Tears and lamentations made up the story of the next few days.
"When's the washing coming home? I've cried out all my handkerchiefs,
and I get scolded if I sniff!" grumbled red-eyed Jill on the evening of
the third day after Miles' departure; and it appeared that most members
of the family found themselves in the same predicament, for the first
break in the family circle is a painful experience, especially when its
members are as devoted as were the Trevors.
It was a relief to all to watch the progress of the General's wooing,
and to have his genial presence among them. Now that the evenings were
beginning to be really summer-like, he and Miss Beveridge would adjourn
to the Square Gardens after dinner, and sit on a bench not far removed
from that historic spot where he had fallen a victim to the twins' love
of adventure. As a rule, so soon as dusk approached, Miss Beveridge
would take an omnibus and return to her "Home," while the General would
step stiffly into a cab and return to his flat, where the faithful
Johnson was no doubt wondering what had happened to induce such young
habits in his once stay-at-home master. One night, however, instead of
separating as usual, they returned to Number 1, and the first glance at
their faces showed that the _denouement_ had been reached. The General
was red, Miss Beveridge was white; he was voluble with excitement, she
was too excited to speak. Mrs Trevor read the signs of the times, and
thoughtfully led the way to the drawing-room, so that the formal
announcement of the engagement could be made away from the somewhat
embarrassing scrutiny of the young people.
"Alice has promised to let me take care of her! Congratulate me, my
dear madam. I am the happiest man in the world!" cried the excited
Irishman. "We have wasted enough time, but we are not going to waste
any more. `Haste to the wedding!'--that's our motto. What? Alice
talks about clothes. Fiddlesticks, I tell her! We can buy the finest
dress in London in half an hour's time, or my name's not Terence Digby.
Then she talks about pupils. Pack of rubbish, I tell her! There are
fifty women in London wanting to give lessons, for every pupil who wants
to learn. Let someone else hear the `nid, nid, nodding' for a change!"
(This last was a dark reference to the Scotch air with which poor Pam
had been wrestling for weeks past.) "`A June wedding!' Always said I'd
be married in June if I had the chance, and it's a poor thing if I can't
have my way after waiting twenty years. Don't like July--nasty,
treacherous month! Best way to spend it is a honeymoon in the country.
What? You'll tell the boys and girls, eh? Tell them after we've gone.
Too bashful to stand the racket to-night! Besides, there's Johnson to
face. Bit of a pill to face Johnson. What? Don't know what he'll say
to a mistress, but it will be all right when he sees Alice. Alice will
get over him fast enough!"
It was charming to see the look of proud admiration which he cast at his
_fiancee_; charming to see her changed and softened mien; charming to
see the smile of complete and happy confidence which was exchanged
between the two. For the first time for many days the weight of
depression lifted from Mrs Trevor's heart, and she forgot Miles'
departure in rejoicing in their joy. Her face had its old bright look
as she re-entered the study to tell the news to her children, who, truth
to tell, were not too sympathetic in their reception.
The three elders were, of course, more or less prepared for the
announcement, but Pam gasped in shocked surprise.
"_Married_!" she cried shrilly. "But they are so old! What's the good
of being married, and having all the bother for nothing? They'll be
dead so soon!"
"It's an awful fag. It won't be half so much sport going to tea,"
commented Jill with outspoken selfishness, while Jack shrugged his
shoulders and grimaced disapproval.
"Got everything he wants--rattling good food, all his relics and things
around him, and Johnson to save all bother. Can't think why he couldn't
be satisfied!"
Only Betty was silent, her heart warming with a tender sympathy over the
story of an old and loyal love. Miss Beveridge was quite, quite old,
over forty, and her hair was grey, yet the General called her a girl,
and thought her beautiful still. Somehow the thought had a direct
personal comfort. Other people might feel the same; and thirty--thirty
was comparatively young!
The next day the General was taken in state to call upon Nan Vanburgh,
who had heard from Betty which way the wind was blowing, but had, of
course, been obliged to preserve an unconscious demeanour until the
engagement was a _fait accompli_.
"Under Providence, madam, I am indebted to you for this happiness!"
cried the General, bowing over her hand in his courtly old-world
fashion; and Nan looked at him with what her friends called "the shiny
look" in her eyes, and said, in the honest, big-girl fashion which she
never seemed to outgrow--
"And I am so happy that you are happy that I could just jump for joy!
It's a perfectly beautiful ending to my Saturday afternoons. I'm only a
little bit jealous that Mrs Trevor has had you to herself all this
time. Now it's my turn! What about the wedding? Where is it to take
place? Are you perhaps going to some relation's house?"
"No. Neither of us owns anyone very near and dear, so we prefer to stay
quietly in town."
"Then it must certainly be from here! You couldn't dream of being
married from the Home, Miss Beveridge! Come to me a few days before,
and I'll be your tire-woman, and help to get everything ready, and you
shall have a nice breakfast and invite all your friends."
But here the General interfered.
"No, no! No breakfast!" he cried. "None the less grateful to you,
madam, but fuss and speechifying don't come naturally to a man of my
age. I want to get my wife to myself as soon as possible, so we'll make
a bolt of it from the church door. Capital plan, though, to stay with
you for a bit before. What? You'd like that, Alice, wouldn't you?
Need someone to fix your fal-lals. What? Another debt of gratitude,
madam, which we will hope to repay, God willing, when we settle down in
our new home."
Miss Beveridge gratefully accepted Nan's invitation, but when she went a
step further and offered to assist in the choice of the wedding-dress,
it appeared that the bridegroom had decided views of his own on the
subject, and had already made his selection.
"She must wear blue! Says it ought to be grey at her age! Her age,
indeed, as if she were an elderly woman! She was wearing blue when I
saw her first, and she's going to be married in blue, or I'll know the
reason why! Blue dress, and a hat with blue feathers; and those Trevor
lassies shall be bridesmaids. Must have bridesmaids, however quiet it
is. What? Besides, I owe them something, and it will be an excuse to
give them their kit--white muslin and blue ribbons. That's how young
girls used to dress when I was a lad, and I've never seen anything to
touch it. There will be no trouble about the dresses, madam. I've
decided all that. You just tell me the name of a dressmaker--a tip-top
dressmaker, mind you--and we'll send in the order at once."
The bride-elect turned to her friend with a somewhat horrified
expression, but Nan flashed a reassuring smile, and adroitly turned the
subject in another direction.
"Don't worry!" she whispered, the first time that there was an
opportunity for a quiet word. "The General shall have his way, and
everything shall be charming into the bargain. I know of a dressmaker
who could make sackcloth elegant. She will manufacture even the hat
with blue feathers, so that you will never have had anything so becoming
in your life. Fortunately the General does not confine you to one shade
of blue. And the muslins and blue ribbons will be wonderful filmy
creations, as different from the Early Victorian stiffnesses as anything
you can possibly imagine. How Betty will enjoy herself!"
Betty did! In all the course of her eighteen years, it was the first
occasion on which she had been provided with an outfit with no regard to
money, but simply to what would be prettiest and most becoming. The
dress, the hat, the shoes, the gloves, the basket of pale-hued roses,
were all perfect of their kind, and, to crown all, on the morning of the
wedding there arrived two small morocco boxes, which, being opened,
displayed two miniature gold watches, encircled with turquoise, and
provided with blue enamel bows, by which they could be attached to the
dress. Jill's whoops of delight might have been heard half-way across
the Square. There seemed nothing left to wish for in life, now that the
long-dreamed-of "real gold" watch was actually in her grasp.
And so Terence Digby took Alice Beveridge to wife, for better for worse,
for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death did them
part; and more than one spectator prayed fervently that the hour of
separation should be long delayed, so that the reunited lovers might
enjoy a peaceful golden summer.
They drove away from the church door, and when the bride thrust her
blue-feathered toque out of the window to smile a radiant farewell, Nan
Vanburgh nodded her pretty head at Betty, and cried triumphantly--
"Now behold for yourself what miracles love and home and appreciation
can work! That was Miss Beveridge once on a time, and you called her a
frump and a fright, but the _real_ woman was that charming Mrs Digby,
and the magician's wand has brought her to life?"