From a worldly point of view there could be no question as to the
wisdom and desirability of the match, and Miss Warren's family was
worldly to the core.
It had been a crushing blow to Mrs. Warren's pride, and, incidentally,
a blow in a vastly more material direction, that her two older
daughters had made something of a mess of matrimony, pecuniarily
speaking.
She was confessedly ambitious for Nancy--Nancy, the youngest, the
cleverest, the fairest of the three. Position she always _would_ have,
being a Warren, but she wanted the girl to have all the _other_ good
things of this life, that for so many years had been unsatisfied
desires. Not, _of course_, that she would want Nancy to marry for
money, she assured herself virtuously; that, in addition to being an
indirect violation of an article of the Decalogue, was so distinctly
plebeian. But it would be so comfortable if Nancy's affections could
only be engaged in a direction where the coffers were not exactly
empty. In other words, money would be no _obstacle_ to perfect
connubial bliss.
And think of the future which awaited Nancy if she would but say the
word! Even the fondly cherished memory of the Warrens' past glory
dwindled into nothingness in comparison.
To be sure, Mr. James Thornton was not so young as he _had_ been ten
years ago--"What's a man's age? He must hurry more, that's all," Mrs.
Warren was fond of quoting--nor, in point of girth, did he assume
_less_ aldermanic proportions as time rolled on, but there was such a
golden lining to these small clouds of affliction, that he was very
generally looked upon as an altogether desirable _parti_.
It must be admitted that, among other minor idiosyncrasies, Mr. James
Thornton would now and then slip into the vernacular. Under great
stress of feeling, in the heat of argument and the like, he had been
known to break the Sixth Commandment in so far as the English of the
king was concerned.
"You was," "those kind," "between you and I," would slip out, but
these variations from the strictly conventional were looked upon as
little eccentricities in which a man whose fortune went far above the
million mark could well afford to indulge.
"James is so droll," the aristocratic Mrs. Warren would say
comfortably, resolutely closing her eyes to the fact that James' early
environment, and not his sense of humor, was responsible for his
occasional lapses. For James' father, old Sid Thornton, as he was
always called, could not have boasted even a bowing acquaintance with
the very people who were now not only falling over each other in their
mad anxiety to entertain his son, but were even more than willing to
find that same son a suitable wife among their own fair daughters. Old
Sid Thornton's homely boy, Jim, running away to sea, and Mr. James
Thornton, back to the old town with a fortune at his disposal, and
living in a mansion that was the admiration and envy of the whole
county, were two totally different entities.
Temptingly did the mothers with marriageable daughters display their
wares. But of all the number, and many of them were passing fair, Mr.
James Thornton cast longing eyes on only one, and that was Nancy
Warren. Frankly, he wanted to get married, settle down, perhaps go
into politics when he had time; he wanted a mistress for that
beautiful house on the hill, some one who would know how to preside at
his table and dispense his hospitality; some one, in short, who would
know, instinctively, all the little niceties which were as a sealed
book to him, and the tall, fair, thoroughbred Miss Warren seemed
ideally fitted for the post.
Encouraged thereto by the tactful Mrs. Warren, James had poured into
her eager ears the secrets of his honest soul, and Mrs. Warren had
listened with a sweet and ready sympathy that had caused James quite
to forget a certain stinging snubbing he had received from the
selfsame lady, because once, back in the dark ages--before Nancy had
opened her blue eyes on this naughty world--when he was a gawky,
freckle-faced boy of sixteen, he had dared to walk home from church
with Mildred, the eldest daughter of the house of Warren.
That was long before Mrs. Warren had felt poverty's vicious pinch, and
before her life had become one continual struggle to make both ends
meet. Somehow, her point of view had changed since then--points of
view _will_ change when the howl of the wolf is heard in the near
distance, and yet one must smile and smile before one's little
world--and, all other things being equal, Mr. James Thornton's home,
garish with gold and onyx, and fairly shrieking with bad tapestries
and faulty paintings and ponderous furniture, seemed as promising and
fair a haven as she could possibly find for the youngest and only
remaining daughter of the house of Warren. As for any little jarring
notes in the decorative scheme of the Thornton abode, Mrs. Warren knew
that she could trust Nancy to change all that, if she were once
established there as the bride of Mr. James Thornton.
Now, Nancy had her share of the contrary spirit, and although she did
not look altogether unfavorably upon the wooing of the affluent James,
she took very good care that her mother should not suspect her state
of mind. Perhaps that one unforgettable summer, of which her mother
only dimly dreamed, made her despise herself for her tacit
acquiescence, and she salved her accusing conscience with some outward
show of opposition.
"Mr. Thornton is most kind, but his hands are positively beefy,
mother," complained Nancy, one day, her short upper lip curling a bit
scornfully. Mrs. Warren had just finished a long dissertation on the
virtues of Mr. James Thornton, and, merely incidentally, of course,
had touched on the great advantages that would accrue to the girl who
should become his wife.
"You _ought_ to know, my dear," Mrs. Warren replied, blandly, "that
the sun of South Africa has a _rather_"--Mrs. Warren's broad _a_ had a
supercilious cadence--"toughening effect on the skin. Hands or no hands,
he has more to recommend him than any man of _your_ acquaintance."
Mrs. Warren refrained from adding in what respect. "He is very much
taken with you. Let him slip through your fingers and he'll be snapped up
by some one else before you can say 'Jack Robinson.' Effie Paul"--Mrs.
Warren began counting the pining ones on her fingers--"would give her
old boots and shoes if she could annex him--she's a calculating
creature; I never liked her. Alice Wood needs only half a chance to
throw herself at his feet just as she already has done at his head.
_Her_ conduct has been disgraceful." Mrs. Warren sniffed the sniff of
the virtuous and blameless. "There's not a girl of your acquaintance
who would not jump at the chance of becoming Mrs. James Thornton."
"Did you ever read that story of Kipling's where he says, 'Regiments
are like women--they will do anything for trinketry'?" inquired Nancy,
calmly.
"Kipling may know a great deal about regiments, but he knows _nothing_
about women," said Mrs. Warren, severely. "I am surprised to hear a
girl of your age advocating any such idea! I have a higher opinion of
my sex, thank Heaven!" She assumed the air of an early Christian
martyr.
"Well, I think they're a pretty mercenary lot," said Nancy, stolidly.
"Not at all. People sometimes have a proper sense of the eternal
fitness of things," her mother returned, with withering inconsistency.
"Not, of course," she added, hastily, "that I would _consent_ to your
marrying Mr. Thornton if you didn't _care_ for him."
Nancy's face was a study.
"I think too much of _him_ for that." Mrs. Warren threw her head back
proudly.
"He's a trifle unideal, mother; a bit different, you must admit,"
Nancy laughed. "To begin with, he has a regular bay window."
"Don't be vulgar, Anne," her mother said, sharply. "He inherits
flesh."
"Yes, I remember once hearing dad say that old Sid Thornton looked
exactly like an inflated bullfrog," Nancy laughed, wickedly.
"Your dear father had an unfortunate way of expressing himself." Mrs.
Warren drew herself up stiffly. "And I must say, my dear, that you are
much more like poor, dear Charles than you are like me." Mrs. Warren
wiped away a tear, and Nancy wondered vaguely whether the tear was for
her late and not too loudly lamented father or for the absence of
_her_ likeness to his relict.
The next moment Nancy, swiftly penitent, was at her mother's side,
and, taking the still wonderfully young face between her hands, said
softly: "Kiss me, Marmee. I'm a brute, I know I am. I know what an
awful struggle it has been to keep up appearances. I--I'm sick of it
all, too. Only--only, I must think, that's all. I must be perfectly
sure--that I really _care_--for Mr. Thornton. Don't say anything more
now, dearie," she pleaded, as her mother started to make some reply.
"I'm going off to think." And, kissing her mother tenderly, this
strange little creature of varying moods and tenses went up to her own
room to have it out with herself. It was the one place where Nancy
Warren felt that she could be perfectly honest with her own soul,
where all shams and insincerities could safely be laid aside without
fear of that arch-tyrant of a small town, Mrs. Grundy.
She opened her window, and, sitting down on the floor in front of it,
her head on the broad sill, gazed, with curiously mingled emotions, at
the imposing pile of gray stone on the hill, where Mr. James Thornton
lived and moved and had his being.
Down deep in her heart of hearts, Nancy Warren knew that she was far
more like her mother than that very lovely and very conventional woman
dreamed.
She was a luxury-loving soul--things that were mere accidents to other
women were absolute necessities to her. With a longing that almost
amounted to a passion, she craved jewels, good gowns, laces and all
the other dear, delightful pomps and vanities of this world, which
only a plethoric purse can procure.
She reveled in the violets and orchids which, so sure as the day
dawned, came down from the Thornton conservatories for the greater
adornment of the house of Warren.
The rides in the fastest machines in the county, the cross-country
runs on Mr. James Thornton's thoroughbred hunters, all these were as
meat and drink to her.
Yes, Mr. James Thornton's offer was certainly tempting. It meant that
everything in the world for which she most cared would be hers
except--but that was singularly out-of-date. Nobody really married for
that any more. To be sure, her sisters had, but she could not see that
they were glaringly happy. And Mr. James Thornton was a good
soul--everybody admitted that. And yet--for an instant the gray stone
building in the distance, bathed in the golden radiance of the setting
sun, grew misty and blurred. She saw another sunset, all pink and
green and soft, indefinite violet, and above the deep, sweet,
ceaseless sound of a wondrously opalescent sea she heard a man's voice
ring clear and true with a love as eternal as that same changeless
sea. She felt again that strange, sweet, unearthly happiness that
comes to a woman once and once only. She buried her face in her hands
to shut out the sight of that gray stone house on the hill, bathed in
the significant, mocking, golden radiance of the setting sun. She
heard again that man's voice, crushed and broken with a dull, hopeless
despair. She saw his face grow pale as death as he heard her words of
cruel, worldly wisdom. She felt again that same bitter ache at the
heart, that horrible, gnawing sense of irreparable loss, as she had
voluntarily put out of her life "the only good in the world."
"But we were too poor," she cried, passionately, jumping to her feet
and throwing her head back defiantly. "It would have been madness--for
me." She looked out of the window again at the gray stone house on the
hill, and laughed mirthlessly.
Then she walked slowly away from the window, and stood irresolute for
a moment, in the center of the room.
"This horrid, beastly poverty!" she burst out vehemently. "I'm sick of
it all--of our wretched, miserable makeshifts. I'm tired, so tired, of
everything. It will be such a rest." She rushed excitedly to the door,
and ran, with the air of one who knows delay is fraught with danger,
downstairs to her mother's room.
"Mother"--Mrs. Warren looked up fearfully, as she heard her daughter's
voice--"I have thought it all over."
"Yes?" said Mrs. Warren, weakly. The reaction was almost too much for
her after the half hour of sickening suspense.
"You must see Mr. Thornton when he comes to-night, for I have a
splitting headache and I'm going to bed." Her mother stared at her
blankly. Was this the end of all her hopes? "To-day is Tuesday--tell
him that I will give him my answer Friday night. And, mother"--her
voice dropped in a half-ashamed way--"the answer will be yes."
"My darling child"--Mrs. Warren took her daughter in her arms--"this
is the very proudest and happiest moment of my life."
"Yes, mother, I know," Nancy freed herself from the clinging embrace.
"I'm happy, awfully happy, too"--she said it as one would speak of the
weather or some other deadly commonplace. "I think Mr. Thornton will
make a model husband. And--and it's an end to all our nasty little
economies!"
"Anne, don't be so material," Mrs. Warren interrupted, in a shocked
voice.
"I'm not, mother; only think"--Nancy's eyes glistened--"no more
velveteen masquerading as velvet, no more bargain-counter shoes and
gloves, no more percaline petticoats with silk flounces, no more
_plain_ dresses because shirring and tucking take a few more yards; no
more summers spent in close, cooped-up hall bedrooms in
twelve-dollar-a-week hotels; grape-fruit every morning, and cream
always!" She laughed half hysterically. "And Mr. Thornton is _so_
good! It's wonderful to be so happy, isn't it, Marmee?"
Mrs. Warren looked at her apprehensively for a moment. "You're sure,"
she faltered--"you're sure you're doing it all without a regret
for--for anybody, Nancy?"
Nancy's nails went deep into the palms of her hands. "Without a
regret, Marmee," she smiled, brightly.
"And that you think you will be perfectly happy with James?"
"Perfectly," said Nancy, evenly.
Mrs. Warren, reassured, was radiant. "My darling child," she breathed,
softly, "this means everything to me."
"You'll explain about the headache, won't you, Marmee?" Nancy asked,
moving hurriedly toward the door. She knew that she should scream if
she stayed a moment longer in her mother's presence.
"Yes, indeed, and I'm so sorry about the pain." Her mother followed
her to the door. "Take some----"
"I have everything upstairs, thank you, mother. Good-night."
"Good-night, my darling child." Those kisses were the fondest her
mother had ever given her. "How I wish that your poor dear father
could know of our perfect happiness!"
Nancy passed out into the hall, closed the door behind her, and leaned
for a moment against the wall. Mrs. Warren's idea of perfect happiness
would have received a severe shock, could she have heard Nancy murmur,
brokenly: "Dear old dad! Pray Heaven you _don't_ know that your little
Nance is a miserable, mercenary coward!"
* * * * *
There is a certain sense of relief that follows the consummation of a
long-delayed decision, no matter how inherently distasteful that
decision may be, and Nancy's first feeling when she awoke on the
following morning was one of thankfulness that the preliminary step
had been taken.
All burdens seem lighter, everything takes a different hue, in the
morning when the sun is shining and the birds are singing, and after
the months of sickening indecision Nancy experienced such a delightful
sense of rest, such a freedom from suspense, that she actually laughed
aloud as she said to herself: "Oh, I guess perhaps it's not going to
be so bad, after all!"
By the time that Mr. James Thornton's daily offering of violets and
orchids had arrived, she had about decided that she was a rather
levelheaded young woman, and when, an hour after that, she found
herself seated beside the devoted James, in his glaringly resplendent
automobile, skimming along at an exhilarating pace over a fine stretch
of country road, she had come to the conclusion that that arch-type of
female foolishness, the Virgin with the Unfilled Lamp, was wisdom
incarnate compared to the woman who deliberately throws aside the
goods the gods provide her. Oh, yes, Nancy was fast becoming the more
worthy daughter of a worthy mother!
James Thornton, reassured by what Mrs. Warren had delicately hinted to
him the evening before, exulted in Nancy's buoyant spirits. He had
never seen her so attractive. She chattered away merrily, laughed at
his weighty jokes and his more or less pointless stories, and even
forgot to be angry when for one brief, fleeting instant his massive
hand closed over her slim, aristocratic one. It seemed too good to be
true that this fascinating bit of femininity was soon to be his.
When they finally returned to the Warrens' modest house, the wily
chauffeur, looking after them as they walked along the
nasturtium-bordered path that led to the porch, winked the wink of one
on the inside, and smiled broadly as he murmured: "She's a crackajack!
And if there ain't somethin' doin' _this_ time, I'll eat my goggles!"
* * * * *
"Don't you think, mother," said Nancy, an hour or so later--they were
sitting in Nancy's room, Mrs. Warren, with unusual condescension,
having come up for a little chat--"that it would have been rather
nicer to have had dinner here Friday night, the eventful Friday
night"--a queer little tremor ran over her--"instead of at Mr.
Thornton's?"
"Why, no," said Mrs. Warren, complacently; "I think it will make
everything easier for James if we are up there. You know he is
inclined to be diffident, Nancy. A man always appears to better
advantage in his own house."
"And of course that is the only thing to be considered." Nancy smiled
half bitterly. She had lost a little of the buoyancy of a few hours
before.
"Why, of course, my dear," Mrs. Warren began, hastily, "if you prefer
to----?"
"Oh, no, let it go at that," returned Nancy, carelessly. "It will be
all the same at the end of a lifetime." She shrugged her shoulders as
she spoke. "What shall I wear, mother?" she asked the next moment,
with an entire change of manner. "My white, virginal simplicity and
all that sort of rot; my shabby little yellow, or the scarlet? Those
are my 'devilish all,' you know."
"The white, by _all_ means, Nancy." Mrs. Warren's tone was impressive;
and for reasons of her own she chose to ignore the slang.
"Pink rose in the hair, I suppose, a _Janice Meredith_ curl, bobbing
on my neck and nearly scratching the life out of me, a few _visibly
invisible_ little pink ribbons, and any other 'parlor tricks' I happen
to know----"
"Anne!" Her mother frowned angrily.
"Then be led into the conservatory"--Nancy paid no attention to the
interruption--"have the moonlight turned on. Horrors, think of that
artificial moonlight!" Nancy shuddered. "And then say yes! Heavens! I
hope I shan't say yes until it's time. It would be awful to miscue at
that stage of the game!"
Mrs. Warren rose abruptly from her chair, and without a word started
for the door, quivering with indignation.
"There! I've been a brute again," cried Nancy, penitently, dashing
after her mother.
"Yes, I think you have," blazed Mrs. Warren.
"I was only fooling, dearie; it's all going to be lovely, and I'm
going into that conservatory just as valiantly as the Rough Riders
charged up old San Juan! Only, Marmee, don't ask me to wear
white--that would be _too_ absurd! Frankly, I'm susceptible to color.
You've heard about the little boy who whistled in the dark to keep his
courage up?" Mrs. Warren smiled through her tears. "Well, I'm going to
wear my red--red is cheerful, and not _too_ innocent, and--and
courageous--I mean," Nancy explained, hastily, as she caught her
mother's look of wonder. "It always requires _some_ courage for a girl
to say she will marry a man, even when the circumstances are as--as
happy as they are in this case. Didn't you feel just a little bit
queer when you told dad you'd marry him?"
"Why, yes, I suppose I did," said Mrs. Warren, half doubtfully.
"Well, then," said Nancy, logically, "you can understand just what I
mean. I've a scrap of lace"--reverting to the burning question--"that
I'm going to hunt up, that will freshen the red a lot, and some day,
Marmee"--she took her mother's face between her cool, slim hands, and
laughed with a fine assumption of gayety--"we'll have such closetfuls
of dainty, bewitching 'creations' that we'll quite forget we ever
envied Mother Eve because she didn't have to rack her brains about
what to wear."
Mrs. Warren laughed. Her indignation had vanished. Nancy had a winsome
way with her when she chose that was irresistible to the older woman.
"Now you go take a nice little nap, Marmee"--she kissed her mother
lightly on the forehead--"while the future Mrs. James Thornton ferrets
out the scrap of lace which is to be the _piece de resistance_ of
_Juliet's_ costume when she goes to meet her portly _Romeo!_" She
laughed merrily, and with a sweeping courtesy ushered her mother out
of the room.
As soon as the door had closed behind Mrs. Warren, Nancy, singing
lustily, yet with a certain nervousness, as if to drown all power of
thought, bustled about the room, peering into topsy-turvy bureau
drawers and ransacking inconsequent-looking boxes, with a
half-feverish energy, as though upon the unearthing of that particular
piece of lace depended her hopes of heaven.
It seemed to be an elusive commodity, that scrap of rose-point; for
twenty minutes' patient search failed utterly to bring it to the light
of day.
Suddenly, Nancy espied a big, important-looking black walnut box on
the floor of her closet, half hidden by a well-worn party coat which
depended from the hook just above it. It was a mysterious-looking box,
delightfully suggestive of old love letters and tender fooleries of
that sort, or _would_ have been, had it not been the property of an
up-to-date, worldly-wise young woman who knew better than to save from
the flames such sources of delicious torment, such instruments of
exquisite torture.
In an instant Nancy had dragged the box to the door of the closet, and
was down on her knees in front of it, going through its contents with
ferret-like eagerness.
Yes! Her search was at last rewarded! For there, down under a pair of
white satin dancing slippers, in provokingly easy view, lay the much
desired finery.
She put her hand under the slippers to draw it from its resting place,
and as she felt the lace slip easily as though across some smooth
surface, looked with idle curiosity down into the box. Instantly a
sharp little cry rang through the room, and she withdrew her hand as
swiftly as though she had unearthed a nest of rattlers. Her face was
ashen, her breath came quick and short.
"Oh, I didn't know it was there!" she gasped. "I had forgotten all
about it. I thought it had been destroyed with all the rest. Why is it
left to torment me now, now, _now_?" she cried, angrily. Then, with a
swift revulsion of feeling, she murmured, brokenly: "Oh, Boy, Boy, is
there no escaping you? No forgetting you just when I am trying to so
hard?"
She sat very still for a moment. Then she put her hand into the box
again and drew out, not the precious scrap of rose-point--that, to
her, was as though it had never been--not a blurred, tear-stained love
letter, not a bunch of faded violets, but a little, fat, bright blue
pitcher, with great, flaming vermilion roses on either side, the most
grotesquely and uncompromisingly ugly bit of crockery that one would
find from Dan to Beersheba.
Have you never noticed that it is often the most whimsically
inconsequent, the most utterly ordinary, the most intrinsically
prosaic of inanimate things that, with a sudden and overwhelming rush,
will call into being memories the tenderest, the deepest, the saddest?
It may be a worthless little book, a withered flower ghastly in its
brown grave clothes, a cheap, tawdry trinket; it may be something as
intangible as a few bars of a hackneyed song ground out on a wheezy,
asthmatic hand organ. But just so surely as one has lived--and
therefore loved--one knows the inherent power to sting and wound in
things the most pitiably commonplace. De Musset speaks of the "little
pebble":
But when upon your fated way you meet
Some dumb memorial of a passion dead,
That little pebble stops you, and you dread
To bruise your tender feet.
So to Nancy, coming suddenly and at the psychological moment upon that
absurd bit of blue clay cajoled from a friendly waiter at a little,
out-of-the-way Bohemian restaurant, one never-to-be-forgotten night,
the bottom seemed to have dropped out of the universe. The things of
this world seemed suddenly to lose their value, and to grow poor and
mean and worthless. And she only knew that she was miserable, and
heart-hungry, and soul-sick for one who never came, for one who never
again _would_ come, forever and forever.
With the little blue pitcher held tightly in her hand, she walked over
to the window and looked up at the big gray stone house that was soon
to know her as its mistress. And for the very first time the perfect
realization of what it all would mean was borne in upon her. She stood
there for several minutes motionless, then with a violent, angry shake
of the head she cried out in a high, defiant voice: "No, no, no, not
until--not yet, not yet!"
She walked rapidly away from the window, and put the little blue
pitcher in a post of honor on the mantelpiece. Then, crossing over to
the dressing table, she picked up her purse and carefully counted the
money. The result must have been satisfactory, for a half-triumphant
smile flitted across her face. After that, from the mysterious depths
of that same purse, she unearthed a time-table and studied it
earnestly.
Then, sitting at her tiny desk, she nervously scrawled these words:
DEAR MOTHER: I have gone to New York to spend the night with
Lilla Browning--made up my mind suddenly, and as I knew you were
asleep, didn't want to bother you. Knew you couldn't possibly
have any objection, because you are so fond of Lil. Want to do
some shopping in the morning, and thought this would be the best
way to get an early start. Expect me home to-morrow afternoon on
the 5:45. Best regards to Mr. Thornton. Have Maggie press my red
dress; tell her to be careful not to scorch it. I found the
lace. By-by. NANCY.
"All's fair in love and war," she murmured, softly, rising from her
chair, and taking off stock and belt preparatory to a change of
costume. She smiled happily as she caught a glimpse of herself in the
mirror. Her eyes were starlike, her whole expression was perfectly
radiant.
"And you're responsible for it all, you little imp!" She shook her
finger at the fat, bright blue pitcher with flaming vermilion roses on
either side, as it stood on the mantelpiece in blissful
unconsciousness of its total depravity.
In less than twenty minutes Nancy was dressed for the street and on
her way to the railroad station. Ten minutes later two telegrams
flashed over the wires. One ran:
MRS. JONATHAN BROWNING, West Seventy-second Street, New York
City: Will spend to-night with you. Arrive about ten. Don't meet
me. NANCY.
The second one was more brief:
MR. PHILIP PEIRCE. Princeton Club, New York City: Dine with me
to-night at Scarlatti's at seven. ANNE WARREN.
Not until Nancy, after dismissing the hansom, found herself solitary
and alone on the sidewalk in front of the gayly lighted little
Bohemian restaurant, did she realize the foolishness, the craziness,
of her undertaking. In fact, she had no very clear idea of what that
undertaking was.
She looked after the retreating hansom, and a wretched,
half-frightened homesickness swept over her.
Suppose Phil had not received the telegram! Suppose, receiving it, he
had refused to come! She couldn't blame him, although he had once said
that, no matter what----
And then--in speaking of it afterward, Nancy always declared that it
was a positive physiological fact that at that moment her heart was
located somewhere in the roof of her mouth--some one caught both her
hands in his, some one's glad voice cried "Nance!" and in the
twinkling of an eye the homesickness and the memory of the weeks of
wretchedness had vanished, and all the misery of the past and all the
uncertainty of the future were swallowed up in the joy of the present.
"I'm so sorry to be late." Phil's voice was as remorseful as though he
had committed _all_ of the seven deadly sins. "I received your
telegram just as I was leaving the club to keep an engagement. Took me
ten minutes at the 'phone to break the engagement decently. Jove! but
I am glad to see you," he went on, enthusiastically.
"I hoped you would be, but of course I didn't know." It was not at all
what Nancy had intended to say, but her heart thumped so furiously
that she could scarcely think. She was mortally afraid that Phil would
hear it pounding away.
"You know I told you that I should _always_ be glad to see you,
Nance." Then, abruptly: "I hope you haven't caught cold standing here
waiting. It's not warm to-night. Shall we go inside now?" Nancy
nodded, and Phil led the way into Scarlatti's.
She took the whole room in at a glance, and breathed a sigh of
contentment so long, so deep, that it must have come from the tips of
her toes.
There was the same absurd little orchestra in their same absurd
"monkey clothes," the same motley crowd of half foreign, wholly happy
men and women, the same indescribable odor of un-American cooking--she
even rejoiced in _that_--and, best of all, on the long shelf that ran
around the four sides of the room were the same little, fat, bright
blue pitchers with great naming vermilion roses on either side. To be
sure, she knew that one was missing, but that was mere detail.
"Phil," Nancy whispered, eagerly, pulling his coat sleeve violently as
the waiter, with much bowing and scraping, started to lead the way in
another direction, "_our_ table is empty. Right over there--the tenth
from the door. We always had that one, you know, under the picture of
'The Girl with the Laughing Eyes.' I always remembered that it was the
tenth."
"Surely, we'll have the tenth, by all means." Phil tapped the waiter
on the back, and motioned in the direction of the empty table.
"I thought perhaps you'd rather not," he whispered to Nancy, as they
slipped into the old, familiar places. Evidently Phil had a memory for
numbers, too. So often it is only the woman who can _count ten_.
"Now," began Phil, as soon as the dinner had been ordered and other
preliminaries attended to, "tell me how on earth you and I happen to
be here together? Did you drop straight from the clouds? Or aren't you
here at all? Are you just a bit from a wildly improbable dream?"
"No," said Nancy, glibly, her equilibrium restored; "I'm spending the
night with Lilla Browning, and it suddenly occurred to me that it
would be fun for us to have dinner together." She paused a moment.
"Once more," she added, watching Phil's face closely. "And isn't it
just like that other time--the last time we were here together?" Phil
looked at her curiously. "The people, and the soft lights, and the
funny little musicians, and my meeting you----"
"Oh-h!" said Phil, quietly.
"And---and everything," finished Nancy, lamely.
"Don't you remember?" she went on. "The paper had sent you off on some
pesky assignment, and you were just a wee bit late. And we had a sort
of a tiff about it until I happened to look up at the picture over the
table, and 'The Girl with the Laughing Eyes' was looking straight down
at us? And then, somehow, I had to laugh, too, and we made up. Don't
you remember?"
Phil nodded. Did he not remember everything? Had he not _been_
remembering ever since? That was the pity of it all!
"We were pretty happy that night, weren't we, Phil?"
"Don't, Nance." Phil's bright eyes had a curious, unusual brightness
at that moment.
"And I made you--simply _made_ you, you didn't want to--get me one of
those foolish little pitchers." She pursued her theme relentlessly.
"The waiter was so funny!" Nancy laughed merrily as at some droll
recollection, "Phil, that was a whole year ago."
"Nonsense!" said Phil, indignantly. "It's ten years ago, if it's a
day! Before you grew to be a worldly-wise old lady, and before I had
become a cynical old man."
"You don't look very old, Phil."
"Well, I am; I'm as old as the hills. Do you know it has all been an
awful pity, Nance?"
"What?" she asked, very softly, smiling adorably.
"Oh, everything----" He stopped short, the smile had escaped him.
"Come," he said, abruptly, "let's talk about the weather,
the--the--what a terrible winter it has been, hasn't it? Did you have
lots of skating up in the country?"
"Yes, lots--about two months too much of it, and it has been the worst
winter I ever hope to live through; but really, Phil, I didn't come to
New York to talk about the weather." The laughter died out of Nancy's
blue eyes. "I--I think I came to New York to ask your advice about
something."
"My advice?" echoed Phil, wonderingly.
"Yes, I _think_ so. Phil, suppose there, was a girl whose father had
lost all his money and then had gone to work and died, and had left
her and her mother just this side of the poorhouse. And suppose she
and her mother had had to pinch and scrimp to keep their heads above
the water, until they were sick of the whole business. And suppose a
man with shoals of money--a fat, sort of elderly man, who wore diamond
rings, and said 'you was,' and did lots of other things you and I
don't like, yet was very kind and good--suppose this man wanted to
marry this girl. Now, what would you advise her to do, if her mother
were secretly crazy to have her marry him?"
"And she didn't care for anyone else?" Philip's tone was coldly
judicial.
"And she didn't care for anyone else." His coldness frightened the lie
through her unwilling lips, but she went white as she uttered it.
Philip eyed her narrowly.
"I can't see why you want _my_ advice," he said, dully.
Then, very suddenly: "Nancy, suppose there was a man who was rather
poor, as things go nowadays, and who had once been very fond of a girl
who had treated him pretty badly. And suppose there was a woman"--with
swift jealousy Nancy remembered the engagement Philip had broken in
order to dine with her that evening--"not a very young woman, who had
shoals of money, as you say, who rouged a little, and helped nature
along a little in several ways, and did a number of other things that
you and I don't exactly like, but who at heart was a very good
sort--would you advise this man to marry her?"
"And he didn't care for anyone else?" Nancy whispered.
"And he didn't care for anyone else," said Phil, steadily.
Nancy bit her tongue to keep from crying out. Oh, the mortification,
the humiliation, of it all! She would have given a week out of her
life to have been back home.
"Why, if he cared for no one else, I----" The words came with an
effort. "Who is she, Phil?"
"I'll tell you in a moment. Who is _he_, Nancy?" he asked, sternly.
"James Thornton--you've heard of him. Oh, what a pair of worldlings we
are!" She pulled herself together with a supreme effort, and, raising
her glass of red Hungarian wine to her lips, said lightly: "Here's to
my successor! May she forgive me for this one last evening!" Her hand
trembled, and some of the wine splashed on her white waist.
"It looks like a drop of blood." She shivered slightly. "Champagne
doesn't stain." Her mouth laughed, but her eyes were full of a dull
despair. "When we are married we shall both be drinking that! Do you
remember that foolish little song I used to sing, 'When we are
married'?" She tried to hum it, but failed miserably. "We shall sing
our songs with a difference, now. Oh, Boy, Boy, it has all been my
fault, hasn't it?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, tensely.
"Oh, everything," she said, wearily. "The worldliness and the
wretchedness, and now it is too late! 'Couldst thou not watch with
me?' Boy, I'm afraid I'm going to cry." Her lip quivered pitifully.
"Nance, do you _care_?"
"Care? Of course I care!" She threw her head back defiantly, and her
eyes filled with angry tears. "If I hadn't, I shouldn't be here
to-night. I--I'd have been married two months ago. God knows I wish I
had, before--before all this happened!"
"Then listen to me, Nance." Philip spoke very quietly, but his eyes
burned into her soul. "There isn't any other woman, there never has
been, there never could be. I love you, and love you only, with my
whole soul, my whole strength----"
"But you said----" began Nancy, in a weak little voice.
"Never mind what I _said_," he answered, almost roughly. "I'd sworn
I'd never trouble you again without some sign from you. Yet the
instant I saw you, out there on the sidewalk, it was all I could do to
keep from kneeling down and kissing your blessed little shoes. But I
wouldn't have done it for fifteen thousand different worlds. Suddenly,
when you were talking about that damnable man"--Phil ground his teeth
savagely--"and his 'shoals of money,' that other idea occurred to
me--a last resort, a final, forlorn hope that if you had a spark of
feeling left for me you might show it then, and I made it all up out
of whole cloth."
"Philip, you're a brute!" The tears were falling now, but the wraith
of a smile hovered about the corners of Nancy's mouth.
"I know I am. I'm despicable, mean, cowardly, unmanly----"
"Hateful, paltry, contemptible." Nancy helped out his collection of
adjectives, but, strange to relate, her smile deepened.
"And--happy!" finished Phil, triumphantly. "Nance"---the tone was
masterful--"you've _got_ to marry me now, right off, to-night. I'm
never going to let you get away from me again. I don't care for all
the James Thorntons and all the filthy money in the world. Will you,
Little Girl?" The masterful tone gave place to one of pleading
tenderness. "Will you give it all up for the man who has never stopped
loving you and worshiping you for one single instant since the blessed
day when you first came into his life?"
"Oh, Phil, Phil, you wicked, contemptible old darling, if you hadn't
asked me to pretty soon, I--I'd have asked you. I've tried to get
along without you, and I just simply _can't_!"
"Nance, you're an angel!" cried Phil, rapturously. He leaned across
the table, with a fine disregard of appearances, and kissed Nancy's
hands. But nobody noticed it at all--except the waiter at a respectful
distance, secretly jubilant in the expectation of an unusually large
tip, and he didn't count. That is the beauty of those out-of-the-way
Bohemian restaurants--people are so absorbed in their own love-making
that they never have time to watch anyone else's.
"You're a perfect angel!" Phil declared again, fervently.
"I know I am; and I'm so happy"--Nancy's swift transition from grave
to gay was always one of her greatest charms--"that I'm afraid if I
don't get out of here pretty soon, they'll have to call in the police,
for there's no telling what I may do! I feel like dancing a jig on top
of this table!"
"I dare you," laughed Phil, happily.
"Well, it's only on your account that I don't," she said, airily.
"Even though you are a liar, you look so respectable! And, oh, Phil,"
she went on, irrelevantly, "I have so much to tell you. I'll tell you
all about everything--a certain fat blue pitcher I found the other day
and that really brought me here to New York, about Mr. James Thornton
and his artificial moonlight, and everything else--on our way to the
minister's. But I say, Phil"--here the Charles Warren, matter-of-fact
strain asserted itself--"if we are going to be married to-night, we
must hurry, for it's after nine now, and I've got to be at Lilla's by
ten o'clock. I wouldn't be late for anything. How surprised she'll be
when Mr. and Mrs. Philip Peirce sail in!" She looked up suddenly at
the picture over the table. "Boy," she said, very tenderly, "don't you
think 'The Girl with the Laughing Eyes' looks as though she approved?"
But Phil had no eyes save for the shining eyes across the table, so
his answer cannot be described.
* * * * *
"Phil," said Nancy, about a week later--they had just finished
installing Phil's few Lares and Penates in their new quarters--"isn't
this just the coziest little nook you've ever seen?"
"Absolutely," said Phil, with conviction.
"I wish mother could see how----" The smile was a bit wistful. "Phil,
I really think we ought to go up to see mother. Of course she's
furious--her not answering our telegram is proof positive of that. I'm
scared to death at the thought of seeing her. She can look you through
and through so, when she disapproves! I _do_ think she might have
written. We haven't done anything so perfectly dreadful. You don't
suppose she is sick, do you?" she asked, anxiously.
"Why, no, Little Girl," said Phil, soothingly; "we'd have heard in
some way if there had been anything of that sort."
"I think I'm getting nervous about her. Will you go up with me to-day,
dear?"
"Why, certainly, Nance; whenever you want to go, just say the word.
I'm having a holiday now!" Phil laughed like a happy schoolboy.
"All right, then, we'll go to-day. And please be on your very bestest
behavior, Philly-Boy."
"Don't worry. I'll be the dutiful son to the queen's taste."
"And be sure," adjured Nancy, solemnly, "to tell mother you're really
making quite a lot of money now, that we're not starving, and that I'm
going to have some new clothes the first of next month."
* * * * *
Late that afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Peirce reached the Warren
house. Three pulls at the bell brought no response, and all rattlings
and shakings of the doorknob were without result. The door was as
tightly closed as though it never expected to be opened again till the
crack o' doom.
At the back of the house the same conditions existed. Not a door, not
a window, would yield.
Nancy was plainly vexed. "The Prodigal Son had a much better time than
this when _he_ came home," she complained, ruefully.
She and Phil walked around to the front of the house again, and down
the nasturtium-bordered path that led from the porch to the street.
There was absolutely no sign of life anywhere.
Suddenly, Nancy heard the "touf-touf" of an automobile, and down the
road at a rapid pace came Mr. James Thornton's gorgeous machine, the
chauffeur its sole occupant.
"Henry," she said, walking to the edge of the sidewalk, "can you tell
me where Mrs. Warren is?"
"No, miss, I cannot." He drew himself up stiffly. Mrs. Warren's
daughter was evidently in his bad books.
"Is Mr. Thornton at home?" she asked, timidly.
"No, miss, he is not." His lips clicked. Then, with sudden
condescension, and head held very high, eyes looking straight ahead,
he added: "Mr. Thornton is away on his wedding trip."
"His _what_?" gasped Nancy, weakly.
"Him and Mrs. Warren was married yesterday," he said, proudly. "She's
a fine, fine lady!" And, touching the visor of his cap, he started the
machine down the street.
Nancy leaned against a tree, too stunned for words. Then, as the humor
of the whole situation flashed over her, she began to laugh, and
laughed until, for lack of breath, she couldn't laugh any longer.
"Why, it's--the funniest thing--I've ever heard of, Phil!" she gasped.
"Well, it keeps the 'shoals of money' in the family!" said Phil,
philosophically, and then he howled.
"Yes," Nancy mused, still panting for breath, "mother once said that
if I let him slip through my fingers some one else would snap him up
before you could say 'Jack Robinson." Her eyes danced. "I wonder if
anyone said 'Jack Robinson'?"
"No, darling, there wasn't time. But, at any rate, we've made our
wedding call on our parents," said Phil, gayly, "and I think we might
as well go back to 'little old New York'!"
Then, hand in hand, like two gladsome children, Mr. and Mrs. Philip
Peirce retraced their steps toward the station.