WHAT THE DAY HELD
"Dear Dorothea, again I stand at the crossroads, a saddened soul, and
wiser--"
But Sidney could get no further than that. There was so much to tell
Dorothea that she did not know how to begin. For those terrible hours
on the _Arabella_ she had no words; she shrank from trying to depict
Lavender's splendid courage for his white face as she had seen it in
the precious five minutes still haunted her. Even the diamonds lost
their lustre beside Trude's ultimatum that they must go home.
Go home so ingloriously!
It was two hours since Dugald had led Trude away down the lane and
Sidney's apprehension had mounted as the time had passed. She was
feeling very young and very forgotten; Miss Letty who had remained at
the cottage to "be handy" and to answer the stream of inquiries that
came to the door, had warned her to "keep quiet" as there had been
enough excitement for one day and she had been too rebuffed to even
confide to Miss Letty that Mr. Dugald was someone her sister had known
a few years before and that they had gone away without her.
Miss Letty was baking vigorously, her great hands moving deftly among
the cupboards, her straight back eloquently expressive of her mood. "I
guess folks'll have a different opinion of Lavender Green _now_," she
muttered and as Sidney was the only person within hearing she accepted
the remark as addressed to her and agreed. Miss Letty went on, shaking
the flour-sifter as though she wished she were shaking someone in
particular: "I guess folks like that Mrs. Allan will have a different
opinion of Cape Cod. She came here and asked to see Lavender and I took
her in and waited outside the door--"
"Oh, what did she say?" begged Sidney.
"She offered him money! Well, I thought the boy'd have a relapse on the
spot. And I walked in and took her by the arm and led her out and I
said to her: 'Madam, we on Cape Cod do not sell our bravery--we _give_
it!' I said just that. And she withered like a limp leaf. She sort of
clung to me and cried like a baby. Yes, she'll know now what sort o'
breed we Cape Coders are."
Even that Sidney could not record in Dorothea.
She began to pack because it was the occupation best suited to her mood
and because from the window of her room she could see Trude and Mr.
Dugald the moment they turned the corner by Mart's house. She spread
her scant belongings over the bed and set the old satchel on the
rush-bottomed chair. She was in the act of folding the precious cherry
crêpe de chine when she spied approaching figures--Trude and Mr.
Dugald, walking slowly. Her heart gave a quick bound only to grow cold
at the sight of Trude's chin which was set stubbornly in a way that
Sidney well knew! Nor did Mr. Dugald appear the happy lover; he walked
with bent face and occasionally kicked at the flowers that edged the
lane.
Trude sought Sidney directly and nodded with approval when she saw the
packing. She sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Sid," she began in a queer voice that Sidney had never heard before.
"I suppose I ought to tell you how I happened to know--Dugald Allan."
Trude spoke so slowly and with such difficulty that Sidney hastened to
make it easier for her.
"I do know. You met him at the Whites three winters ago and he wrote
something. I overheard you and Issy talking once but I didn't hear his
name and I saw you crying over a letter--"
Trude laughed shakily.
"Sidney, you're simply the limit! Yes, I met him there that first
winter I went to visit Aunt Edith. His father and Mr. White are old
friends and he was staying at Aunt Edith's while he painted a portrait
of one of Aunt Edith's friends. I was just a silly, countrified girl
and--I didn't understand lots of things and thought--well, there's no
use, now going into all that. I lost my head and let myself think
things that weren't so--"
Sidney interrupted, impatiently. "Trude, you talk to me as though I was
a baby and couldn't hear the truth. I guess I know; you fell in love
with Mr. Dugald and you thought he was in love with you--"
"Thank you, Sid. Yes, I _had_ forgotten your extreme age. I fell in
love with--him. I am not ashamed to admit it. I had never known anyone
like him before. And I thought--yes, that--There was another girl
there, Sylvia Thorn, from Atlanta. She was very pretty and she and
Dugald were great pals and one day Aunt Edith told me she hoped they
would marry, that it would be a very nice match for Dugald, a relief to
his family, that he needed that type of girl to cure him of his queer
ways. I remember just what she said. 'You understand, my dear, _you_
have lived with genius yourself.' It wasn't exactly _what_ she said, it
was the way she said it, as though she thought I would know because _I_
lived entirely out of Dugald Allan's class. It hurt cruelly. It made me
sensitive and made me see little things between Dugald--and Sylvia. And
it made me see myself as someone quite unworthy of--Dugald. I found
some pretext to go home. I thought by running away from it all I could
forget. Dugald wrote a few times--then that letter telling me that he
was going on a six months' painting cruise in the South Seas with
Sylvia Thorn and her father and mother and wanted to run up to
Middletown to tell me something before he went. I wrote back that he
must not come that I--could not--see him. That's all."
Sidney was listening with clasped hands, a color on her cheeks that
matched Trude's, stars in her eyes. With magic swiftness her romantic
soul was piecing together a beautiful picture.
"Why, that _can't_ be all! How could you have written to him like that!
And he wasn't in love with that Sylvia, was he?"
Trude's eyes softened. "N--no. I know now. He told me--today. Sylvia
was engaged at the time to his best friend, but they wanted it kept
secret for awhile. Dugald thought I knew."
"Then--then--" cried Sidney. But, somehow, she could not ask Trude what
had happened during the afternoon, something new in Trude's dear eyes
plainly warned her that just now all that was too much her own to be
shared with anyone.
Instead she threw her arms around Trude and hugged her violently.
"Oh, Trude, how I love you! And it's so good to be with you. Out
there--on the boat--I kept thinking of you and how safe I always feel
with you--how I _need_ you! I don't ever want to feel grown-up again
and independent, I don't care _how_ old I am--"
Trude kissed the tousled head. "You've said just what I wanted to hear,
dear," she answered softly. "And that you--need me!"
Summoning them to supper, Miss Letty stood with arms akimbo and with a
satisfied eye surveyed the good things she had prepared. That Mr.
Dugald was at the hotel starting his aunt and cousin homeward from
Provincetown, was Miss Letty's one regret. Sidney sniffed rapturously
at everything, begging that Trude sit next to her. The old kitchen
gleamed golden in the fading sunlight, a fragrance of flowers and
sea-air and pines came on the breeze that wafted in through the
wide-opened doors and windows. Aunt Achsa, her smiling self again,
fluttered around in anxious concern as to Trude's welfare. A great
happiness held the little group. Though Lavender's chair was empty
Lavender was better--Lavender would get well!
After supper, while they still lingered over the empty plates, the
voices of men came from the lane.
"More folks askin' after Lav," declared Miss Letty with pride.
Cap'n Davies himself halted before the door and nodded to the women
inside. Back of him stood the men Sidney had met that morning at
Rockman's and back of them Mr. Dugald, smiling, and back of him many
others, curious and excited. What _ever_ had happened!
Cap'n Davies wore his most important air.
"I'm here to see one Lavender Green and one Sidney Romley."
"Phin Davies, you know Lav Green's flat on his back," retorted Miss
Letty brusquely but smiling. It seemed to Sidney, standing close to
Trude, that everyone was smiling.
Mr. Dugald pushed into the room.
"Doctor Blackwell says that it won't hurt Lav for me to carry him in!"
And without another word he rushed off to Lav's room and returned
almost instantly with the boy in his arms. He put him carefully in Aunt
Achsa's rocker and then stood close to him.
Cap'n Phin cleared his throat an extra number of times. Having done
this to his satisfaction he drew a blue slip of paper from a leather
pocketbook and held it high.
"In the name of Truro and Wellfleet counties I take great pleasure in
presenting to Lavender Green and Sidney Romley this reward for the
capture of--"
He never did finish his speech. His voice was drowned in loud hurrahs
that echoed and reechoed down the lane and brought Gran'ma Calkins and
Mart and Tillie Higgins in a great hurry to Achsa Green's.
Sidney's face flamed.
"Oh, _I_ don't want it!" she cried. "It's Lav's. Honestly. He really
found out about the diamonds. I--I just--"
Everyone looked at Lavender, whose face had gone even whiter. Against
it his eyes shone big and black. He seemed to straighten in the old
chair and his poor shoulders took on a fine dignity.
"_I_--didn't--want--any--money," he answered in a voice so weak that it
was scarcely anything more than a whisper.
But here the practical Miss Letty, who had taught Mrs. Allan her lesson
on Cape Cod folks, took charge of matters.
"Well, you can do a whole lot with money, Lav Green. As long as the two
counties decided it was worth that much to run down these smugglers I
reckon you've earned it. And I want you men to go away from here and
spread the word over the whole of Cape Cod that in that crooked body of
Lav Green's is a heart that's as brave as the bravest and ambition,
too. Folks have gotten to think he's a loafer because he wouldn't go to
school, but they'll come to know he isn't and you can tell them Letty
Vine knows for she's taught him herself and he knows as much and more
than any boy his age! And now--well, you _watch_ Lav Green! That's all
I can say. Some day you men will hear about him and remember this day
and be awful proud!"
Miss Vine had to stop to swallow something in her throat. Cap'n Phin
forgot entirely the nice phrases he had practiced for the occasion. His
men shuffled slowly out of the room, some of them coughing and others
covertly wiping their eyes.
Mr. Dugald and Doctor Blackwell and Cap'n Phin and Martie and Gran'ma
Calkins remained. Mart and Sidney were excitedly examining the little
slip of paper that meant five thousand whole dollars, not with any
coveting, for Mart was as vehement as Sidney in disclaiming any share
in the reward. It was Lav's. But for Lav's risking everything to swim
to shore no one might have known anything about Jed Starrow's
connection with the persistent smuggling.
"Oh, where _is_ Jed Starrow?" Sidney suddenly asked and Cap'n Phin told
her Jed Starrow was in jail.
"It'll be a lesson to him and others like him," he continued, sternly.
"Betrayin' the honor of the Cape! And him born and brought up on it!"
Sidney felt a moment's regret that _anyone_ had to be in jail. Then she
forgot it in everyone's interest as to what Lavender would do with so
much money. They pressed him on every side, heedless of Doctor
Blackwell's warning that the boy should not be unduly excited.
Lav's eyes found Aunt Achsa's smiling face.
"Get Aunt Achsa an oil stove," he answered promptly. "And--and lots of
things. And books. And--" his eyes kindled. But he broke off abruptly.
He was going to say that now he could go to school in one of the big
cities where folks did not notice other folks who were "different." But
he did not say it, he did not want to spoil Aunt Achsa's joy.
Sidney understood and, reaching out, squeezed one of Lavender's hands.
Doctor Blackwell ordered his patient back to bed. Martie took Gran'ma
Calkins home. With much handshaking Cap'n Phin took his leave. Miss
Letty and Trude and Sidney briskly cleared away the dishes.
"I feel as though I had lived ten years since I heard those men
pounding on Steve Blackwell's door," declared Miss Letty, piling the
plates with a clatter.
"Oh, ten! A _hundred_! I didn't know anyone _could_ live so fast all at
one time!" agreed Sidney solemnly. "Sometimes I think I'm just dreaming
and will wake up and find that nothing's happened. I won't mind going
home now for I'll have so much to think about!"
"Going home?" gasped Aunt Achsa. "Why--why--"
Dugald Allan, coming from Lavender's room, interrupted them.
"I beg to report that your millionaire nephew is resting quietly and is
in fine shape." Sidney noticed with a little glow of feeling how
quickly Mr. Dugald's eyes sought Trude's. And she thought Trude cruel
to look away!
Miss Vine persuaded Aunt Achsa to go to bed and then said good-night
herself. Her "ten years" had left her fatigued. Dugald Allan walked as
far as the lane with her then came back, remembering suddenly that he
was carrying two letters in his pocket.
"In the excitement I nearly forgot them," he apologized. He drew them
out. Both were for Trude and had been forwarded by special delivery
from Long Island. One was from Vick and one from Issy.
"Oh, open them quickly," begged Sidney.
Trude's hand trembled as she held Issy's envelope. "I'm--almost afraid
to. I _know_ it's silly--but so much has happened today that--I don't
think--I could bear--anything more!"