MORE REVELATIONS.
When Harry Trewman reached his room he dropped into a chair and a very
dismal frame of mind, which his face reflected, for when his sister
looked in upon him a few minutes later she said:
"Why, brother! What is the matter with you? From your melancholy
appearance one would suppose you hadn't just reached Old Point and its
chief attraction."
"Attraction, indeed," moaned Harry. "I suspect I am a fool, for it
never before occurred to me that a young woman whom I think the sum
total of everything good and charming, might appear equally attractive
to other men. Did you see the crowd about her?--the uniforms and
buttons?--and how she seemed to be enjoying herself? Still, she has the
right to do entirely as she likes; I've no claim upon her."
"My dear Harry," said Kate tenderly, as she seated herself on the arm
of Harry's easy chair, "don't be foolish. Do you suppose that a girl is
going to lose interest in everything and everybody in the world because
she likes a certain young man, or because a certain young man likes
her?"
"No. But she seemed to be enjoying herself so hugely. I never saw her
so radiant."
"But why shouldn't she have enjoyed herself? I'm sure that I'd have
done the same had I been in her place. I envy her the chance of talking
with a lot of clever men. Do you think I would refuse it even if I were
deeply in love with some one?"
"No, I suppose not; but that would be different."
"How?"
"Oh, you're a very decided young woman, with opinions of your own,
while----"
"Every woman should be as you say I am if she would have men respect
her. But, Harry, what fine fellows those soldiers are! They look as
if they had minds of their own, and if there's anything that a woman
specially likes in a man, it is that."
"Umph! I suppose you mean that young men who aren't soldiers haven't
minds of their own--eh?"
"Harry, I think your own mind needs additional strength at once, which
it may get from sleep. Go to bed. Good night. Sleep well."
Kate herself remained awake a long time, thinking about her brother's
prospects, for she had been half in love several times, and been
rescued by the discovery that some other man who seemed to admire
her was more interesting than the man she thought herself specially
fond of. She loved her brother dearly, but Harry was still young and
boyish--none too much so, to be sure, for Fenie Wardlow, but how much
more interesting those officers were! Her knowledge of them had been
obtained during the several minutes in which she had sat at one end of
the great parlor while Harry had been registering their names at the
office and arranging for rooms, but she was a young woman who reached
conclusions rapidly.
Like most other people who lie awake late to think, Kate awoke early.
She peeped through the window blinds, inhaled the fresh air, and wished
herself out of doors. Dressing quickly she went upon the verandah. The
sky was clear, the air balmy, and the surf rippling brilliantly and
murmurously on the beach. Kate noted all this and keenly enjoyed it.
Then she chanced to see, on the higher and drier sands, almost at her
feet, a large straw hat under which was a small frock, two little hands
and a shovel. The little figure's back was toward her, but the figure's
voice was high in air, and it was singing:
Half a dozen dolls;
Half a dozen dolls;
Half a dozen,
Half a dozen,
Half a dozen dolls.
"'Tis Trixy Highwood!" exclaimed Kate to herself, and she hastily
descended to the beach and Trixy.
"Oh, Miss Trewman," shouted Trixy when she saw Kate, "don't you like to
dig wells? It's awful fun. I've got this one nearly deep enough for the
water to come in; as soon as it's done I'll lend you my shovel and you
can dig one. Whoever digs the best one any day gets a five-cent piece
from the Admiral--he comes around and looks at 'em ev'ry day. I won't
mind if yours is better than mine and gets the prize."
Kate had no intention to take part in competitive well-digging, but she
was glad to do anything that would give her sufficient excuse to be
with Trixy a little while; so as there was not another person in sight
except one of the hotel watchmen, she stretched herself upon the warm,
dry sand, took Trixy's shovel, and began to dig.
"I'm so glad you came down," said Trixy. "Ev'rybody here sleeps so
late, that it's lonesome on the beach in the mornin'. The sunrise gun
always wakes me, and when I dress, mamma lets me out of the room if I
promise to go back and wake her at 8 o'clock. It's fun to run up and
down on the beach, and dig wells, and find pretty stones."
"Is it always so quiet as this in the morning?" Kate asked.
"Yes, indeed; there's scarcely anybody here, even as late as mamma
comes down. Lots of folks don't eat breakfast until noon-time; how do
you s'pose they manage to wait? Say; why didn't you make your brother
come down and dig a well? Mamma says he looks as if he needed exercise."
"H'm! Really I hadn't thought of it."
"He does need exercise, though, don't he? But of course he does, if
mamma says so. Besides, he looks real white. All the men here look
kinder red and brown, 'specially the officers."
"You seem very observant of men, little girl--and of officers."
"Of course I am, 'cause I like 'em. Mamma likes 'em, too, and so does
Aunt Fee, I guess, 'cause they're all the time talkin' to her, and
walkin' on the piazza and the beach with her."
"They? Then there are more than one?"
"Gracious, yes! There's about forty here, Lieutenant Jermyn says."
"Lieutenant Jermyn? Who is he?"
"He's the first one I met, and he used to know mamma very well, and
he's ever so nice to me, and he don't seem to know how to keep away
from Aunt Fee--so I heard a lady say."
"Indeed." Kate continued digging a moment or two longer, for she wanted
to think. Besides, the warm sea air was working its witchery with her,
and disinclining her to effort. The sand was clean, she and Trixy were
still the only occupants of the beach, so Kate soon sank entirely upon
the warm white couch which old Ocean had provided for those who chose
to recline upon it.
The sun was bright and she was without veil or parasol, but she could
trust her complexion to itself for a few moments. There were so few
times and places for a young woman out of doors! How delightful it
would be, she thought, if somewhere near New York there was a great,
clean, safe beach to lounge upon! The mere act of breathing seemed a
positive pleasure. The sunlight, through her closed eyelids, became a
delightful immensity of rosy pink, the ripple of the wavelets upon the
beach was ideal music, the----
"Hello!"
It was Trixy who spoke, from not three feet away, but Kate pretended
not to hear; she preferred the companionship of her own thoughts,
although everything definite had escaped from them. The next sound she
heard caused her to rise hastily on one elbow, for it seemed that there
was a noise in the sand unlike that made by Trixy's shovel.
"Hello, Mr. Jermyn. Don't you know Miss Trewman? She's one of mamma's
and Aunt Fee's friends."
"Don't arise, please," said Jermyn with a bow while Kate looked
uncomfortable. "I'm glad to see that Trixy isn't the only visitor who
has learned which is the most delightful hour of the day down here."
Kate persisted in arising, and Jermyn made haste to bring her a chair;
then he talked well-digging in a matter-of-fact way with Trixy, and
smiled, with Kate, at some of the child's replies, and so succeeded
quickly in dispelling Kate's sense of embarrassment. Still more, wasn't
he the very officer Kate had most noticed during her several minutes'
survey the night before?
"You ought to like him lots, Miss Trewman," said Trixy suddenly, with
the air of having recalled something from the limbo of forgetfulness,
"'cause he likes Aunt Fee lots."
"And Aunt Fee's sister, too," added Jermyn, without change of
countenance. "I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Highwood frequently,
some years ago, when my battery was stationed at New York."
"How pleasant," said Kate, although she did not mean it. Again she
wondered whether there might not have been deep purpose in that Florida
trip which seemed to have ended at Fort Monroe. Something ought to be
done, and at once, if it were not already too late. What should it be?
Thinking was not easy, under the circumstances, for Jermyn was talking
to her--not persistently, or as a man who was trying to flirt; and she
liked his looks so much that she did not want to appear inattentive,
although, really, didn't it seem utterly dreadful to be chatting before
seven in the morning with a man who had been introduced only by a
little girl?
As they talked, Kate resolved upon a plan of action. Fenie should
become her sister-in-law if she, Kate, could manage it. Dear Harry
should not be disappointed; Fenie was too young to marry a man like
Lieutenant Jermyn. If Jermyn's attention could by any possibility be
diverted from Fenie, she, Kate, would divert it; the result might be
a heartache for herself, for she did most heartily admire such men.
Still, she would endure such a pain, for her dear brother's sake, and
if, after all, the affair didn't end in a heartache, why----
Just here she blushed, although Jermyn couldn't imagine why, for at
that very instant he was explaining, at Kate's request, why the fort on
the Rip-Raps, a couple of miles away, had not been completed, and he
could not imagine what there was in the subject, or in his description,
to bring a blush to any cheek, yet he said to himself that the blush
was very becoming, and that Miss Trewman was quite an interesting young
woman.
The chat continued until Trixy, who had once in ten minutes asked
Jermyn the time, announced that she must go to wake her mother for
breakfast. This reminded Kate that she had a brother to rouse, so she
and the child went into the house.
Half an hour later, while Trif and Fenie and Trixy with Jermyn, whom
they had invited to breakfast with them, were chatting over their
morning meal the head waiter brought Harry and Kate to the same table.
There was no help for it, although Harry looked as if he wished there
were; a head waiter is autocrat of his domain. As to the others, Trif
exclaimed:
"How delightful!" Fenie smiled pleasantly, although with some
embarrassment, while Trixy shouted:
"Hooray!"
Kate bravely began operations at once. Fortune, in the guise of the
waiter, had placed her beside Jermyn and Harry beside Fenie, so, Kate
argued, if she were to monopolize the officer, Harry and Fenie would
be obliged to talk to each other, and she was old enough to know that
compulsory conversation has frequently broken the thickest of social
ice.
The plan worked finely. Harry and Fenie were obliged to talk to each
other, for no one else spoke to either, and as each was determined
that the other shouldn't think anything unusual the matter, each
quickly became voluble and merry. Bless the transparency of youthful
hypocrisy. Neither of those two young people imagined that any one was
noticing them, yet Kate's heart was dancing with joy as she saw them
frankly exchange tender looks, and Trif's mind lost a great weight so
rapidly that she felt several years younger within half an hour, and
she was made still happier when, as the entire party strolled toward
the fort to see "guard mount," Jermyn had occasion to whisper to her:
"Mr. Trewman is a remarkably fortunate young man--bless him."
Guard mounting in the army is quite as ceremonious a matter as parade,
and Jermyn had to answer many questions which Kate put in rapid
succession, while Fenie, who had seen guard mount several times,
explained everything to Harry. Trixy seemed interested only in the
movements of a dog, which persisted in following every movement of the
post band. Her mother gazed at her in adoration. How entirely the dear
child seemed absorbed in whatever interested her--how oblivious to
everything else!
When the ceremony ended, and the little crowd under the live-oak trees
broke up, Fenie and Harry, Kate and Jermyn, began to move slowly toward
the hotel, while Trif and Trixy walked behind them. Suddenly, while no
one else was talking, Trixy remarked:
"Mamma, dear; wouldn't it be nice if they all got married, and----"
"Sh--h--!"
Kate suddenly asked Jermyn why it was that so large a fort had only a
single flag-staff, and Harry hastened to give Fenie the details of a
lumber contract concerning which he had come South, and Fenie listened
as intently as if she knew lumber from timber, or any other commodity.