be a grandmother, but I scarcely
think that our Margery is so much older than Philip.”
“Oh, yes, Lilian. Margery is twenty-five, and has been married four
years.”
“That is only a few years older, anyhow. She seems older because of
the three babies.”
Evening came, and Philip. Lilian did not know just where she might
be taken, but dressed for evening and laid out her pretty new
evening wrap, over which she had gone into raptures. It was to have
been a Christmas present, but learning of Philip’s plans for Lilian,
Mrs. North had decided to give it in advance. For a cruel parent,
who did not approve of anything serious in the line of love and
marriage for Lilian in the near future, Mrs. North was taking a
great deal of interest! “But if you are going around so much this
vacation, I suppose you will need it now,” she said.
Although Philip was so accustomed to meeting people, he felt some
measure of embarrassment when he met Lilian’s parents. Judge North
he knew, and Dick, but Mrs. North would appraise him, he felt, as he
came to call upon her daughter so definitely. However, he intended
to make a general visit as well, and in the pleasant atmosphere of
hospitality, with many things in common as subjects of conversation,
Philip’s embarrassment soon passed. Lilian’s piano, newly tuned, had
to be tried, and Philip surprised Mrs. North, as people were wont to
be surprised when they heard him play. Dick left soon to meet an
engagement, and as Philip finished the accompaniment he was playing
for Lilian, he whispered, “Shall we go?”
“We are leaving, now, folks,” announced Lilian, bowing to her
father’s applause. “Did you like that, Father?”—starting to get her
wraps as she spoke.
It was the little electric coupé that was parked outside. “Isn’t
this fine!” exclaimed Philip as he tucked the robes around Lilian.
“Are we really by ourselves going off somewhere? Where would you
like to go?”
“I haven’t an idea,” said Lilian. “Anywhere.”
“That is the way I feel about it,” said Philip, “only in a different
degree, I fear me. As long as I have you, the place is immaterial.
And before we start I want to ask you what you meant by asking me
where Ann Maria was. And you did not answer my question.”
“I couldn’t, you know.”
“Yes, I know. But you will answer me now, won’t you?”
“Let me see; what was it?”
Philip hesitated. “Some way, I think you know, don’t you? I asked
you if you thought that I cared for Ann Maria.”
“You said ‘especially’.”
“Yes, I _thought_ you would remember!”
“I have been trying to think, Philip, how I would answer that.
Because, you see, I should not have asked the first question. I did
think, Philip,” continued Lilian, honestly, “that you must care for
her, or that there had been some special affection between you.”
“Was it anything that I did?” asked Philip.
“It was more her manner, a sort of taking possession of you. But I
must apologize for referring to it at all. It isn’t any of my
affair.”
“Oh, it isn’t?” said Philip hopelessly. “Then you didn’t suppose I
meant anything when I talked to you in the pine grove at
Merrymeeting, or other times?”
“I—I didn’t know—what to think about it all.”
“Cathalina could have told you all about Ann Maria.”
“I didn’t ask her.”
“Didn’t you care enough?”
“Oh, Philip, can’t you understand how a girl feels? I _couldn’t_!”
“I could; I asked Cathalina all about those boys in your home town,
and at the military school.”
“That is very different.”
“I haven’t gone at it in the right way, I suppose. But you are a
friend of mine anyhow, aren’t you?”
“I should think I am!” Lilian laughed.
“As far as Ann Maria is concerned, I never have made love to Ann
Maria and never shall, but that’s what I am trying to do to you! I
thought at first that I ought not to do it. I thought your father
and mother would not like to have you in love with me, and perhaps I
ought not to try to make you like me. Then the prospect of our
getting into the war made me think so all the more. But, Lilian, I
can’t stand it. If I go to war and get all shot up I’ll not let you
marry me, but I must know whether you can love me a little or not.
You are the only girl on earth for me, and I want a chance to be
with you this week. I’m asking you to marry me, sweetheart, and I
want you to think it over and let me know before the vacation is
over.” Philip’s earnest eyes looked into Lilian’s. He evidently had
no idea of the high regard in which Lilian held him, for he spoke as
if she might have to consider the matter of her affections for some
time.
“You take my breath away, Philip,” said Lilian.
“Yes?” inquired Philip. “I’d like to run away with you this minute,”
he added. “But the idea of an elopement might not strike you!”
Philip had started the little car by this time, and they rolled
easily along. “I’m taking you to a quiet little French place where
we shall have good things to eat and fine service.”
Over the little table where they sat a long time to visit, Lilian
said: “Philip, since you have said so much tonight, and put an end
to some of my worries, I want to tell you that you need not be so
humble about my liking you.”
“Lilian!” exclaimed Philip under his breath, his eyes lighting up.
“Yes, I believe I’ll tell you how horribly jealous _I’ve_ been of
Ann Maria.”
“Honestly? Was that why some of your letters were so cool?”
“Were they? Yes, I suppose so. I’ve trusted you _most_ of the time,
though.”
“And you do altogether now?”
“Oh, yes. But you are right about the folks. I’m afraid Mother will
think I’m too young to be engaged to you.”
“But how about you, Lilian?”
“I seem to feel pretty grown up, Philip.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t imagine any one, Philip, as fine as you are, and in spite
of all the common sense I’ve tried to bring to bear upon the
subject, thinking that perhaps you did not care for me anyhow, and
that Father and Mother would say I couldn’t be married for a long,
long time—some way——” Lilian hesitated and blushed, while Philip
leaned toward her in anxious anticipation. “Please don’t stop,” he
urged whimsically.
“Well, Philip,” Lilian continued soberly, “we seem to belong to each
other, just naturally. And I will confess, too, that the best thing
about this vacation was that I should see you again!”
“Lilian!” exclaimed Philip again. They were talking in undertones,
while playing with their fast melting ice-cream, for the room was
warm, if it was winter outside. “I had no idea that I was going to
be made so happy this first night of your coming. I thought perhaps
I could persuade you, if I tried hard enough! Indeed, I have had the
feeling that we belonged to each other, but I scarcely hoped that it
might be mutual. Will you have something else?” The waiter was
approaching again.
“Nothing more,” said Lilian.
“I’ve something to show you when we get in the car,” said Philip, as
with grace he ushered out his lady love. “Oh—I believe I’ll wait
till we get home. There is too much to say. You are the most
wonderful girl not to keep me worrying all week.”
“When you love people, you don’t want them to be unhappy,” said
Lilian.
When they reached the apartment house again and the car was drawn up
to the curb, Philip reached in his pocket, drew out a little package
and slowly opened it. He took out something, while Lilian gasped in
astonishment. “You will think me rather assured of the final
outcome, I am afraid, but I wanted to persuade myself that it would
be all right, you see. I went into Tiffany’s yesterday. Now the
hand, Lilian.”