"Miss Di? Why," said Cornish, "she's a little kid. And," he added,
"she's a little liar."
"But I'm going on thirty-four."
"So am I!"
"Isn't there somebody--"
"Look here. Do you like me?"
"Oh, yes!"
"Well enough--"
"It's you I was thinking of," said Lulu. "I'd be all right."
"Then!" Cornish cried, and he kissed her.
* * * * *
"And now," said Dwight, "nobody must mind if I hurry a little wee bit.
I've got something on."
He and Ina and Monona were at dinner. Mrs. Bett was in her room. Di was
not there.
"Anything about Lulu?" Ina asked.
"Lulu?" Dwight stared. "Why should I have anything to do about Lulu?"
"Well, but, Dwight--we've got to do something."
"As I told you this morning," he observed, "we shall do nothing. Your
sister is of age--I don't know about the sound mind, but she is
certainly of age. If she chooses to go away, she is free to go where she
will."
"Yes, but, Dwight, where has she gone? Where could she go? Where--"
"You are a question-box," said Dwight playfully. "A question-box."
Ina had burned her plump wrist on the oven. She lifted her arm and
nursed it.
"I'm certainly going to miss her if she stays away very long," she
remarked.
"You should be sufficient unto your little self," said Dwight.
"That's all right," said Ina, "except when you're getting dinner."
"I want some crust coffee," announced Monona firmly.
"You'll have nothing of the sort," said Ina. "Drink your milk."
"As I remarked," Dwight went on, "I'm in a tiny wee bit of a hurry."
"Well, why don't you say what for?" his Ina asked.
She knew that he wanted to be asked, and she was sufficiently willing to
play his games, and besides she wanted to know. But she _was_ hot.
"I am going," said Dwight, "to take Grandma Gates out in a wheel-chair,
for an hour."
"Where did you get a wheel-chair, for mercy sakes?"
"Borrowed it from the railroad company," said Dwight, with the triumph
peculiar to the resourceful man. "Why I never did it before, I can't
imagine. There that chair's been in the depot ever since I can
remember--saw it every time I took the train--and yet I never once
thought of grandma."
"My, Dwight," said Ina, "how good you are!"
"Nonsense!" said he.
"Well, you are. Why don't I send her over a baked apple? Monona, you
take Grandma Gates a baked apple--no. You shan't go till you drink your
milk."
"I don't want it."
"Drink it or mamma won't let you go."
Monona drank it, made a piteous face, took the baked apple, ran.
"The apple isn't very good," said Ina, "but it shows my good will."
"Also," said Dwight, "it teaches Monona a life of thoughtfulness for
others."
"That's what I always think," his Ina said.
"Can't you get mother to come out?" Dwight inquired.
"I had so much to do getting dinner onto the table, I didn't try," Ina
confessed.
"You didn't have to try," Mrs. Bett's voice sounded. "I was coming when
I got rested up."
She entered, looking vaguely about. "I want Lulie," she said, and the
corners of her mouth drew down. She ate her dinner cold, appeased in
vague areas by such martyrdom. They were still at table when the front
door opened.
"Monona hadn't ought to use the front door so common," Mrs. Bett
complained.
But it was not Monona. It was Lulu and Cornish.
"Well!" said Dwight, tone curving downward.
"Well!" said Ina, in replica.
"Lulie!" said Mrs. Bett, and left her dinner, and went to her daughter
and put her hands upon her.
"We wanted to tell you first," Cornish said. "We've just got married."
"For _ever_ more!" said Ina.
"What's this?" Dwight sprang to his feet. "You're joking!" he cried with
hope.
"No," Cornish said soberly. "We're married--just now. Methodist
parsonage. We've had our dinner," he added hastily.
"Where'd you have it?" Ina demanded, for no known reason.
"The bakery," Cornish replied, and flushed.
"In the dining-room part," Lulu added.
Dwight's sole emotion was his indignation.
"What on earth did you do it for?" he put it to them. "Married in a
bakery--"
No, no. They explained it again. Neither of them, they said, wanted the
fuss of a wedding.
Dwight recovered himself in a measure. "I'm not surprised, after all,"
he said. "Lulu usually marries in this way."
Mrs. Bett patted her daughter's arm. "Lulie," she said, "why, Lulie. You
ain't been and got married twice, have you? After waitin' so long?"
"Don't be disturbed, Mother Bett," Dwight cried. "She wasn't married
that first time, if you remember. No marriage about it!"
Ina's little shriek sounded.
"Dwight!" she cried. "Now everybody'll have to know that. You'll have to
tell about Ninian now--and his other wife!"
Standing between her mother and Cornish, an arm of each about her, Lulu
looked across at Ina and Dwight, and they all saw in her face a
horrified realisation.
"Ina!" she said. "Dwight! You _will_ have to tell now, won't you? Why I
never thought of that."
At this Dwight sneered, was sneering still as he went to give Grandma
Gates her ride in the wheel-chair and as he stooped with patient
kindness to tuck her in.
The street door was closed. If Mrs. Bett was peeping through the blind,
no one saw her. In the pleasant mid-day light under the maples, Mr. and
Mrs. Neil Cornish were hurrying toward the railway station.