LltTLE COLONEL'S
THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT
COMES RIDING
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ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
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THE PAGE COMPANY
53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://archive.org/details/littlecolonelsknjohn
"WITH THE DONNING OF THE ANCIENT DRESS SHE
SEEMED TO HAVE PUT ON THE SWEET SHY MAN-
NER THAT HAD BEEN THE CHARM OF ITS FIRST
WEARER." {See page 142)
THE LITTLE COLONEL'S
KNIGHT COMES RIDING
BY
ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON
AUTHOR OF
"THE LITTLE COLONEL SERIES," "BIG BROTHER,**
"OLE MAMMY'S TORMENT," "JOEL: A BOY
OF GALILEE," "ASA HOLMES," ETC.
Ellustratrti frg
ETHELDRED B. BARRY
And sometimes in the mirror blue,
The knights come riding, two by two. n
Thb Lady of Shalqt£;
BOSTON
THE PAGE COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1907
By The Page Company
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
All rights reserved
Made in U.S.A.
Fifteenth Impression, June. 1925
Sixteenth Impression, February, 1926
PRINTED BY C. H. SIMONDS COMPANY
BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A.
CONTENTS
I. The Hanging of the Mirror
II. Bed -time Confidences
III. A Knight Comes Riding
IV. Betty's Novel .
V. A Camera Helps
VI. "Garden Fancies w
VII. Spanish Lessons .
VIII. "Shadows of the World Appear"
IX. More Shadows ....
X. By the Silver Yard -stick
XI. The End of Several Things .
XII. Six Months Later
XIII. The Miracle of Blossoming .
XIV. The Royal Mantle .
XV. " As It Was written in the Stars " and
Betty's Diary ■ • ■ • •
i
27
46
68
97
116
134
161
181
199
221
242
266
285
3C8
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
" With the donning of the ancient dress she
seemed to have put on the sweet shy man-
ner that had been the charm of its first
wearer" (See page 142) . . . Frontispiece
" the other grasped some dark object that
seemed to be a picture frame " . . . 6
" Drew rein a moment at the gate, to look
down the stately avenue ' . . • 47
" he was bending anxiously over a bubbling
saucepan " 87
"Making a cup of her white hands". . . 126
" For once the red and green bird was on its
good behaviour" 180
" She poured the corn into the popper and be-
gan to shake it over the red coals" . .261
"' She looked to me just like one of her own
lilies'" . . 315
THE
LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT
COMES RIDING
CHAPTER I
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR
It was a June morning in Kentucky. The doc-
tor's nephew coming at a gallop down the pike into
Lloydsboro Valley, reined his horse to a walk as
he reached the railroad crossing, and leaning for-
ward in his saddle, hesitated a moment between the
two roads.
The one along the railroad embankment was
sweet with a tangle of wild honeysuckle, and led
straight to the little post-office where his morning
mail awaited him. The other would take him a
mile out of his way, but it was through a thick
beech woods, and the cool leafage of its green
aisles tempted him. A red-bird darting on ahead
s
2 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
suddenly decided his course, for following some
quick impulse, as if the cardinal wings had beckoned
him, he turned off the highway into the woods.
" I might as well go around and have a look at
that Lindsey Cabin/' he said to himself, as an ex-
cuse for turning aside. " If it's in as good shape
as I think it is, maybe I can persuade the Van
Aliens to rent it for the summer. It's a pity to
have a picturesque place like that standing empty
when it has such possibilities for hospitality, and
the Van Allen girls a positive genius for giving
jolly house-parties. To get that family out to
Lloydsboro for the summer would be paving the
way to no end of good times."
The farther he rode into the cool woods the
better the idea pleased him, and where the bridle-
path crossed a narrow creek he paused a moment
before plunging down the bank. Somewhere up the
ravine a spring was trickling out in a ceaseless flow.
He could not see it, but he could hear the gurgle
of the water, as cold and crystal clear it splashed
down into its rocky basin.
" They could picnic here to their hearts' con-
tent," he said aloud, glancing up and down the
ravine at the rank growth of fern and maidenhair
which festooned the rocks.
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 3
Alex Shelby had spent only part of two summers
in Lloydsboro Valley, but the woodsy smell of mint
and pennyroyal, mingling with the fern, brought
back the recollection of at least a dozen picnics he
had enjoyed near this spot, most of them moon-
light affairs, and all of them so pleasant that he was
determined to bring about their repetition if possi-
ble. Of course this summer he would not have as
much time for outings as he had had then. Now
that he had finished his medical course he intended
to shoulder as much as possible of his uncle's work.
The old doctor's practice had grown far too heavy
tor him. But at the same time there need be no
limit to the pleasant things that the summer could
bring forth, especially if the Van Allen family could
be installed in the Lindsey Cabin.
A quarter of a mile more brought him almost to
the edge of the woods and to the beginning of the
Lindsey place. The spacious, two-story log cabin
standing back among the great forest trees, might
have been a relic of Daniel Boone's day, so care-
fully had his pioneer pattern been copied by skilful
architects. But the resemblance was only outward.
Inside it was luxuriously equipped with every mod-
ern convenience. For a year it had stood tenant-
less, and Alex Shelby never passed it without re-
4 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
gretting that such a charming old place should be
abandoned to dust and spiders. The last time he
had gone by it, he had noticed that it was beginning
to show the effect of its long neglect. Some of the
windows were completely overgrown by ragged
rose-vines and Virginia Creeper, and a tin water-
spout that had blown loose from its fastenings,
dangled from the eaves.
Now as he came near he saw in surprise that
the place seemed to have an alert, live air, as if just
awakened from sleep. The windows were all
thrown open, the vines were trimmed, and were a
mass of bloom, the dead leaves were raked neatly
in piles and the cobwebs no longer hung from the
cornices in dusty festoons.
A long ladder leaning against the front of the
house, rested on the sill of an upper window, and
Alex wondered if the agents had painters at work.
He hoped so. The more thorough the renovation,
the more attractive it would be to the Van Aliens.
Suddenly his pleased expression changed to one
of surprise and dismay, as he saw that the place
was already inhabited. Empty packing-boxes, ex-
celsior and wrapping paper littered the front porch.
A new hammock hung between the posts. Some-
body's garden-hat lay on the steps. Moreover, a
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 5
slender girl in a white dress stood at the foot of the
ladder, evidently about to ascend, for she shook it
to test its balance, and then cautiously stepped up
on the first round.
Her back was toward Alex, and he fervently
hoped that she would turn around so that he might
see her face, then more fervently hoped that she
wouldn't, since it would be somewhat embarrassing
to be caught staring as inquisitively as he was do-
ing. Unconsciously at sight of her he had brought
his horse to a standstill, and now sat wondering
who she could be and what she was about to do.
It was as if a curtain had gone up on the first scene
of an intensely interesting play, and for the moment
he forgot everything else in admiration of the stage
setting, and the graceful little figure poised on the
ladder.
" Probably going up for an armful of roses," he
thought.
"Hold tight, Ca'line Allison! Don't let it
slip ! " she called in a high sweet voice, almost as
if she were singing the words, and Alex noticed for
the first time, a small coloured girl behind the lad-
der, bracing herself against it to hold it steady.
The ascent was a slow one. Twice she tripped
on her skirts, and with a little shriek almost slipped
6 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT 'COMES RIDING
through between the rounds. Only one hand was
free for climbing. The other grasped some dark
object that seemed to be a picture frame, though
why one should be carrying a picture frame up the
outside of a house was more than the young man
could imagine, and he concluded he must be mis-
taken.
The last step brought her head on a level with
the second story window, and up where the sun
struck through the trees in a broad shaft of light.
Her hair had been beautiful in the shadow; a rare
tint of auburn with bronze gold glints, but now in
the sunshine it was an aureole. What was it it
reminded him of? A fragment of a half -forgotten
poem came to his mind, although he was not given
to remembering such things :
" Sandalphon the angel of glory,
Sandalphon the angel of prayer."
Then he almost laughed aloud at the compari-
son, for a dazzling flash of light, blinding him for
an instant, was reflected into his eyes from the ob-
ject she carried, and he saw that it was a looking-
glass that she was taking up the ladder with such
care.
'■' What a very human and very feminine angel
/\Vtt.
THE OTHER GRASPED SOME DARK OBJECT THAT
SEEMED TO BE A PICTURE FRAME."
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 7
of glory it is," he thought. But the next instant,
still with the amused smile on his face, he was spur-
ring his horse down the road as fast as it could
gallop. The girl on the ladder had caught sight
of his reflection in the mirror as she reached up to
lay it on the window sill, and had turned a startled
face towards him. Not for worlds would he have
had her know that he had been so discourteous as
to sit staring at her. He had forgotten himself in
the interest of the moment.
Eager to find out who the new tenants were at
the Lindsey Cabin, he rode rapidly on, turning from
the woodland road into a maple-lined avenue lead-
ing back to the post-office. Just as he made the turn
another surprise confronted him. He almost col-
lided with two girls who were hurrying along arm
in arm, under a red parasol.
Both Lloyd Sherman and Kitty Walton were
old friends of his, but he had to look twice to assure
himself that he saw aright. They had been away
at school all year, and he had not heard of their
return.
" I thought you were still at Warwick Hall ! "
he exclaimed, dismounting and stepping forward
with bared head, to shake hands in his most cordial
way. " When did you get home ? "
8 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Only this mawning," answered Lloyd. " All
the Commencement exercises were ovah last Thurs-
day, and we're school girls no longah. ' Beyond
the Alps lies Italy!' Kitty can tell you all about
it, for she had the Valedictory."
Kitty met Alex's amused smile with a flash of
her black eyes, but before she could deny having
used the trite subject that had been so popular in
the old Lloydsboro seminary as to have become a
standing joke, Alex answered, " Well, you've cer-
tainly lost no time in starting out to explore the
wide world that lies before you. I've always heard
that there's nothing to equal the zeal of a sweet
girl graduate about to scale her Alps. You've
barely reached home, haven't been off the cars three
hours, I'll bet, and yet here you are on the war-
path again. What Italy are you climbing after
now ? "
Ordinarily his banter would have been promptly
resented by both girls, but now it served only to re-
call the amazing news that had sent them hurrying
away from the post-office on an excited quest. With
a dramatic gesture, Kitty drew a letter from her
belt and held it out to him.
" Think of it ! " she exclaimed, her cheeks pink
with excitement. " Gay Melville's here in the Val-
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 9
ley! Right here in Lloydsboro! Settled in the
Lindsey Cabin for the summer, and we didn't know
anything about it till ten minutes ago."
" Gay Melville," repeated Alex, instantly alert at
mention of the cabin.
" Oh he doesn't know her, Kitty," interposed
Lloyd. " He wasn't out in the Valley the wintah
she spent her Christmas vacation with you."
"Then you've something to live for!" declared
Kitty with emphasis. " She's one of the old War-
wick Hall girls. Was in last year's class with
Allison and Betty, and she's just: the sweetest,
dearest — "
" Don't tell him any moah," interrupted Lloyd.
" Let him find out for himself."
" What's she doing at the Lindsey Cabin ? " he
asked. He kept a straight face, although inwardly
chuckling over the fact that he knew well enough
what she was doing, at least what she had been
doing three minutes ago.
" They've taken it for the summer, that is, her
sister Lucy and husband have, Mr. and Mrs.
Jameson Harcourt. They're from San Antonio,
and you know the Lindseys spend their winters
there, It seems they interested Mr. Harcourt in
the Cabin, and of course Gay was wild to get back
IO LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
to the Valley, and she persuaded them to come.
She wrote to me just as soon as it was decided, but
the letter never reached me till this morning. She
thought I would get it before I started home; but
it's just like Gay to mix up her address with mine.
She was so excited when she wrote that she ad-
dressed it to Warwick Hall Station, Texas, instead
of District of Columbia. It has been travelling all
over the country, and it's a wonder that it ever
reached me at all."
" And the worst of it is," added Lloyd, " of co'se
she expected we'd all be heah to meet her. But we
stayed ovah in Washington two days, and when they
came in last night there wasn't a soul at the station
to welcome them. The ticket agent told me about
it just now as we came past. She seemed surprised,
he said, and disappointed. She must have thought
it queah that none of us were there."
" Won't she be funny when she's found what a
mistake she's made ! " exclaimed Kitty. " She's
always making mistakes, and is always perfectly
ridiculous over them when she finds it out. We're
going to take you to call on her, Alex, just as soon
as they're settled. She plays the violin divinely."
" I'll go right back with you now," he offered
promptly.
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR II
" No you won't," they cried in the same breath,
and Kitty explained, " No telling what sort of a
mess they'll be in with their unpacking. But if
they're ready to see company by night, I'll telephone
to you, and we'll all go over."
" I shall live only for that moment," he declared,
laughing, then added as he turned to mount his
horse, " I'm mighty glad I met you, and I'm more
than glad that you've both come home to stay."
A flourish of the red parasol answered the
courtly sweep of his hat as they parted. He rode
on rapidly towards the post-office, wondering if
they would find the girlish, white-clad figure still
perched on the ladder, up among the roses, with the
sun making an aureole of her shining hair. He
had never seen such hair. " Sandalphon, the angel
of glory" — but the quotation broke off with a
laugh. Her name was Gay, and it was a looking
glass that she was carrying up the ladder. " Well,
she's an original little thing," he mused, " and if she
lives up to her name the Lindsey Cabin will be just
as lively a social centre as if the Van Allen girls
had possession."
The encounter with Alex had delayed the girls
but a moment or two, still they walked on faster
than ever to make up the lost time,
12 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
"What do you suppose we'll find her doing?"
queried Lloyd.
" Something unexpected, I'll be bound," was the
answer. " Will you ever forget that first time we
saw her, when she came out to play the violin at
the Freshman reception? Such a pretty white
dress, and that rapt, uplifted look on her face that
makes you think of St. Cecilias and seraphim, and
with one foot in a white kid shoe, and the other in
that awful old red felt bedroom slipper, edged in
black fur!"
" Or the time she lost her belt in Washington,"
suggested Lloyd. " Probably we'll find her unpack-
ing if the trunks came. But Gay's trunks nevah
were known to arrive on time. We may have to
be lending her shirtwaists and collahs for a month."
By this time they had reached the rustic foot-
bridge leading over a ravine to the Cabin, and were
in full view of the front windows. Gay was still
on the ladder. She had made several trips up and
down it since Alex passed. It was hard to decide
at what angle to hang the mirror on the window
casing, as she had seen them in old Dutch houses
in Holland; and in marking the place with the
point of the only nail that she had provided on
which to hang the mirror, she dropped the nail
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 13
Several minutes had been wasted in a fruitless
search for it. Others were to be had for the pull-
ing, if one could extract them from the empty pack-
ing-boxes, but no hammer could be found on the
premises, and it was only after much twisting and
struggling that the little coloured girl finally man-
aged to pull one with her teeth.
Another five minutes had been wasted in search-
ing for something with which to drive the nail.
Then Gay gingerly ascended the ladder again,
armed with a pair of heavy old tongs, taken from
the porch fireplace. She had just reached the top
of the ladder when the girls caught sight of her.
" Mercy! " exclaimed Kitty in a low tone. " It'll
never do in the world to appear at this juncture.
She's pretty sure to drop through the ladder any-
how, or upset herself, or have some exhibition of
the usual Melville luck, even if she's left to herself.
And if she should suddenly discover us there's no
telling what dreadful thing might happen."
" Let's slip up behind the arbour and watch till
she's safely down to earth," whispered Lloyd.
" What do you suppose she's trying to do, and
where do you suppose she managed to pick up
Ca'line Allison?"
" Sh ! " was the answer. " That's the Dutch
14 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
mirror she got in Amsterdam last summer. She
wrote that it was the triumph of her life when she
got home with it whole. She carried it all the way,
instead of packing it in her trunk. Listen ! What's
that she's saying? "
The words floated down to them distinctly.
" Ca'line Allison, you'll have to get me something
besides these tongs to drive this nail with. I might
as well try to do it with a pair of stilts. Besides it's
making dents in them, and it's wicked to spoil such
beautiful old brasses. Mercy! Don't get up yet!"
she shrieked wildly, as the shifting of Ca'line Alli-
son's small body made the ladder slip a trifle.
" Wait till I poke these tongs through the win-
dow and take hold with both hands. Now ! Hunt
around and find me a stone or a piece of brick."
The girls behind the arbour could not see her
face, but the sight of the familiar little figure cling-
ing to the ladder, and the sound of the beloved voice
made them long to rush out and squeeze her.
" Isn't her hair a glory, up there in the sun-
shine?" whispered Kitty. "The idea of anybody
calling it plain red — such a fluff of bronzy auburn
with all those little crinkles of gold ! And listen to
that whistle! You'd think it was a real mocking
bird."
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 15
Wholly unconscious of her audience, Gay teetered
00 the ladder, whistling and trilling like a happy
bobolink, until the little black girl climbed up after
her with a brick which she had dug out from the
well curb. The girls waited until the nail was se-
curely in place, the mirror hung and Gay had begun
to crawl down the ladder backward, before they
rushed out from their hiding-place.
They pounced upon her just as she reached the
bottom round, and then ensued what Kitty called
a pow-wow — an enthusiastic welcome known only
to old school chums who have been separated so
long a time as a whole twelvemonth. Questions,
answers, explanations, a bubbling over of delight
at once more being together, kept them talking all
at once for nearly ten minutes. Then Gay, remem-
bering her duty as hostess led the way into the
house,
" Come in and see Lucy and her fond spouse, " 1
she exclaimed. " They're still at breakfast al-
though it's ten o'clock. None of us could make a
fire in the range. It simply wouldn't burn. But
we had brought a chafing dish in one of the boxes,
and we found another in the pantry, and they've
been mussing around for the last two hours with
them, having the time of their lives. Lucy made
1 6 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
fudge and omelette and tea for her breakfast, being
the things she knows best how to make, and brother
Jameson is trying flap-jacks and coffee."
" What did you have? " asked Lloyd.
" I ? Oh I emulated the example of ' The old
person of Crewd ' who said
" * We use sawdust for food.
It's cheap by the ton
And it nourishes one,
And that's the main object of food.'
I munched a handful of some sort of new break-
fast straw, but it wasn't very satisfying, and I was
just going in to get a cup of brother Jameson's
coffee. I told him to put my name in the pot.
Come on in and have some too."
Throwing open the dining-room door she began
a series of breezy introductions that set them all to
laughing and swept away every vestage of formal-
ity.
Both Lloyd and Kitty protested against taking
a single mouthful at that hour, but the young host
poured out a cup of very muddy coffee with such
a beaming smile, and the little bride offered a very
bitter cup of tea in competition, with a merry in-
sistence so like Gay's, that they could not refuse.
" It's going to be lovely," Kitty managed to
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 1 7
whisper under cover of the bustle of bringing in
more hot water. " They're almost as harum-
scarum and hap-hazard as Gay herself, and ' brother
Jameson ' looks as if he might be the ' Gibson
man's ' youngest brother."
" These * babes in the wood ' would have per-
ished but for me," began Gay, who was rattling
along as if she were wound up. " / was the robin
who came to the rescue. I went over to Stump-
town bright and early — you see I remembered the
short cut through the woods — and as luck would
have it, found some one willing to come, at the very
first house where I inquired. (But she can't come
till nearly noon, hence this disorderly feasting and
rioting.) Ca'line Allison was swinging on the gate,
with her finger in her mouth. I didn't know her,
but she remembered me, and complimented me by
asking if I'd done brought my fiddle along. I
think I'll engage her for the summer for my little
maid-in-waiting. She's as quick as a monkey and
would look so cunning diked up in a cap and apron.
What's that rhyme Betty made about her when she
was flower-girl at her own mother's wedding? Oh
by the way, where is Betty? Why didn't she come
with you ? "
" For the good reason that we didn't know we
l8 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
were coming heah ourselves when we left home,"
answered Lloyd. "Betty went on to Commence-
ment with all the rest of the family, but it was hard
for her to tear herself away from her beloved writ-
ing. We hadn't been back at Locust half an houah
this mawning till she was at it again."
" Betty is Mrs. Sherman's god-daughter," ex-
plained Gay in an aside to her brother-in-law.
" The one who I told you is such a genius. She's
writing a book." Then turning to Lloyd. " It isn't
that same old one she was at work on at school,
is it?"
" No, it's something she began last fall. Mothah
wanted her to make her debut in Louisville when
she was through school, just as I am going to do
next wintah, but Betty begged to be allowed to stay
in the country. She said she'd nevah be a brilliant
success socially, but that she'd do her best to be a
credit to the family in some other way."
" She will, too," prophesied Gay. " Some day
we'll all be proud of the little song-bird you rescued
from the Cuckoo's Nest. Dear old Betty ! I'd like
to hug her this very minute."
The grandfather's clock in the hall was striking
eleven when they rose from the table, but Gay
would not listen when the girls attempted to take
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 19
their leave. " You haven't seen my room," she in-
sisted, " nor my mirror. Come on up stairs and
look into my mirror. It's the joy of my heart, and
maybe we'll all see our fate in it. I like to pretend
that it's a sort of magic glass — that some wizard
of the wood has laid a spell on it, so that at certain
times all the figures that have ever been reflected in
it must march across it again. Wouldn't it be lovely
if all the good times it is going to reflect this sum-
mer could be made to pass over it again whenever
I wanted to recall them ? "
" We'd lead the procession," announced Kitty,
" for we were the first objects that crossed the path
after you got it hung. If we were not ' a group of
damsels glad ' we were at least a couple of them."
" But you were not the first," confessed Gay.
" Just as I held it up to adjust it, I had such a
thrillingly romantic experience that I nearly fell oft"
the ladder. It showed me the reflection of an aw-
fully good looking young man on horse-back. But
when I turned to look over my shoulder at the orig-
inal he was galloping down the road like a blue
streak."
" I wondah who it could have been," mused
Lloyd. " We met Alex Shelby on hawseback just
a few minutes befoah we got heah, but he nevah
SO LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
said a word about having seen anybody, and he
seemed surprised when we told him that the cabin
had been rented."
They were up in Gay's room now, and running
to the window, Kitty seated herself in the low
chair beside it. " Oh how fine ! " she called. " It's
at exactly the right angle, for I can see everything
along the path without looking out. It'll be a sort
of Hildegarde's mirror, won't it ! Like the Lady of
Shalott's."
Half under her breath she began to recite the
lines they had learned so long ago, and from force
of habit Lloyd joined the sing-song chant :
»' And moving through the mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear."
Smiling to see how well they remembered it,
they went on in unison down to the couplet :
" And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two by two."
There Kitty broke off to say " I don't see how
that can happen here this summer. It will be sheer
luck if they come even in singles. There never
were so few boys left in the Valley, and it's too
bad to have it happen so the summer that you're
here. Nearly everybody is going away. You can
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 21
count on the fingers of one hand the few who will
stay,"
" What about the two knights of Kentucky? "
asked Gay. " You're a lucky girl, Kitty, to have
two such splendid cousins as Keith and Malcolm
Maclntyre."
" They are already gone. They sailed for Eng-
land with Uncle Sydney and Aunt Elise last week.
You know I wrote you they were going and that
Allison was to be in the party too. And oh Gay!
Didn't you get that letter? Then you haven't heard
the most important thing of all ! Allison is en-
gaged! It didn't happen till a few days before they
sailed, and it isn't announced yet, but of course she
wanted you to know and I wrote to you right
away."
Gay bounced out of her chair as if a bomb ex-
ploded in the room.
"Oh you don't mean it!" she cried tragically,
clasping her hands. " Why she's only been out
of school a year ! The first of our class to go ! Oh
tell me all about it! Begin at the beginning and
don't skip a thing ! "
Throwing herself down on the floor at Kitty's
feet, she propped her chin on her hands, and her
elbows in Kitty's lap, prepared to listen.
22 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" There isn't much to tell. You know the for-
tune that Mammy Easter predicted for her was
nice, but it wasn't very exciting. She was to ' wed
wid de quality and ride in her ca'iage.' Well, his
family is certainly quality, the Claibornes of Vir-
ginia, and she'll live in Washington and have sev-
eral kinds of carriages. Isn't it odd? We knew
him when he was just a boy. He was on the same
transport with us when we went to the Philippines,
and we never imagined then that we'd ever see him
again."
" But I thought that that young Lieutenant
Logan," began Gay.
Kitty interrupted her with a laugh. " Why my
dear, he is a mere child compared to Raleigh Clai-
borne. That little affair was the mere A. B. C. of
romance. He's paying attention to our youngest
now. He sends music and bon bons to Elise."
" Think of Elise being old enough to receive
such attentions ! " groaned Gay. " It makes me
feel like a patriarch. But never mind my hoary
sensations, go on and tell me some more. She's
going to get her trousseau abroad I suppose."
" Only part of it, for the wedding isn't to take
place for a year. Allison didn't care much about
going — thought she'd rather wait and take the
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 23
trip with Raleigh. But he is so busy it may be
several years before he can get off for a whole
summer, and Aunt Elise persuaded her to go with
them. She said it wouldn't be so easy for her to
go when she once assumed the responsibility of a
big establishment."
Gay clasped her hands around her knees and
rocked herself back and forth on the floor.
" I'm glad she's sensible enough to wait a year,"
she declared. " I don't see why girls are in such
a hurry to tie themselves up in a knot. I suppose
it's perfectly fascinating to be engaged and to have
the choosing of a lovely trousseau, and the opening
of all the wedding presents. Everybody takes so
much interest in a prospective bride. But the fun
comes to an end so quickly. It's like Fourth of
July fire works. There's a big blaze and excite-
ment while it lasts. Then it's all over and they
settle down to be just prosy common-place married
people. I should think that the reaction would be
deadly, and that if a girl could see past the time of
the rocket's shooting up, and realize that it can't
stay among the stars, but must fall to earth again
with a dull thud, she'd profit by other people's ex-
periences, and not give up all the good times of her
girlhood before she'd half enjoyed them."
24 "LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Gay spoke so feelingly that her two listeners
exchanged glances of surprise. This was not the
way Gay had been wont to talk a year ago, and each
wondered to herself if Lucy's marriage had caused
this radical change in her opinion.
Suddenly she changed the subject, with the un-
expectedness of a grasshopper's leap. " Which one
of you girls is going to stay all night with me ? "
Kitty answered first. " Neither of us ought to,
for we've only just returned to the bosom of our
families. You could hardly call us entirely arrived
yet, for our trunks haven't come."
Lloyd started up, and looked at her watch in
alarm. " It's a good thing you reminded me that
I have a home," she laughed. " I told mothah I'd
just stroll down to the post-office and be right back,
and when I met Kitty with yoah lettah it drove
everything else out of my head. She'll be wonder-
ing what has happened to me. I'll come some night
next week and be glad to."
" No, one of you has to come back and stay with
me to-night," Gay insisted. " So settle it between
yourselves. You may as well draw straws to decide
which is to be my victim." Then, glancing around
the room — "I don't happen to see any straws at
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR 2 $
hand, but you might pull hairs for the honour.
Here! My head is at your service, ladies."
Dropping to her knees she made a profound
salaam, and waited for them to draw. " The one
who pulls the shortest hair comes back."
Laughing over the absurd manner of deciding
such a matter, each girl reached out and plucked
a hair by its roots, so vigorously that the pull was
followed by a long drawn " ouch ! "
" Mine's the shortest," giggled Lloyd, compar-
ing it with the one that Kitty held up. " But I'm
suah my family will object if I propose leaving them
the very first night of my arrival, aftah I've been
away at school all yeah."
" Don't leave them then," said Gay. " Bring
them all over here to spend the evening. I'm wild
for Lucy and brother Jameson to meet them as soon
as possible. Then when bedtime comes let them
leave you. Tell them that Kitty is going to bring
all her family, and that everybody in the valley who
is anybody is coming to the Harcourt's House-
warming to-night at the ' Cabin in the Wood.' '
Kitty began unfurling her red parasol. " That
certainly sounds alluring. You can count on all my
family, especially Ranald, and I'll go straight home
and telephone to Alex Shelby."
26 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
"Who may he be?" inquired Gay, scrambling
up from the floor, to follow her guests down stairs.
Kitty began an enthusiastic description of him,
which Lloyd cut short with the laughing remark,
" Go look in your little Dutch mirror. I'm not
positive, but I think he's yoah first * Knight of the
Looking-glass.' "
CHAPTER II
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES
That night a series of interesting shadows
trooped across the little Dutch mirror, in the moon-
light, but nobody watched beside it to see how
faithfully it reflected the procession of guests, strag-
gling up the path below. After the first pleased
glance Gay had flown down-stairs to throw open
the front door and bid them welcome. It was al-
most more than she had dared to hope that the old
Colonel would come, and " Papa Jack " and Kitty's
Grandmother Maclntyre. But they had needed no
urging. Gay was reaping the aftermath now, of
her first visit to the Valley. They had not forgot-
ten the obliging little guest who had entertained
them with her violin playing, amused them with
her quaint unexpected speeches, and charmed old
and young alike with her enthusiastic interest in
everything and everybody.
Ranald had more than that to remember, for he
had carried on a vigorous correspondence with Gay
28 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
for the last six months, started by a " dare " from
Allison. Alex Shelby's memory of her dated back
only to that morning, but the picture of a sunny
little head up among the roses, and that line " San-
dalphon the angel of glory " had been in his
thoughts all day.
Their effort to show the newcomers how cordial
a Lloydsboro welcome could be, was met by a hos-
pitality which held them in its spell till after mid-
night. Lucy was in her element. As the popular
daughter of a popular army officer, she had played
gracious hostess ever since she had learned to talk.
As for Gay, so anxious was she that her friends
should be pleased with her family and her family
with her friends, that she threw herself with all
her might into the task of making each show off
to the other.
An outside fire-place on the broad front porch
was one of the features of the Cabin. The June
night was cool enough to make the blaze on its
hearth acceptable, and Lucy turned the picturesque
old kettle, bubbling on the crane, to practical use,
making coffee to< serve with the marsh-mallows,
which Jameson handed around on long sticks, that
each one might toast his own over the glowing
eoals.
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 39
The informality of it all, and the good cheer, made
every one relax into his jolliest mood, and Gay,
hearing the old Colonel's laugh, as stretched out on
the settle by the fire, he told stories and toasted
marsh-mallows with a zest, felt that they had struck
the right key-note in this first evening's entertain-
ment. It was the harbinger of many others that
would follow during the summer.
It was her violin that held them longest. Stand-
ing just inside the door where Kitty could accom-
pany her on the piano, she played one after another
of the favourite tunes that were called for in turn,
till the fire burned low on the porch hearth, and
even the voices of the night were stilled in the dense
beech woods around the Cabin.
It was later than any one had supposed when
Mrs. Sherman made the discovery that the hall
clock had stopped.
" She didn't know that I stopped it ori purpose,"
confessed Gay, when the last carriage had driven
away, and Lloyd was following her sleepily up-
stairs. She paused to bolt the bed-room door be-
hind them.
" This has been a lovely evening for me. It gives
one such a comfortable I-told-you-so sort of feel-
ing to have everything turn out as you prophesied
30 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
it would. Of course I knew that Lucy would feel
the charm of the Valley, and like it a thousand
times better than the mountains or seashore or any-
where else, but I wasn't so sure of Jameson. Now
my mind is completely at rest for the summer. I
stopped worrying when I saw him hobnobbing with
the Colonel and your father about those Lexington
horses he wants to buy. He was so tickled over
those letters of introduction they gave him. And
he was so charmed to air his knowledge of the
Philippines to Mrs. Walton. He spent a month
there you know. I fairly patted myself on the back
all the time he was talking. Somehow I feel so
responsible for this household. There! I forgot to
remind them to bring that bothersome old silver
pitcher upstairs ! "
Hastily unbolting the door she called out in
sepulchral tones that echoed through the dark
house, "Remember the Maine!"
There was a laugh in the room across the hall,
then her brother-in-law who had just come up-
stairs, shuffled down again in his slippers.
" I suppose I'll have to remind them every night
this summer," continued Gay. " I don't like to call
out ' remember the silver pitcher that was our
great-great-grandmother Melville's, and the soup
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 31
ladle that some old Spanish grandee gave to one of
Jameson's Castilian ancestors,' for if a burglar were
prowling around he would be all the more anxious
to break in. So the month I visited them, before we
came here, I adopted that slogan for my war-cry:
' " Remember the main " thing in life to be saved
from burglars ! ' It always sends one or the other
of them skipping, for they feel the responsibility of
preserving such heirlooms for posterity. I used to
wish that I were the oldest daughter, so that that
pitcher would be handed down to me on my wed-
ding day. I didn't realize what a bore it would
be to be tied for life -to such a responsibility. I
asked Jameson why he didn't put it and the ladle
In a safety vault and be done with it, and he read
me such a lecture on the sacredness of old associa-
tions and family ties that I somehow felt that his
old soup-ladle expected me to send it a written
apology."
Gay had bolted the door again, and as she talked,
drew the curtains across the casement windows.
Now she sat on the edge of the bed, shaking out
her wealth of sunny hair, to brush and braid it for
the night. It was a cosy room, with low ceiling
and old-fashioned wall paper. With' the curtains
drawn and the candles in the quaint pewter sticks
32 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
lighting up the claw-footed mahogany furniture, it
was an ideal place for the exchanging of bedtime
confidences. Gay was the first to break the silence.
"What was the matter with Betty tonight?
She was as quiet as a mouse. Hardly had a word
to say, and all the time I was playing, she sat look-
ing out into the night as if she were ready to cry."
" No wondah ! They were so beautiful, some
of those nocturnes and things, that we all had lumps
in our throats. Nothing's the mattah with Betty.
It's just the last chaptah she can't get to suit her.
She's gone around in a sawt of dream all day."
" Who's playing the devoted to her now ? "
" Nobody as far as I know. All the boys love
Betty. They've been perfectly devoted to her ever
since she came to Locust to live ; but not — not in
the sentimental way you mean; for instance the
way that Alex Shelby cares for Kitty."
" Oh don't tell me there is anything in that,"
wailed Gay, " at least on Kitty's part, for I've set
my heart on her marrying a friend of mine in San
Antonio, so she'll always be near me. You know
when Mammy Easter told her fortune, it was that
her fate would come through running water when
the weather vane points West. I'm wild to have
her visit me at Fort Sam Houston next year, and
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 33
this Frank Percival is the very one of all others for
her. He's a banker and as good as gold and —
oh well, there's no use wasting time singing his
praises to you when I want him for Kitty! But
about this Alex Shelby, Kitty told me this very
afternoon that it is you he admires so much. She
told me all about that Bernice Howe affair, and
said that ever since Katie Mallard up and told
him how honourably you acted in the matter, he
has put you on a pedestal and given you a halo.
She said you could have him crazy about you if
you'd so much as lift an eyelash in encouragement."
"Don't you believe it!" cried Lloyd. "That's
just Kitty's way of throwing you off the track.
We've been unusually good friends evah since he
found out why I broke my engagement to go riding
with him, but he is at The Beeches every bit as
much as he is at The Locusts, and it's you he'll be
in love with befoah the summah is ovah. He was
the first one reflected in yoah looking glass, for he
confessed this evening how he sat and watched you
on the laddah, and how he'd thought of you all
day ; and he even quoted poetry about it, and that's
a very serious symptom for Alex to show. He
nevah was known to do such things befoah ! Then
tonight he was simply carried away by yoah play-
34 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ing. He adores a violin and you played all his
favourites. Oh I see yoah finish ! "
There was a pause in which Gay kicked off her
slippers and sat absently gazing at them, while
Lloyd tied the ribbons which fastened the lace in
the collar of her dainty gown. Again it was Gay
who spoke first.
" Doesn't it seem queer to think of Allison's
being engaged? It is such a little while since we
were all school girls together. Nobody knows
whose turn will come next. It makes me feel like
a soldier on a battle field — comrades being shot
down all around you, right and left, and you never
knowing how soon it'll be your turn to fall. It's
awful! Lloyd, what's become of that boy out in
Arizona, the one who sent you those orange-blos-
soms in Joyce's letter when I was here before ? He
was best man at Eugenia Forbes' wedding."
" Oh, you mean Phil Tremont ! " answered Lloyd
placidly, without the conscious blush that Gay had
expected to see. " He is out West again, doing
splendidly, Eugenia writes."
" I thought you wrote to him yourself."
Lloyd, stooping to pick up her dress and hang
it over a chair, did not see with what keen interest
Gay watched her as she questioned.
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 35
" Oh, we still keep up a sawt of hit and miss
correspondence. He writes every few weeks and
I manage to reply once in two months or so. It's
dreadfully uphill work for me to write to people
whom I nevah see. It's been two yeahs since he
was heah, and I nevah know what he'll be inter-
ested in."
" I suppose it's easier writing to some one you've
known all your life, like Malcolm Maclntyre for
instance. I'm so sorry he and Keith are abroad
this summer."
Lloyd's face dimpled mischievously as she began
to see the drift of Gay's questioning. " I can't tell
you how easy it is to write to Malcolm, because
I've nevah done it. Now it's my turn to ask ques-
tions. Where did you get this new photograph of
Ranald Walton on yoah dressing table? Beg it
from Kitty as you did that one at Warwick Hall,
when he was a little cadet, or get it from head-
quartahs ? "
" Direct from headquarters," confessed Gay with
a laugh. " He isn't so afraid of girls as he used
to be. Wasn't he charming tonight ? "
So the questioning and answering went on for
quarter of an hour longer, each anxious to find how
far the otherhad drifted into the unexplored coun-
36 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
try of their dreams. Then Gay blew out the can-
dles and climbed into the high four-posted bed be-
side Lloyd, where they lay looking out through the
open window into the starlight. The moon had
been down for some time. It was so still here in
the heart of the beech woods that the silence could
almost be felt. The girls spoke in whispers.
" It settles down on one like a pall/' said Gay.
" Are you sleepy ? "
" Not very," answered Lloyd, stifling a yawn.
" Then there's one more person in the valley
I want to ask about. I believe I've heard an ac-
count oif every one else. Where's Rob Moore and
what is he doing? I thought he would come over
with you all tonight."
" Poah old Rob," answered Lloyd, swallowing
another yawn. " His fathah died a little ovah a
yeah ago, and he's nevah been like himself since.
He seemed to grow into a man in just a few hours.
It was awfully sudden — Mistah Moore's death.
The shock neahly killed Rob's mothah, and the
deah old judge, his grandfathah, you know, was
simply heartbroken. Rob just gave up his entire
time to them aftah that. He was such a comfort,
Nevah left the place, and took charge of all the
business mattahs, to spare them every worry.
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 37
When things were settled up they found there
wasn't as much left as they had thought there would
be, and Rob wouldn't touch a cent to finish his law
course. He was afraid his mothah would have to
deny herself some luxury she had always been used
to, and he didn't want her to miss a single one she
had had in his fathah's lifetime. So he took a
position in Louisville, and has been working like a
dawg evah since. He reads law at night with the
old Judge, so I scarcely evah see him. We've just
drifted apart, till it seems as if the little old Bobby
I grew up with is dead and gone. I missed him
dreadfully at first, all last summah, for he'd almost
lived at our house, and was just like a brothah. I
haven't seen him at all this vacation, though to be
suah I've only been home this one day."
In the dim starlight Lloyd could not see the com-
placent smile on Gay's face, but her voice showed
that she was well pleased with the answers to her
string of questions.
" Now I'll tell you why I put you through such
a catechism," she began. " I wanted to make sure
that the coast is clear, so that you can undertake
a mission that is to be laid at your door this sum-
mer. Jameson's brother Leland will be here to-
morrow afternoon. If he takes a fancy to the place
38 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
he will probably stay as long as we do, and we are
all very anxious for him to stay. He's only three
years younger than Jameson, but the two were left
alone in the world when they were just little tots,
and Jameson has been like a father to him. He
feels so responsible for him and so does Lucy. I
do too, now, although he's only my brother-in-law's
brother, because I persuaded them to come here for
the summer, and Jameson wanted to go somewhere
where Leland would be satisfied to stay."
" What's the mattah with him, that he needs so
much looking aftah? If he's twenty-three yeahs
old it seems to me that he might take the respon-
sibility of himself on his own shouldahs. Is he
wild?"
" No. Jameson says he's always been too high-
minded to do the things men mean when they talk
about sowing their wild oats; but he is as utterly
irresponsible as a will-o-the-wisp. He won't stay
tied down to anything — just drifts around, here
and there, having a good time. It's a pity that he
isn't as poor as a church mouse. Then he'd have
to do something. He's so bright he easily could
make something splendid of himself. Now Jame-
son has good sensible ideas about not squandering
his money, and although he doesn't have to worl?
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES $$
any more than Leland does, he looks after the
details of his own business as a man should.
" He knows all about the mines he has stock in
down in Mexico, and he studies mineralogy and
labour problems and investments, and has an office
that he goes to regularly every morning. He takes
after his father's side of the house, practical Eng-
lish people. But Leland is like his mother's family
(they were proud old Spaniards just a generation
or so back). He is adventurous and roving and
romantic, and has the dolce far niente in the blood.
Jameson says that all that Leland needs is to be
kept keyed up to the right pitch, for he is so im-
petuous and headstrong that he always gets what
he starts after, no matter what stands in the way;
and that if he could just fall heels over head in
love with some girl with great force of character,
who wouldn't look at him till he'd measured
up to her standards, it would be the making of
him."
Lloyd yawned. " Excuse me for saying it," she
began teasingly, " but I don't see how you can
get up so much interest in anybody like that, even
if he is yoah brothah-in-law's brothah. It sounds
to me as if he is just plain lasy and I nevah did
have any use for a man that had to be nagged all
40 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDINQ
the time to keep his ambition up to high-watah
mark."
Gay sat up in bed in her earnestness. " Oh
Lloyd, don't say that ! " she protested. " Don't
judge him till you've seen him. He's perfectly dear
in lots of ways, in spite of his faults. You'll find
him fascinating. Everybody does. And I'm going
to be entirely honest with you — I've fairly prayed
that you'd like him. You are so strong yourself,
the strongest character of any girl I know, and
you influence people so forcibly in spite of them-
selves, that I've felt from the start it would be the
making of Leland if you'd take him in hand this
summer."
Lloyd smothered a laugh in the pillow. " ' Why
don't you speak for yourself, John,' " she said mis-
chievously. " Why don't you take him in hand ?
You are already interested so much that you'd only
be combining pleasuah with duty."
Gay was too much in earnest to tolerate any
levity, and went on in her intense eager way. " Oh
I've already worn myself out trying to influence
hijfti, but it's of no use. He knows me too well.
He's called me ' Pug ' and ' Red-bird ' ever since
we went to kindergarten together. I'm just one
of the family. But I've showed him your picture
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 41
and told him what an unapproachable, unattain-
able creature you are, and whetted his curiosity till
it's as keen as a razor. Oh I've played my little
game like an expert, and he doesn't suspect in the
faintest degree what I want. He thinks I'm trying
to interest him in Kitty Walton. I told him she's
the darlingest, jolliest, prettiest thing in ten states,
and that I'd guarantee he wouldn't feel bored once
this entire summer if he'd make her acquaintance.
" But you — I've painted as so indifferent and
entirely above his reach, that just to prove to me
I'm mistaken, he'll nearly break his neck to put
himself on good terms with you. It's just as Jame-
son says, he'll ride rough-shod over everything
that stands in his way, to get what he wants."
Lloyd raised herself on her elbow and turned a
protesting face towards her eloquent bed-fellow.
" Well of all cool things," she began, half in-
clined to be indignant, yet so amused at Gay's mas-
terly management that the exclamation ended in a
giggle. " Where do I come in, pray ? You say he
always gets what he goes aftah. Did it evah occur
to you that I might not want to be taken posses-
sion of in that high-handed way? That / might
have something to say in the mattah? Haven't
4 2 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
you as much interest in my welfare as in yoah
sistah's husband's brothah ? "
" Of course ! you blessed little goose ! " ex-
claimed Gay, giving the arm next hers an impet-
uous squeeze. " Don't I know the haughty Prin-
cess well enough to be sure that all the king's horses-
and all the king's men couldn't budge her against
her will? I'm not looking ahead any farther than
this summer. But if you could just shake him up
and put him on his mettle that long, that's all I
ask of you. And seriously, dear, you might go the
world over and not find one who measures up to
your ideals in more ways. He's well born and
talented and rich and fairly good-looking. He's
so entertaining one never tires of his company,
good-hearted and generous to a fault, and — Oh
Lloyd, please say you'll take enough interest to
keep him keyed up to the right pitch for awhile.
It's all he lacks to make a splendid man."
" Do you know, I think that's a mighty big
lack," said Lloyd, honestly. " I've had strings on
my harp that wouldn't stay strung. It's the most
exasperating thing in the world. You know how
it is, with a violin. Right in the midst of the love-
liest passages one will begin to slip back — just a
trifle, maybe, not more than a hair's breadth, but
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 43
enough to make it flat and spoil the harmony.
Then you stop and tune it up again, and go on for
awhile, but back it will slip just when you've got-
ten to depending on it. You know I couldn't have
any respect for a man who had to be kept up to
the notch that way. It would spoil the whole thing
to have him flat on a single note when I'd depended
on him to ring clear and true."
Gay had no reply ready for this unexpected argu-
ment, and her experience with stringed instruments
made it very forcible. It was several minutes be-
fore she answered, then she spoke triumphantly.
" But you know what a master can do where a
novice would fail. He can fit the keys to hold any
position he gives them. Leland has never felt the
touch of a master-hand. No one has ever con-
trolled him. He has always been petted and spoiled.
He has never known a girl like you. I'm sure that
if you were only willing to make the attempt to
arouse his pride and ambition, you could do won-
ders for him."
It was the most potent appeal Gay could have
made. To feel that her influence may sway a man
to higher, better things, will make even the most
frivolous girl draw quicker breath with a sense of
power, and to a conscientious girl like Lloyd this
44 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
seemed an opportunity and a responsibility that
could not be lightly thrust aside.
" Well," she said finally, after a moment of hesi-
tation, " I'll try."
Gay reached over with an impulsive kiss. " Oh
you dear! I knew you would. Now I can let you
go to sleep in peace. ' Something accomplished,
something done, has earned a night's repose.' It
must be awfully late. Goodnight dear."
Long after Gay had fallen asleep, Lloyd lay
thinking of the mission thus thrust upon her. If
this Leland Harcourt had needed reforming, she
told herself, she wouldn't have had anything to do
with him. Her poor Violet's experience with Ned
Bannon had taught her one lesson — how mis-
taken any girl is who thinks she can accomplish
that. But to be the master-hand that could put in
tune some really splendid instrument (ah, Gay's
appeal was subtle and strong) any girl would
be glad and proud to be that: the inspiration, the
power for good, the beckoning hand that would
lead a man to the noblest heights of attainment.
There was something exhilarating, uplifting in
the thought, that banished sleep. Night often
brings exalted moods that seem absurd next day.
Lying there, looking out at the stars, the pleasing
BED -TIME CONFIDENCES 45
fancy came to her that each one was a sacred
altar-flame, given into the keeping of some unseen
vestal virgin. Now she too had joined this star-
world Sisterhood, and had lighted a vestal fire on
the altar of a promise. In its constant watch, she
would keep tryst with all that Life demanded of
her.
CHAPTER III
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Next morning Lloyd found that her exalted
mood had faded away with the stars. Any fire must
pale before the broad light of day, and her vestal-
maiden fervour had given place to a very lively but
mundane interest in the brother-in-law's brother.
She was glad to hear at breakfast that he liked
tennis, was a good horseman, that private theatricals
were always a success when he had a hand in them.
She stored away in her memory for future use, the
information that he had lived several years in Spain
and Mexico, and spoke Spanish like a native, that
unlike Jameson he was prouder of his Castilian
ancestors than his English ones, and that two of his
fads were collecting pipes and rare old ivory carv-
ings.
The more she heard about him the less sure she
felt of being able to keep her promise to Gay. It
began to seem presumptuous to her that a mere
school-girl should imagine that she could exert any
.4*
DREW REIN A MOMENT AT THE GATE, TO LOOK DOWN THE
STATELY AVENUE."
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 47
influence over such an accomplished man of the
world as he evidently was. All that day she
pictured to herself at intervals how she should meet
him and what she should say. It was a new ex-
perience for the haughty Princess who had always
been so indifferent to the opinions of her boy
friends. Gay's request had made her self-conscious.
Fortunately she had a glimpse of him before he saw
her, which helped her to adjust herself to the role
she wanted to assume.
The morning after his arrival in the Valley, he
and Ranald rode past the Locusts, and drew rein a
moment at the gate, to look down the stately avenue
which was always pointed out to strangers. Lloyd
watched their approach from behind a leafy screen
of lilac bushes. The gleam of a wild strawberry
had lured her over there from the path, a few
minutes before. Then the discovery of a patch of
four-leaf clovers near by had tempted her to a seat
on the grass. She was arranging the long stems of
the clovers in a cluster when the sound of hoof-
beats made her look up.
So thickset were the lilacs between her and the
road that not a glimpse of her white dress or the
flutter of a ribbon betrayed her presence, and they
paused to admire the avenue, unknowing that a far
48 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
prettier picture was hidden away a few yards from
them, in full sound of their voices — a girl half
lying in the grass, with June's own fresh charm in
her glowing face, and the sunshine throwing dap-
pled leaf shadows over her soft fair hair. The
mischievous light in her hazel eyes deepened as she
watched them.
" ' The knights come riding two by two,' " she
quoted in a whisper, closely scrutinizing the
stranger.
" He rides well, anyhow," was her first thought.
The next was that he looked much older than Gay's
description had led her to imagine. Probably it
was because he wore a moustache, while Rob and
Malcolm and Alex and Ranald were all smooth-
shaven. Maybe it was that same black moustache,
with the gleam of white teeth and the flashing
glance of his black eyes that gave him that dashing
cavalier sort of look. How wonderfully his dark
face lighted up when he smiled, and how distinctly
one recalled it when he had passed on. And yet
it wasn't a handsome face. She wondered wherein
lay its charm.
Gay's words recurred to her : " So fiery and
impetuous he would ride rough-shod over anything
that stood in his way to get what he wants."
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 49
" He looks it " she thought, raising her head a
trifle to watch them out of sight. " I'm afraid I can't
do as much for him as Gay expects for I'll simply
not stand his putting on any of his lordly ways with
me." Gathering up her clovers, she started back
to the house, her head held high unconsciously, in
her most Princess-like pose.
Some one else had watched the passing of the two
young men on horseback. From his arm chair on
the white pillared porch, old Colonel LloAfd reached
out to the wicker table beside him for his field-glass,
to focus it on the distant entrance gate.
" I don't seem to place them " he said aloud. " It
looks like young Walton on the roan, but the other
one is a stranger in these parts."
Then as he saw they were not coming in, he
shifted the glass to other objects. Slowly his gaze
swept the landscape from side to side, till it rested
on Lloyd, sitting on the grass by the lilac thicket,
sorting her lapful of clovers.
Something in her childish occupation and the
sunny gleam of the proud little head bowed in-
tently over her task, recalled another scene to the
old Colonel; that morning when through this same
glass he had watched her first entrance into Locust.
Was it fourteen or fifteen years ago? It seemed
50 'LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
only yesterday that he had found her near that same
spot coolly feeding his choicest strawberries to an
elfish looking dog. Time had gone so fast since his
imperious little grand-daughter had come into his
life to fill it with new interests and deeper meaning.
Yes, it certainly seemed no longer ago than yester-
day that she was tyrannizing over him in her ador-
able baby fashion, making an abject slave of him,
whom every one else feared. And now here she was
coming towards him across the lawn, a tall, fair girl
in the last summer of her teens. Why Amanthis
was no older than she when he had brought her
home to Locust, a bride. And no doubt some one
would be coming soon, wanting to carry away
Lloyd, the light of his eyes and the life of the
place.
It made him angry to think of it, and when she
stopped beside his chair to give him a soft pat on
the cheek her first remark sent a jealous twinge
through him.
" So that's who the stranger was with young
Walton" he responded. "Humph! I don't think
much of him."
" But grandfathah, how could you tell at such a
distance?" laughed Lloyd. "It isn't fair to form
an opinion at such long range. You'd bettah come
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 51
with us tonight again ovah to the Cabin, and make
his acquaintance. There's to be anothah house-
wahming, especially for him. Kitty and Ranald
are engineering it. They've invited all the young
people in the neighbourhood — sawt of a surprise
you know. At least they call it that, although Gay
and Lucy are expecting us. Even Rob is going,
for Kitty waylaid him as he got off the train yestah-
day evening, and talked him into consenting."
" I'm glad of that " answered the old Colonel
heartily. " ' All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy.' This last year has been hard on the lad.
The Judge tells me he's never left the place a single
night since his Daddy died. He just grinds along
in that hardware store all day, and is into his law
books as soon as he gets home. He's getting to be
an old man before his time. I'm glad your little
friend Gay is here this summer, on his account, if for
no other reason. She'll draw him out of his shell if
anybody can. I remember how much he seemed
to be taken with her that Christmas Vacation she
spent in the Valley."
Lloyd gaped at him in astonishment. " Why
grandfathah! I nevah dreamed that you noticed
things like that! "
" I certainly do, my dear " he answered playfully.
52 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" I was young myself once upon a time. It's easy
to recognize familiar landmarks on a road you've
travelled. But why," he said suddenly in a changed
tone, " if I may be so bold as to ask, why is this
young Texan to be ushered into the valley with this
blare of trumpets and torchlight effect? It he any-
thing out of the ordinary? "
" No, but it will make him feel that he hasn't
dropped down into a poky inland village with noth-
ing doing, but into a lovely social whirl instead.
They want him to be so pleased with the place that
he'll be satisfied to stay all summah."
It was almost on the tip of her tongue to tell
why his family were so desirous of keeping him
with them, but another scornful " humph! " checked
her. For some unaccountable reason the old
Colonel seemed to have taken a dislike to this
stranger, and she knew that this information would
deepen it to such an extent, that he would not want
her to have anything to do with him.
" He'd be furious if he knew what I promised
Gay," she thought, " for he takes such violent prej-
udices that the least thing ' adds fuel to the flame.'
He might not want me to let him call heah or any-
thing."
"What do you keep saying 'humph!' to me
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 53
foh? " she asked saucily, " when I'm trying to tell
you the news and am so kind and polite as to ask
you to go to the pahty with us. It's dreadful to
have such an old ogah of a grandfathah, who makes
you shake in yoah shoes every time he opens his
mouth."
Her arm was round his neck as she spoke, and
her cheek pressed against his. The caress drove
away every other thought save that it was good to
have his little Colonel home again, and he gave a
pleased chuckle as she went on scolding him in a
playful manner that no one else in the woi;ld ever
dared assume with him. But all the while that
she was twisting his white moustache, and braiding
his Napoleon-like goatee into a funny little tail,
she was thinking about the evening, and the in-
different air with which she intended to meet Leland
Harcourt. She would have to be indifferent, and
oblivious of his existence as far as she could politely,
because Gay had told him that she was unapproach-
able and unattainable. She would talk to Rob most
of the evening, she decided. She was glad that she
would have the opportunity, for she had not seen
him since coming home. He had called at The
Locusts the night after her return from school,
54 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
but that was the night she had stayed at the Cabin
with Gay, and she had missed him.
" Did you know that your trunks came while you
were at the post-office?" asked the Colonel
presently. Owing to some mistake in checking their
baggage in Washington, Lloyd's trunks had been
delayed, and she had been wearing some of Betty's
clothes the two days she had been at home.
" Why didn't you tell me soonah ? " she asked,
springing up from her seat on the arm of his
chair. " I've been puzzling my brains all mawning
ovah what I could weah tonight." Hastily gather-
ing up the handful of clovers that she had dropped
on the wicker table, she ran upstairs. Everything in
her pink bower of a room was in confusion. Her
Commencement gown lay on the bed like an armful
of thistledown, with her gloves and lace fan beside
it. On the mantel stood the little white slippers in
which she had tripped across the rostrum at War-
wick Hall to receive her diploma from Madam
Chartley's hands. Now the diploma with its im-
posing red seals and big blue satin bow, was repos-
ing on top of the clock on the same mantel with the
slippers, and from the open trunks which Mom
Beck was unpacking, a motley collection of books,
'A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 55
clothing', sorority banners and school-girl souvenirs
flowed out all over the floor.
The old coloured woman was garrulous this morn-
ing. Her trip to Washington " with all her white
folks, to her baby's Finishment " (she couldn't un-
derstand why it should be called Commencement),
had been the event of her life; and when she could
get no one else to listen, she talked to herself, re-
counting each incident of her journey with unctuous
enjoyment.
She was on her knees now before one of the
trunks, talking so* earnestly into its depths, that
Lloyd, entering the room, looked around to see who
her audience could be. At the sound of Lloyd's step
the monologue came to a sudden stop, and the
wrinkled old face turned with a smile.
" What you want me to do with all these yeah
school books, honey, now you done with 'em fo'
evah?"
" Mercy, Mom Beck ! don't talk as if I had come
to the end of every thing, and am too old to study
any moah ! I expect to keep up my French and
German all next win tan, even if I am a debutante.
Don't you remembah what Madam Chartley said
in her lovely farewell speech to the graduating
56 'LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
class? What's the good of taking you to Com-
mencement, if that's all the impression it made?"
A pleased cackle of a laugh answered her.
" Law, honey, I couldn't listen to speeches ! I was
too busy thinkin' of Becky Potah in her black silk
dress that ole Cun'l give me for the grand occasion,
an' the purple pansies in my bonnet. The queen o'
Sheby couldn't held a can'le to me that day."
She was off on another chapter of reminiscences
now, but Lloyd paid no attention. As she picked
up the books and found places for them on the low
shelves that filled one side of the room, she felt as
if she were assisting at the last sad rites of some-
thing very dear; for each page was eloquent with
happy memories of her last year at school. Every
scribbled margin recalled some pleasant recitation
hour, and most of the fly-leaves were decorated
b)^ Kitty's ridiculous caricatures. She and Kitty
had been room-mates this last year.
In order to find place for these books, which she
had just brought home, she had to carry a row of
old ones down to the library. They were juvenile
tales, most of. them, which she laid aside; girls'
stories that had once been a never failing source of
delight. She could remember the time (and not so
very long ago, either) when it had seemed impossi-
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 57
ble that she could out-grow them. And now as she
trailed down stairs with an armful of her old
favourites, she felt as if the shadowy figure of her
childhood, the little Lloyd that used to be, followed
her with reproachful glances for her disloyalty to
these discarded frienas.
On her way back to her room for a second arm-
ful, she stopped outside Betty's door for a moment,
hoping to hear some noise within, which would
indicate that Betty was not at her desk. There was
so much that she wanted to talk to her about. One
of the things she had looked forward to most
eagerly in her home-coming was the long, sisterly
talks they would have together. Now it was a dis-
appointment to find her so absorbed in her writing
that she was as inaccessible as if she had withdrawn
into a cloister.
" I'll be glad when the old book is finished "
thought Lloyd impatiently as she tip-toed away
from the door. To her, Betty's ability to write was
a mysterious and wonderful gift. Not for any-
thing would she have interrupted her when " genius
burned," but she resented the fact that it should rise
between them as it had done lately. Even when
Betty was not shut up in her room actually at
work, her thoughts seemed to be on it. She was
58 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
living in a world of her own creating, more inter-
ested in the characters of her fancy than those who
sat at table with her. Since beginning the last
chapter she had been so preoccupied and absent-
minded, that Lloyd hardly knew her. She was so
unlike the old Betty, the sympathetic confidante and
counsellor, who had been interested in even the
smallest of her griefs and joys.
If Lloyd could have looked on the other side of
the closed door just then, the expression on Betty's
face would have banished every feeling of im-
patience or resentment, and sent her quietly away
to wait and wonder, while Betty passed through
one of the great hours of her life.
With a tense, earnest face bent over the manu-
script, she reached the climax of her story — the
last page, the last paragraph. Then with a throb-
bing heart, she halted a moment, pen in hand, be-
fore adding the words, The End. She wrote them
slowly, reverently almost, and then realizing that
the ambition of her life had been accomplished,
looked up with an expression of child-like awe in
her brown eyes. It was done at last, the work that
she had pledged herself to do so long ago, back
there in the little old wooden church at the Cuckoo's
Nest.
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 59
For a time she forgot the luxurious room where
she sat, and was back at the beginning of her ambi-
tion and high resolves, in that plain old meeting
house in the grove of cedars. Again she tiptoed
down the empty aisle, that was as still as a tomb,
save for the buzzing of a wasp at the open window
through which she had climbed. Again she opened
the little red book-case above the back pew, that
held the remnants of a scattered Sunday-school
library. The queer musty smell of the time-yel-
lowed volumes floated out to her as strong as ever,
mingling with the warm spicy scent of pinks and
cedar, from the graveyard just outside the open
window.
Those tattered books, read in secret to Davy on
sunny summer afternoons, had been the first voices
to whisper to her that she too was destined to leave
a record behind her. And now that she had done
it, they seemed to call her back to that starting
place. Sitting there in happy reverie, she wished
that she could make a pilgrimage back to the little
church. She would like to slip down its narrow
aisle just when the afternoon sun was shining
yellowest on its worn benches and old altar, and
dropping on her knees as she had done years ago
in a transport of gratitude, whisper a happy
60 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Thank you, God " from the depths of a glad little
heart
Presently the whisper did go up from her desk
where she sat with her face in her hands. Then
reaching out for the last volume of the white and
gold series that chronicled her good times, she
opened it to where a blotter kept the place at a half
written page, and added this entry.
" June 20th. Truly a red-letter day, for hereon
endeth my story of ' Aberdeen Hall.' The book is
written at last. Two chapters are still to be copied
on the typewriter, but the ' web ' itself is woven,
and ready to be cut from the loom. I am glad now
that I waited ; that I did not attempt to publish any-
thing in my teens. The world looks very different
to me now at twenty. I have outgrown my early
opinions and ideals with my short dresses, just as
Mrs. Walton said we would. Now the critics can
say ' Thou waitedst till thy woman's fingers
wrought the best that lay within thy woman's
heart.' I can say honestly I have put the very best
of me into it, and the feeling of satisfaction that
I have accomplished the one great thing I started
out to do so many years ago, gives me more happi-
ness I am sure, than any ' diamond leaf ' that any
prince could bring."
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 6l
Such elation as was Betty's that hour, seldom
comes to one more than once in a life-time. Years
afterward her busy pen produced far worthier
books, which were beloved and bethumbed in thou-
sands of libraries, but none of them ever brought
again that keen inward thrill, that wave of intense
happiness which surged through her warm and
sweet, as she sat looking down on that first com-
pleted manuscript. She was loath to lay it aside,
for the joy of the creator possessed her, and in the
first flush of pleased surveyal of her handiwork,
she humbly called it good.
She went down to lunch in such an uplifted frame
of mind that she seemed to be walking on air. But
Betty was always quiet, even in her most intense
moments. Save for the brilliant colour in her
cheeks and the unusual light in her eyes there was
no sign of her inward excitement. She slipped
into her seat at table with the careless announce-
ment " Well, it's finished."
It was Lloyd who made all the demonstration
amid the family congratulations. Waving her
napkin with one hand and clicking two spoons to-
gether like castanets, she sprang from her chair
and rushed around the table to give vent to her
62 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
pleasure by throwing her arms around Betty in a
delighted embrace.
" Oh you little mouse ! " she cried. " How can
you sit there taking it so calmly? If I had done
such an amazing thing as to write a book, I'd have
slidden down the ban'istahs with a whoop, to an-
nounce it, and come walking in on my hands instead
of my feet.
" Of co'se I'm just as proud of it as the rest of
the family are " she added when she had expended
her enthusiasm and gone back to her seat, " but now
that it's done I'll confess that I've been jealous of
that old book evah since I came home, and I'm
mighty glad it's out of the way. Now you'll have
time to take some interest in what the rest of us are
doing, and you'll feel free to go in, full-swing, for
the celebration at the Cabin tonight."
All the rest of that day seemed a fete day to
Betty. Her inward glow lent a zest to the doing
of even the most trivial things, and she prepared
for the gaieties at the Cabin, as if it were her own
entertainment, pleased that this red-letter occasion
of her life should be marked by some kind of a
celebration. It was to do honour to the day and not
to the Harcourt's guest, that she arrayed herself in
her most becoming gown.
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 63
Rob dropped in early, quite in the old way as if
there had never been a cessation of his daily visits,
announcing that he had come to escort the girls to
the Cabin. Lloyd who was not quite ready, leaned
over the banister in the upper hall for a glimpse
of her old playmate, intending to call down some
word of greeting ; but he looked so grave and digni-
fied as he came forward under the hall chandelier
to shake hands with Betty, that she drew back in
silence.
The next instant she resented this new feeling
of reserve that seemed to rise up and wipe out all
their years of early comradery. Why shouldn't she
call down to him over the banister as she had always
done? she asked herself defiantly. He was still the
same old Rob, even if he had grown stern and grave
looking. She leaned over again, but this time it
was the sight of Betty that stopped her. She had
never seen her so beaming, so positively radiant. In
that filmy yellow dress, she might have posed as
the Daffodil Maid. Her cheeks were still flushed,
her velvety brown eyes luminous with the joy of the
day's achievement.
Lloyd watched her a moment in fascinated ad-
miration, as she stood laughing and talking under
the hall light. Then she saw that Rob was just as
64 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
much impressed with Betty's attractiveness as she
was, and was looking at her as if he had made a
discovery.
His pleased glance and the frank compliment that
followed sent a thought into Lloyd's mind that
made her wonder why it had never occurred to
her before. How well Betty would fit into the
establishment over at Oaklea. What a dear daugh-
ter she would make to Mrs. Moore, and what a
joy she would be to the old Judge ! Rob seemed
to be finding her immensely entertaining. Well,
there was no need for her to hurry down now. She
could take her time about changing her dress.
Lloyd could not have told what had made her
decide so suddenly that her dress needed changing.
She had put on a pale green dimity that she liked
because it was simple and cool-looking, but now af-
ter a glance into the mirror she began to slip it off.
" It looks like a wilted lettuce leaf," she said
petulantly to her reflection, realizing that nothing
but white could hold its own when brought in con-
tact with Betty's gown. That pale exquisite shade
of glowing yellow would be the dominating colour
in any place it might be worn.
" I must live up to Gay's expectations," she
thought, "so white it shall be, Senor Harcourt!"
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 65
His dark face with its flashing smile rose before
her, and stayed in the foreground of her thoughts,
ail the time she was arraying herself in her daintiest,
fluffiest white organdy. Clasping the little necklace
of Roman pearls around her throat, and catching up
her lace fan, she swept up to the mirror for a last
anxious survey. It was a thoroughly satisfactory
one, and with a final smoothing of ribbons she
smiled over her shoulder at the charming reflection.
" Now I'll go down and practise my airs and
graces on Rob and Betty for awhile. But I'll leave
them in peace after we get to the Cabin, for if
there should be any possibility of their beginning to
care for each othah, I wouldn't get in the way for
worlds. Now this is the way I'll sail in to meet
Mistah Harcourt ! "
Thus it happened that the hauteur with which
she intended to impress him was in her manner
when she swept in to greet Rob. It was not meant
for Rob but it had the same effect as if it were,
making him feel as if she wished to drop the
friendly familiarity of their school days, and meet
him on the footing of a recent acquaintance. He
had been looking forward all year to her home-
coming, and now it gave him a vague sense of dis-
appointment and injury, that she should be as con-
66 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ventionally gracious to him as if he were the veriest
stranger. His eyes followed her wistfully, as if
looking for something very precious which he had
lost.
Wholly unconscious of the way she was spoiling
the evening for him Lloyd went on playing the part
of Serene Highness, laid out for her. Never to
Gay's admiring eyes had she seemed more beauti-
ful, more the fair unattainable Princess, than she
was in her meeting with Leland Harcourt. Gay
wanted to pat her on the back, for she saw that she
had made the very impression expected of her.
Long practice had made Gay quick in interpreting
Leland's slightest change of expression, and she was
well pleased now with what she read in his face.
But to Lloyd, the dark, smiling eyes, regarding
everything with a slightly amused expression,
showed nothing more than the superficial interest
which ordinary politeness demanded of him. He
made some pretty speech about the Valley and his
pleasure in meeting its charming people, and then
stood talking only long enough to make her feel
that Gay was right in her estimate' of him. He was
entertaining, even fascinating in his manner, more
entertaining than any man she had ever met. But
just as she reached this conclusion she found her-
A KNIGHT COMES RIDING 67
self handed over in some unaccountable way to some
one else, and that was the last of his attention to her
that night.
He seemed immensely entertained by Kitty, and
much interested in Betty and the fact that she had
finished writing a book that very day. Gay heralded
her advent with that news. Lloyd could overhear
little scraps of conversation that made her long to
have a share in it. His repartee was positively
brilliant she found herself thinking; the kind that
one reads of in books, but never hears elsewhere.
For the first time in her life Lloyd felt herself
calmly and deliberately ignored, just as she had
planned to ignore him.
" Maybe it's because Gay told him that I would
be so indifferent/' she thought, " and he doesn't
think it worth the effort to put himself out to make
me be nice to him. I don't care."
Nevertheless a little feeling of disappointment
and pique crept in to spoil her evening also, for in
the limited wisdom of her school-girl experiences
she did not recognize that this worldly-wise young
man was ignoring her because he was interested;
that he had only adopted her own tactics as the
surest way of gaining his end.
CHAPTER IV;
betty's novel
It was Gay's voice over the telephone. " Oh
Lloyd, can't you come? Do arrange it some way.
Lucy is frightened stiff at the thought of being left
here alone all night with just me. And she thought
it would be such a good time for Betty to read us
her novel, as she promised, before she sends it away
to the publishers. There'll be no callers to inter*
rupt us on such a rainy day."
" Hold- the phone a minute," answered Lloyd.
" I'll see. It's Gay," she explained to her mother
who had come out into the hall at the first tinkle
of the bell, thinking the summons might be for her.
" Mistah Harcourt and his brothah went to Lex-
ington this mawning to buy those hawses, and Gay
and Lucy are afraid to stay there tonight. The
cook had promised to sleep at the house, but some-
thing turned up at her home a little while ago to
prevent. So they want Kitty and Betty and me to
68
BETTY'S NOVEL 69
come ovah right away and spend the aftahnoon
and night. It's raining cataracts and I know you
don't like to take the new carriage out in such
weathah, but couldn't Alec put the curtains on the
old one?"
Mrs. Sherman glanced dubiously towards the
windows, against which the rain was beating in
torrents.
" And leave me all alone, when I've been looking
forward to this same good, rainy afternoon with
you," almost slipped from Mrs. Sherman's tongue.
But the eager desire shining in the faces of both
girls kept back the words.
" It's only a warm summer rain," interposed
Betty, seeing her hesitate.
" Very well, then," consented Mrs. Sherman
with a smile, but as she went back to her room she
stifled a little sigh of disappointment. " I suppose
it's only natural they should want to be going," she
thought. " But if it wasn't so selfish I could al-
most wish that Gay hadn't come to the Valley for
the summer. She will take Lloyd away from home
so often, and I have looked forward so long to the
companion she would be when her school days were
ended."
Wholly unconscious of her mother's disappoint-
7<5 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ment Lloyd was answering merrily, " We'll be ovah
right away ! Ring up Kitty again, and tell her we'll
drive by for her."
An hour later the five girls (for the bride of a
year seemed the youngest of them all at times)
were seated in an upstairs room at the Lindsey
Cabin, each in a comfortable rocking chair. Lucy
had taken them to her room saying it was cozier
up near the roof where they could hear the rain
patter on the shingles. Also her dormer windows
faced the West, and they would have daylight
longer there.
It took a little while for them to get settled for
the reading. Lucy brought out the family darning
with a matronly air, when she saw that Lloyd had
brought a square of linen to start a piece of drawn-
work, and Kitty had some napkins to hem. Mrs.
Walton had turned over the management of the
house to Kitty only that day (Allison had had it
the year before) and with house-wifely zeal she
had begun with an exploration of the linen closet
where she had found a pile of unhemmed linen.
Not wanting to be idle while all the rest were
occupied, Gay kept them waiting while she bur-
rowed through her trunk for an intricate piece of
knitting work which she had begun two years be-
BETTY'S NOVEL 7 1
fore. It had been intended for a Christmas pres-
ent, and she had brought it with her intending to
finish it before another Christmas or perish in the
attempt. " Don't pay any attention to me," she
warned. " There'll be places where I have to stop
and count stitches and fairly wrestle with it, but
I'll be listening in spite of my bodily contortions."
They were all ready at last, so Betty picked up
the first chapter and cleared her throat. She had
been anxious to read her novel to the girls, she had
been so sure of its merit. But now as she glanced
down the page she was assailed by misgivings.
After all she might not have been an impartial
judge, and maybe it wasn't as good as it seemed
to her.
" You'll recognize some of the incidents," she
explained, " and one character is a composite por-
trait of three Lloydsboro people. He looks like
Mr. Jaynes, stutters like Captain Bedel and has
experiences that once happened to Doctor Shelby.
I've put Miss Marietta Waring's romance into it
too."
Betty read well. She loved the characters she
had fashioned, and with her sympathetic voice to
interpret them, they became almost as real to her
listeners as they were to herself. Presently the
72 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
girls began to exchange approving nods. She
watched them from the corner of her eye. Now
and then there were low murmurs of approbation
at some particularly pleasing incident or turn of
expression, and at the end of the first chapter
there was outspoken applause. They complimented
enthusiastically while Betty rested and took breath
for the next.
As she felt the genuine pleasure she was afford-
ing them, all her fears as to its short-comings fled.
She began to see that her story was even better
than she had thought it. She saw it in better per-
spective through their eyes. Its plot moved so
smoothly. There was more life, more go in it than
she had been conscious of in her solitary readings.
It was certainly worth all the painstaking effort
it had cost her. She could look at it now and no
longer humbly, but confidently call it good.
When in one scene she stole a furtive glance
around to note the effect, and caught Lucy stealthily
slipping out her handkerchief, Gay looking up with
tears on her lashes and Lloyd with the peculiar
tightening of the lips that showed she was trying
to swallow the lump in her throat, she was so happy
she could have sung for joy. She read on and on,
and they forgot the rain beating against the win-
BETTY'S NOVEL 73
d'ows, forgot everything but their interest in the
story.
Lucy pushed her darning basket aside and leaned
back in her chair, her hands clasped behind her
head. The work over which Lloyd had been bend-
ing, dropped in her lap and her little gold thimble
rolled away into a corner unheeded. There was a
personal interest in the story for each of them.
Lloyd saw herself as plainly in Betty's heroine as
she could see her reflection in the mirror door of
the huge mahogany wardrobe opposite her. Some
of Kitty's ridiculous speeches that had become his-
torical in her family, found a place here and there,
and once Lucy laughed outright, exclaiming, " Why
that's just like Gay ! You must have been thinking
of her when you wrote it."
The reading went on without interruption until
it was so dark that Betty had to hold her manu-
script close to the window. " I'll ring for lights,"
thought Lucy, " just as soon as she comes to the
end of this chapter." But with the end of the chap-
ter came Ca'line Allison with a message from the
kitchen. Lucy started up in dismay.
"There! I forgot all about that salad. How
could I be so careless when I'm to have a real live
74 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
authoress to dinner? I was so interested I hadn't
a thought for anything but the story."
" Such appreciation is a thousand times better
than salad," laughed Betty, so jubilant over her
triumph that her eyes were full of a happy light.
" This is a good place to stop until after dinner.
I've read until my throat is tired."
Lucy hurried down stairs to hasten the dinner
preparations, in order that they might get back to
the reading as soon as possible. The four girls
folded their work, and sat in the twilight, talking.
" What does this make you think of ? " asked
Lloyd.
" I know what's in your mind," answered Kitty.
" I was just about to speak of it myself; that rainy
day at Boarding School, when Ida Shane read
' The Fortune of Daisy Dale ' to us, behind locked
doors. Wasn't it thrilling? "
Gay who had heard the incident mentioned many
times at Warwick Hall, said plaintively, " You
girls always make me feel that I have missed half
my life, because I wasn't with you when Ida Shane
read that story. I'd certainly like to get my hands
on such a wonderful piece of literature."
" But it wasn't wonderful," Betty hastened to
explain. " It made that deep impression on us sim-
BETTY'S NOVEL 75
ply because it was the first novel we had ever read.
It was sentimental and melodramatic and trashy
as we've since discovered, but then it seemed all
that was lovely and romantic. It gave us thrills
up and down our spines and sent us around with
our heads in the clouds for days. We were seeing
embryo Guy Wolverings in every boy we met. As
I listened to Ida I thought that if I could only
write a book that would hold my listeners spell-
bound as that held us, I'd ask no more of life. I
could die happy."
" Well, you've done it, dear," said Gay warmly.
" We scarcely breathed during the last two chap-
ters, and I'm so eager to know how it ends that
I'd willingly cut dinner to go on with it."
" Now how does that make you feel, Miss Eliza-
beth Lloyd Lewis ? " asked Kitty teasingly. " Fair
uplifted, I've nae doot."
" Yes, it does," was the honest answer. " It's
what I've hoped for and worked for and prayed
for these last ten years. Can you wonder that it
makes me radiantly happy to have you girls think
that I have in a measure succeeded ? "
Dinner was announced a little later, and when
the girls went into the dining-room, they found
Lucy herself bringing it in.
76 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Poor Sylvia had another message from home,"
she explained, "so I told her and Ca'line Allison
to go on; that we'd wait on ourselves and clear
the table, and they could wash the dishes in the
morning. It's not raining quite so hard now, but
it is dark as a pocket outside."
As she placed the soup tureen on the table, they
heard the outer kitchen door close, and Sylvia turn
the key in the lock.
" Ugh ! " exclaimed Lucy with a shiver. " Now
we're abandoned to our fate! I wish you'd pull
that window-shade farther down, Gay. There's
just room for somebody to peep under it, and there's
nothing more terrifying to me than the thought of
eyes peering in at one from the outer darkness."
" ' The gobelins will git you if you don't watch
out,' " sang Gay. " Do for pity's sake put your
mind on something else, Lucy, and don't spoil this
festive occasion with a case of high jinks ! "
Seeing that their little hostess was really nervous
and timid, Kitty began to divert them all by im-
personating different characters in the Valley.
She was a fine mimic, and kept them laughing all
through the first course. Lucy carried out the
plates, and hurried back with the second course.
" You've g-ot to get the salad when the time
BETTY'S NOVEL 77
comes," she said to Gay. " It's so spooky out there
in the kitchen with Sylvia gone, that I was afraid
to look over my shoulder. Queer, isn't it! For
it's just as warm and well-lighted and cheerful now
as when she was there. I wouldn't go into the
pantry alone for a fortune."
" Nonsense ! " cried Kitty. " Five valiant females
are enough to keep any Lloydsboro foe at bay.
We'll be your brave defenders."
Gay, who had risen to circle around the table
with a plate of hot biscuit, paused dramatically
beside Lucy's chair to say in a stage whisper,
"Hist! I have a weapon of defence ye wot not
of. One that a doughty knight did leave behind
him."
" Oh," said the literal Lucy. " I suppose you
mean Mr. Shelby's boxing-glove that he left on
the piano, when he came in yesterday to bring you
those books. It was awfully funny, girls, the way
he seemed to leave it by accident. I couldn't help
laughing, for it was so evident he did it on purpose,
to have an excuse to come again sooner than he
would have done otherwise."
Gay smiled knowingly. It was not a boxing-
glove she meant, but for reasons of her own she
did not enlighten Lucy as to the kind of weapon
78 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
she had in reserve. It was after eight when they
rose from the table, and they made such a frolic
of carrying out the dishes, that the grandfather
clock on the stairs chimed the half-hour as they
finished.
Before Ca'line Allison left she had started a
cheerful blaze in the fireplace of the huge living
room, for the night was chilly as well as damp. But
Lucy partly covered it with ashes, and proposed
spending the evening up-stairs.
" Somehow one feels so much safer up-stairs
when there are no men in the house," she explained.
" We'll light two big lamps, and that will make
it as warm and cosy as if we had a fire."
So in a body they made the rounds of the down-
stairs rooms, bolting windows and locking doors.
Then satisfied that every entrance was securely
fastened, they went up-stairs to resume the read-
ing. This time there was no attempt to do any
needlework. With folded hands they waited in
expectant silence, while Betty found her place. But
just as she raised the sheet of paper, the great door
of the mahogany wardrobe swung slowly and
stealthily open. Not a sound did it make, and
there was something so ghostly in its silent undoing
that Lucy gave a little shriek and hid her face in
BETTY'S NOVEL 7$
her hands. Each one of them acknowledged to a
queer chilly sensation just for an instant, even Gay,
who explained that it was only a little habit that
the wardrobe had. " I don't mind it in the day-
time," she added, " but it is spooky at night when
everything is still to have it unexpectedly pop open,
and swing out with that slow gliding motion."
" It's because the latch is worn and the catch
works loose," said matter-of-fact Kitty, who had
crossed the room to examine it. She turned the
key. " Now it will not interrupt us for awhile.
Go on with the story, Betty."
Again the manuscript was raised and again Lucy
stopped her with the wail, " Oh, Gay ! We've for-
gotten to bring up the silver pitcher and Jameson's
ladle. I put them on the dining-room table after
I'd washed them, and then marched off and forgot
them."
" Well, I'll go down for them," volunteered Gay.
" There's no use in your doing it and getting an-
other fit of shivers."
" The other three sprang up, but Gay waved
Betty back.
" Save your breath for the reading. Kitty and
Lloyd will be enough. I don't mind acknowledging
80 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
that I'll be glad to have both a rear and a van
guard going through that dark hall."
Lighting a candle and holding it high above her
head, Lloyd led the way down-stairs. Gay was
inwardly quaking, for she was almost as timid as
her sister, but the fearlessness of her two compan-
ions made her keep up a pretence of bravery. As
the three pairs of little heels clattered down the
dark polished steps, Lloyd and Kitty kept time in a
singsong chant :
" There was a man and he had naught
And robbers came to rob him.
He got up on the chimney top
And then they thought they had him.
But he got down on the other side
And then they couldn't find him.
He went foztrteen miles in fifteen days
And never looked behind him."
It was almost cruel of Kitty to seize that oppor-
tunity to tell the scariest burglar tale that she had
ever heard, but a fine appreciation of dramatic situ-
ations urged her to it.
" Ugh ! Don't ! " begged Gay, as they filed into
the dining-room and began looking around for the
silver heirlooms. Lucy was mistaken. It was the
kitchen table on which she had left them.
BETTY'S NOVEL 8l
" The goose-flesh is standing out all over me !
That's the most gruesome tale I ever heard."
" But I'm in the most interesting part," insisted
Kitty. " When she saw the black face leering over
the transom — "
" Hush ! " chattered Gay. " I won't listen to
another word. It's so creepy I can feel things
grabbing at my ankles. Let me have the candle a
minute, please, Lloyd, I want to get something out
of the hat-rack drawer."
There was a faint glow on the hearth from the
few embers Lucy had left uncovered, and the two
stood within it as they waited for Gay to come back
with the candle. Kitty went on with her tale, for
Lloyd was as fearless as herself. She did not get
further than a sentence or two, however, before
Gay came hurrying back. To their astonishment
she blew out the candle as she reached them, and
in the brief glimpse they had of her face they saw
that it was ghastly white. In the dim glow of the
embers they were scarcely visible to each other.
She clutched them with trembling fingers.
" There's some one prowling around the house! "
she whispered. " Some one was creeping around
under the windows, and then up on the porch. I
82 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
heard them plain as day. I blew out the light so
they couldn't see in ! "
" Pooh ! " began Lloyd, but enough of Gay's ex-
citement had been communicated to both her lis-
teners to make their hearts thump a little faster,
when they, too, heard a noise at the window. There
certainly were steps on the porch. Then the knocker
on the front door was lifted and a hollow clang
echoed through the hall.
" Burglars don't knock," said Lloyd with a sigh
of relief. " Let's all go to the doah togethah and
ask who's there. We needn't open it."
" No, don't ! " begged Gay, almost in tears. " It's
just like that awful story Kitty started to tell —
the knock at the door, the lone woman's voice an-
swering, and the burglar forcing his way over the
transom! Our only safety is in keeping perfectly
still. If worst comes to worst, then I'll make them
think there's a man in the house, but I won't do
it till I'm driven to it."
" If it's one of the neighbours he'll knock again,"
said Kitty.
For a moment they waited, their hearts in their
mouths, as they remembered what a lonely place
was this dark beech woods, and how near it was
to Stumptown, with its many drunken negroes.
BETTY'S NOVEL 83
The knock was not repeated, but the steps sounded
as if the intruder were prowling back and forth on
the porch. Then the slats of the window-shutters
turned stealthily.
" Thank heaven the shades are down ! " chat-
tered Gay hysterically. " Oh, girls, I'm growing
gray-headed. I can't stand this suspense another
second." Then as the steps once more crossed the
porch, " Cut up-stairs ! Quick ! Both of you !
I'll follow."
She darted out of the dim circle of light on the
hearth, and they could not see what happened, but
almost instantly a pistol shot rang out. Up till
that moment neither Kitty nor Lloyd had been
much alarmed. Now they clutched each other
wildly.
" It's some crazy man escaped from the Lake-
land asylum," began Kitty, but her words were cut
short by another shot, then another and another and
another, in such rapid succession that they lost
count. A series of piercing screams from Lucy,
up-stairs, made their blood run cold, but the shrieks
were not half as terrifying as the sight of Gay
staggering back out of the hall. As they sprang
towards her she leaned against them limply.
84 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Is she shot? " gasped Kitty in a horrified whis-
per. " Oh, where' s the light? "
With shaking hands Lloyd caught up the daily
paper, left lying on the settle, and threw it on the
coals. It blazed up instantly, and by its light she
found the candle.
;The shrieks were still going on up-stairs and
Betty was calling out frantically to know what
was the matter. She could not come down to see
for herself, for Lucy had caught her in a hysterical
grasp and was holding her like a vise. As the can-
dle flared up something fell from Gay's nerveless
hand to the floor. The girls looked at each other
in blank astonishment. It was a revolver. Gay
herself had fired the shots.
Now in the midst of their bewilderment they
became conscious of shouts outside. Some one was
calling: "Mrs. Harcourt! Miss Melville! Don't
be alarmed ! It's only Alex Shelby ! "
Recognizing the voice, Lloyd flew to open the
door, candle in hand.
" Oh, you gave us such a scare! " she began in
a tone of relief. " We thought it was a burglar
doing the shooting. We nevah dreamed that Gay
had a revolvah."
" It was mine," explained Alex, laughing so that
BETTY'S NOVEL 8$
he could hardly close his umbrella. " I loaded it
for her and loaned it to her yesterday, but I had
no idea it would come back at me in that boom-
erang fashion. She popped loose and shot at me
bang through the front door. The first shot whis-
tled just over my head, and if I hadn't dodged
behind a post I surely would have stopped them
all. Hottest welcome I ever had."
Then as he came on in, he continued, apologet-
ically, " I'm mighty sorry I gave you all such a
fright. I ought to have gone away without knock-
ing when I saw there was no light down-stairs,
but I knew you were all here, and it was so early,
I never dreamed of being taken for a burglar."
He kept on with his apologies after he came into
the hall, but Gay was not there to hear. Mortified
that she had been so rash, and horrified by the
thought of how serious the consequences of her wild
shooting might have been, she could not face him.
At the first sound of his voice she ran for the
stairs, her wild dash almost upsetting Lucy and
Betty on their way down. When repeated callings
failed to bring her back, Kitty went up to look for
her and found her in a woebegone heap on the foot
of her bed.
" Oh, you mustn't take it to heart that way," she
86 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
said soothingly, in response to Gay's tearful pro-
tests that she could never look him in the face
again, never, never! That he'd always think what
a fool she was and how near she came to killing
him.
" Nonsense ! " was Kitty's brisk answer. " He
insists that it is all his own fault, that he ought
to have known what to expect when he called on a
native Texan. He says he's always heard that they
punctuate their remarks with bullets and will shoot
at the drop of a hat. Hereafter he will herald his
approach by telephone or else come in a coat of
mail warranted to turn even the fire of a Gatling
gun. He's making a joke of it, and it's silly of you
not to do the same. Get up this minute and come
down-stairs, and make him have such a good time
that he'll gladly risk another shooting to come
again."
It was a long time before Gay could screw her
courage to the point of following Kitty meekly
down-stairs, and in the meantime Lucy took an
effective way to make him forget his inhospitable
reception. Her chafing dish was her panacea for
many ills. She had tried it at the Post too many
times with the different boys who flocked there,
not to know its full value. So when Gay came
U HE WAS BENDING ANXIOUSLY OVER A BUBBLING SAUCEPAN.
BETTY'S NOVEL 87
into the room she found Alex already being in-
itiated into the mysteries of candy-making. With
a white apron tied around his waist, and a big
spoon in his hand., he was bending anxiously over
a bubbling sauce-pan.
Heretofore his calls at the Cabin had been of
the most formal kind; but this little escapade was
doing more to further their acquaintance and put
him on the same privileged footing that the boys
at the Post enjoyed, than dozens of casual meet-
ings could have done. It was a novel experience to
Alex, and he made the most of it, exerting himself
to be entertaining, in hopes of having the occasion
repeated.
After the first painful moment of greeting and
apology, Gay subsided into a corner of the old set-
tle, but she did not stay there long. It was impos-
sible to resist the infection of Alex's high spirits.
When the reaction began it swung her to the far-
thest extreme, into an irresistible gale of merriment.
Betty's thoughts turned regretfully to the manu-
script up-stairs. She was sorry that the reading
had been interrupted. She knew the girls would
have gained a better impression of the book if they
could have heard it without this interruption.
There was no telling when there would be an oppor-
88 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
tunity to finish it as good as this would have been.
Once she had a hope that Alex would not stay long
and that there would still be time to finish the read-
ing after his departure. But while the candy
cooled Gay started Lloyd and Alex to singing
duets, she and Kitty accompanying them with
violin and piano, and she knew that it was useless
to hope any longer. So she settled down to enjoy
the sweets and the music as heartily as the rest of
them.
In one of the pauses, while they were searching
through a pile of songs for some duet they wanted,
Lloyd crossed over to the settle where Lucy was
sitting beside the candy, and helped herself to a
piece.
" I'm sorry Leland is missing this," said Lucy.
" It was a time like this that gave him his nickname
of ' Brer Tarrypin.' He used to be devoted to
candy-pulls, and came up to the Post ever)?- time he
thought we were going to have one ; and he always
was like Brer Tarrypin, you know, in the Uncle
Remus stories."
" How is that ? " inquired Lloyd, keenly inter-
ested. She knew the Uncle Remus stories by heart
and wondered in what way this one had been ap-
plied to the elegant and fastidious Mr. Harcourt
BETTY'S NOVEL 89
" Why, you know, Brer B'ar he helped Miss
Meadows bring the wood, Brer Fox he mend the
fire, Brer Wolf he kept the dogs off, Brer Rabbit
he greased the bottoms of the plates to keep the
candy from sticking, but ' Brer Tarrypin he klum up
in a cheer an' say he watch an' see dat de 'lasses
didn't bile over.' The boys always used to say
that the only part in the game Leland would take
was watching the lasses. He'd talk to their girls
while they did the work."
Gay, over at the piano, drew her brows together
in a little frown. She wished that Lucy would
be more discreet in her reminiscences, for she felt
that Lloyd was already prejudiced against Leland
more than was desirable. She called out suddenly,
" Sister, can't you find that duet for us? You had
it last."
Lucy rose obediently, but lingered a moment to
add, as Lloyd laughed, " Leland doesn't mind it
a bit. The boys all got to hailing him in Uncle
Remus fashion, ' Heyo, Brer Tarrypin, wha'r you
bin dis long-come-short?' and he'd answer as a
matter of course, ' Lounjun roun', Brer Fox, loun-
jun roun'."
" It's mighty interesting to know the history of
a nickname," observed Lloyd, with an amused smile,
90 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
which Gay interpreted as meaning that this bit of
history was being tucked away for future use.
It was late when Alex went home, taking his
revolver with him. He would be staying all night
near by, with a friend of his, he told them, and if
anything else frightened them they were to tele-
phone. He'd come post-haste to their rescue.
Then he made the rounds of all the down-stairs win-
dows and doors, seeing that each was properly
fastened, and started Lucy on her way up-stairs
with the silver pitcher and ladle safe in her hands.
He seemed to leave the sense of his strong pro-
tecting presence behind him. As they bolted the
door and heard him go whistling cheerily down
the road, Lucy declared enthusiastically : " He's
a nice boy and he's made us have such a jolly eve-
ning that I'm all wound up and don't feel a bit
sleepy. Let's make a night of it and hear the rest
of Betty's story. It doesn't make any difference
if it is nearly midnight. We can sleep as late as
we please in the morning, for Jameson isn't here,
and we won't have to consider his convenience."
For once they were of the same mind, all loath
to go to bed. So Betty slipped into a borrowed
kimona, shook down her hair and settled herself
comfortably in a cushioned chair beside the lamp.
BETTY'S NOVEL 91
" If they keep awake to the end," she thought,
" that will be a good test. I'll know then that it
has real interest and I'll not be afraid to give it to
the public." So she kept an anxious watch out of
the corner of her eye, intending to stop at the first
sign of weariness. But the attention of her audi-
ence was as profound as it had been during the
afternoon. Stifling an occasional yawn herself,
she read on and on. It was half -past two when
she laid aside the last page of her manuscript and
looked up timidly to receive the verdict. Lloyd
spoke first.
" Betty Lewis, it's perfectly splendid ! I'm so
proud of you — I've always been suah you'd make
a name for yoahself some day, but I nevah dreamed
you'd do it so early in life, at only twenty ! "
" I haven't made it yet, you know," Betty re-
minded her smiling. " My friends may be willing
to ' pass my imperfections by,' but I've still to run
the gauntlet of the critics."
There was a chorus of protests from the other
girls, and Betty's heart grew warm as she listened
to their cordial praise and predictions of success.
" I'm dying to have a finger in the launching of
this little bark," said Gay. " Let's wrap it up to-
night and have it all ready to sen4 off in the morn*
92 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ing. It would be so fine to be able to brag to ray
grandchildren that / helped. I have a strong flat
box just the size of the manuscript. I'm sure it
will fit it exactly. Wait and I'll go and get it."
She ran out of the room, and, while she rum-
maged through a trunk to find it, Lucy climbed up
on a chair to look on the wardrobe shelf for some
heavy wrapping-paper which she had folded away.
" Let me have some part in it too," cried Kitty.
" Although I've no idea what it can be when I'm
so far from the source of supplies. Oh, I know
now," she said after an instant's thought. " You'll
need a string to tie around the box. Here's some-
thing that will do."
Opening the wicker satchel she had brought with
her she took out a dainty nightgown. It was the
work of only a moment to slip out the fresh, new
pink ribbons that had been run through the lace
beading.
" Now let me tie it ! " she insisted. " See what
an artistic bow I can make ! "
When the manuscript had been placed in Gay's
box, tied with Kitty's ribbon and wrapped in Lucy's
paper, it was gravely handed over to Lloyd, who
had suggested that as it was to be sent by express
it ought to be sealed.
BETTY'S NOVEL 93
" There's a stick of sealing-wax in the drawer
of the library table," said Lucy, " if anybody's
brave enough to go down and get it at this ' wee
sma' hour.' It must be nearly three o'clock."
Before she had finished her sentence Lloyd had
lighted a candle to carry down-stairs. She was
back in a moment. They all stood around in a
circle while she melted the red wax in the heat of
the candle. " Somebody ought to say an abra-
cadabra charm ovah it," she suggested. " You do
it, Kitty." Then she looked around her helplessly.
" What am I going to do for a seal ? Quick, some-
body, hand me something off the dressing-table.
The stoppah of that vinaigrette will do."
Before Lucy could hand her the bottle Gay caught
up the old silver ladle and pressed the end of its
handle down on the soft wax.
" There's a crest on it," she explained, holding
it firmly in place. " The motto will read back-
wards, but that won't make any difference.
There ! " She lifted the ladle, and they all crowded
around to see the clear-cut impression left in the
red wax, of a dagger thrust through a crown. The
tiny reversed letters of the motto were undecipher-
able, but Gay translated them.
" Jameson says it's the Latin for ' I strive till
£4 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
I overcome/ and that's a fine war-cry for Betty.
She's striven so long it's bound to bring a crown,
only that other thing ought to be a pen instead of
a dagger."
" Let me put one seal on, just for luck," begged
Kitty when Lloyd had carefully fastened both ends
of the package. She held the wax to the flame.
" Everybody make a wish," she ordered. " Wish
hard."
They wished in silence. In silence they looked
on while Kitty dropped the third red drop on the
package and pressed into it the crown and the dag-
ger of the ladle's crest. Then they stood over
Betty while she addressed it to the publisher to
whom long ago she had decided to send it. Then
Gay laid it solemnly beside the silver heirlooms as
one of the things " to be carried out first in case
of fire."
" Three o'clock and all is well," called Kitty as
the chime on the stair began its warning. " The
deed is done and all the omens are auspicious."
" That will be a scene to remember always,"
thought Betty gratefully, looking around at the four
pretty girls in the candlelight, as they made a cere-
mony of the launching of her little ship, their faces
filled with loving interest.
BETTY'S NOVEL 9$
The chickens were crowing for daylight before
she fell asleep, for she could not hinder her happy
thoughts from straying off to the future, when this
same little ship should come home from sea with
its cargo of fame and fortune that the girls had
predicted. She had dedicated the book simply
" To my Godmother," and she pictured to herself
the supreme moment when she could lay the pub-
lished volume in her hands. She would send one
to Madam Chartley, she decided, and one to Miss
Chilton, whose instructions in English had been
such an inspiration to her. Then, of course, each
one of the girls must have one.
Strangers would write to her, people would thrill
with pleasure over her pages as she had thrilled
over other authors, and — oh, yes ! Davy must
have one of the very first copies of the book, since
he had been the first lover of her stories. She
almost sat up in bed in the excitement of her next
thought. She wondered why it never had occurred
to her before. If the book should be really suc-
cessful it would bring her money of her own. She
could be the good fairy of the Cuckoo's Nest. How
many comforts she could slip into it to make life
easier for poor tired, over-worked cousin Hetty!
And — Davy could go away to school!
96 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
That last thought sent a warm glad tingle over
her. How good God had been to give her this de-
lightful way of making a Road of the Loving Heart
in every one's memory — with her pen! She felt
that her whole life ought to be a perpetual Thanks-
giving, and when she fell asleep with a smile on
her lips, she was repeating drowsily : " My lines
have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yea, I have
a goodly heritage."
CHAPTER V
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Several days after his return from Lexington,
Leland Harcourt sauntered out of the house, after
a late breakfast alone. The bored expression on
his face showed plainly what he thought of the
Valley as a summer resort. His brother and Lucy
were off somewhere about the grounds, and for
more than an hour the faint sound of Gay's violin
had been floating up from the rustic arbour, which
she claimed as her private domain.
It was a pleasant little retreat, far back from the
road in the dense beech shade, and at such a dis-
tance from the house that her energetic practising
could disturb no one. Here every morning before
the distractions of the day began, she religiously
devoted an hour to her music. The time always
slipped past that limit if no one came to stop her,
for an absorbing devotion to her work made her
oblivious to everything else when her beloved violin
was once tucked under her chin. Scales and trills
97
98 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
and chords, all the finger exercises that kept her
touch supple and sure, were gone through with in
faithful routine. Then the new music she was
mastering had its share of careful attention, and
after that she played on and on, as a bird sings,
from sheer love of it.
She was improvising when Leland came out on
the porch, a light rollicking little tune, to fit a verse
from an Uncle Remus song. It was a verse which
Alex Shelby had repeated as he escorted them over
to The Beeches, the time they spent the night there,
the next night after their burglar scare at the Cabin.
Lucy had been so frightened that she gladly ac-
cepted Mrs. Walton's invitation to stay with her
until the men of the family returned.
They had had such a good time. Now the recol-
lection of it was finding voice in the tune which
Gay was trying to manufacture for the words which
Alex had laughingly sung when Lucy stuck in the
barb wire fence on the way over:
" Hop light, ladies, Oh, Miss Loo,
Hit take a heap er scrougin'
Fer to git you throo.
Hop light, ladies, oh, Miss Loo ! "
Gay recalled the straggling little procession
through the woods with a smile, as her bow qua-
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vered again through the refrain. They must have
looked ridiculous. There was Lucy lugging the
heavy silver pitcher and Jameson's ladle because
she was afraid to leave them behind, and she her-
self with her violin case, and Alex carrying the
Lindsey spoons and forks and the enormous seven-
branched silver candle-sticks, because Lucy felt re-
sponsible for their safety, since she had rented
them with the house. And there was Ranald bring-
ing up the rear with their suit-cases, and Kitty
laughing at them all for bringing these household
gods. She called Lucy " Ephraim joined to his
idols," because she would not put down the pitcher
and ladle even while she crawled through the barb
wire fence. They had cut across lots in the twi-
light, instead of going around by the road, not
wanting to be seen with a load which looked so
much like burglar's booty.
" If Leland only could have been with us then ! "
thought Gay regretfully. " And the night before
that when we had such a jolly time with the taffy
and the duets. He would have been on a real
friendly footing with them all by this time. But
he's beginning to find it dull. I know he is. He'll
be off again before long if we can't get him inter-
ested in something."
IOO LITTLE COLONEL'S TCNIGHT COMES RIDING
While she was worrying over his evident rest-
lessness and discontent, the odour of his cigar came
floating out to her, and she knew by that token that
he had finished breakfast and needed to be amused.
Locking her violin in its case, she carried it back to
the house, prepared to shoulder her share of this
responsibility.
" Good morning, Brer Tarrypin," she called as
she came in sight of him lolling in the hammock.
"Lounjoun' roun' as usual, I see. Well, the mail
train is in, so you can come with me to the post-
office as soon as I get my hat."
" Good heavens, Pug ! " he groaned. " I vow
you're worse than a little volcano — always in
action."
Nevertheless he got up, as she knew he would,
and strolled along beside her. The road in front
of the post-office was almost blocked with carriages.
On summer mornings like this nearly every one in
the Valley found some excuse to be at the station
when the mail train came in ; for while they waited
for the delivery window to open, there was time
not only to attend to the day's marketing, but to
meet all one's friends. At such times the little box
of a post-office was the very centre of neighbour-
hood sociability, and since everybody knew every-
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body else, the gathering was as informal as a family
reunion.
Even Gay felt like an old settler. Her previous
visit to the Valley had given her so many acquaint-
ances. As she passed down the straggling line of
men and boys who were leaning against the fence
or sitting on the top rail while they waited, hats
were swept off as if a sudden breeze had scurried
along the path. Several of the old Confederate
soldiers spoke her name as they saluted. She had
played for them up at the Home twice on that
former visit.
" Oh, the dear little, queer little Valley," she be-
gan, but was interrupted by Leland's calling her
attention to the Sherman carriage, which was mov-
ing in and out at a snail's pace through the blockade
of vehicles, stopping repeatedly as greetings were
called out to it from the other carriages. Gay's face
brightened as she saw Lloyd on the back seat, look-
ing as fresh as a snowdrop in her white linen
dress.
" Oh, if she'd only ask us up to Locust to spend
the morning ! " thought Gay so earnestly that it
seemed to her that Lloyd must feel the force of the
" thought- wave " she was trying to project, " It's
102 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
high time for her to remember her promise if she
expects to accomplish anything."
Lloyd was remembering her promise. It re-
curred to her the instant that she caught sight of
Leland's dark interesting face as he turned the
corner. As instantly she had looked away, remem-
bering how pointedly he had ignored her that night
at the Cabin. This was the first time she had seen
him since. Now Gay's request seemed utterly ab-
surd. The colour surged up in her face as she
remembered her high resolve about lighting a vestal
fire on the altar of a promise. How ridiculous of
her to have worked herself up into such an exalted
mood over nothing. A positive dislike for the man
who had been the cause of it took possession of her,
and she wished heartily that she need never meet
him again.
But an encounter could not be avoided long. Gay
was pushing eagerly through the crowd towards the
carriage. She would call her in a moment, then she
would have to turn around and at least be decently
polite. Just then a stylish little runabout stopped
opposite the carriage, and a lady leaned out to ac-
cost Lloyd. Thankful for the opportunity, Lloyd
turned her back squarely on the post-office and
plunged into an animated conversation. Without
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glancing in their direction she was conscious that
Gay and Mr. Harcourt were on the curbstone di-
rectly behind her, and would come up the moment
that she stopped talking.
" Yes, of co'se, Miss Jennie," they heard her say.
* I'm going to town on the next car, and I'll be
glad to get it for you. Yes, we're all going in for
a day's shopping. Mothah and Betty are ovah at
the trolley station now, waiting for me to get the
mail."
Miss Jennie, giving voluble directions, began
hunting through her pocketbook for a sample of
ribbon which she wanted matched. Gay's hopes
fell. She had counted confidently on taking Leland
up to the Locusts to spend the morning. But just
then Lloyd waved her handkerchief to some one
coming down the avenue, and turning, Gay's face
brightened. It was Kitty Walton to whom Lloyd
had waved. Strolling along under a white parasol,
in a pale pink dress and with a great bunch of sweet
peas in her hand, she looked so attractive, that Gay
felt that Leland would find The Beeches fully as
entertaining a loafing-place as The Locusts. She
decided to take him up there. Again she was
doomed to disappointment, for Kitty's cordial greet-
ing was followed by the almost breathless announce-
104 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ment that she was about to take her departure from
the Valley.
"Oh, when?" called Lloyd, turning to the girls
with the friendliest of smiles, and acknowledging
Mr. Harcourt's greeting with a frosty little bow.
" When, where and whyfoah? "
" This evening," answered Kitty, " over to the
Martinsville Springs in Indiana, and because mother
is firmly convinced that they are the panacea for all
the ills that flesh is heir to. Really they do help her
wonderfully, and she needs the change, and I like
the place myself so I'm not sorry to go for some
reasons. But I do hate to take ten whole days out
of your visit, Gay."
" You can't hate it half as much as I do," an-
swered Gay gloomily, who had not overlooked
Lloyd's cool little bow to Leland. For Lloyd to
act snippy and Kitty to be away ten whole days
right in the beginning of things was fatal to all
her plans.
It was just then that help came from a most un-
expected source. Not that she realized then that it
was help, but weeks afterward she traced back sev-
eral important things to that small beginning.
Miss Katherine Marks came out of the post-office
with a handful of letters. She was about to pass
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the group beside the Sherman carriage with only
a brief " good morning," when the sight of Kitty's
sweet peas made her pause.
" That reminds me, Kitty," she said. " I've fin-
ished mounting that garden photograph. You may
see it now, whenever you come over."
" I'll come right now, Miss Katherine," was the
eager response. " I'm wild to see it, and as we're
going to Martinsville this evening this will be my
only chance."
Seeing the unspoken wish in Gay's eager eyes,
Miss Marks included all of them in the invitation.
Lloyd glanced at her watch and excused herself,
finding that the car she wanted to take was almost
due. She would have to hurry to reach the station
she said. But even in her haste she noticed that
Leland did not join in the regret which the others
expressed, and grown unduly sensitive in regard
to his opinion, she fancied that he looked pleased
when she refused. He lifted his hat perfunctorily,
not even glancing at her as he moved away, seem-
ingly absorbed in adjusting Kitty's parasol, which
he had taken possession of, and was holding over
her.
Gay walked on with Miss Marks. Kitty had to
stop a moment at the Bisbee cottage, to leave the
106 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
sweet peas with a message from her mother. Le-
land waited for her at the gate.
"What is this you're getting me into?" he
asked, nodding towards Miss Marks and Gay, who
were almost out of sight.
If he had asked the question of Gay she would
have explained eagerly that they were on their way
to Clovercroft, to see a collection of amateur photo-
graphs which had taken prizes and gold medals all
over the country, and among them were three at
least, that she knew he would want so desperately,
that he would fall all over himself trying to get
them. But it would be of no use to try. He could
neither beg, borrow, buy nor steal them. He might
thank his lucky stars that he was permitted just to
stand afar off and gaze at them in hopeless admira-
tion.
But Kitty, instead of enlightening him in any
such way turned the talk into channels of more per-
sonal interest, and made the short stroll so agreeable
that it came to an end entirely too soon. He fol-
lowed her. through the gate wishing that he could
invent some excuse whereby to prolong the pleasure
of making her blush and seeing her dark eyes look
up laughingly at him from under the white parasol.
At the same time he wanted to escape the bore of
A CAMERA HELPS 107
being expected to grow enthusiastic over some ama-
teur collection in which he felt no interest.
Something of this he expressed in an undertone
to Kitty as they stepped up on to the porch.
" Don't flatter yourself," she advised him, drop-
ping into a seat, " that you'll be allowed a peep into
Miss Katherine's studio. Strangers never get any
farther than the Court of the Gentiles."
" Gay has gone in," he answered, " and her in-
troduction antedates mine not more than two
seconds. Why shouldn't I ? "
" Gay is one of the elect. She has the artist soul
herself, and Miss Katherine recognizes the ear-
marks."
" You insinuate that I haven't them ? "
Kitty smiled tantalizingly, and swung her parasol
back and forth by its ivory crook. " No, indeed.
I'm not insinuating anything. I'm simply stating
a broad truth. You can't get in. She'll bring out
dozens of pictures for your inspection, but she'll not
invite you inside that studio. Very few people are
so favoured."
Up to that moment he had not had the faintest
wish to set foot inside the studio, but her provoking
assertions suddenly seemed to make it the one desir-
able spot for him to enter. " I'll show you," he de-
108 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
clared rashly. "I'll see it before we leave here. I
always get what I want. Now watch me."
Miss Marks came out with a large photograph
exquisitely tinted. So artistic it was, both in colour-
ing and composition, that Leland's admiration was
as great as his surprise. He had expected to see
some little snap shots such as he had made himself
when he had the kodak fever, the kind that are
interesting only to those who take them and those
who are taken. This was so beautiful that no
sooner was it in his hands than he was fired with
a desire to possess it. It was the picture of a rose
garden, every bush a glory of bloom, and in the
path, her pink dress caught by a clinging brier, was
Kitty herself like another rose, looking down over
her shoulder at the bramble which held her a pris-
oner in its thorny clasp.
"It is to illustrate a fairy-tale," explained Miss
Marks. " When naughty Esmerelda runs away
from the good prince, everything in the garden is
in league to help him, and Brier Rose catches at her
skirts as she hurries by, and holds her fast."
" Isn't it lovely? " cried Gay, flashing out of the
studio with an armful which Miss Marks had given
her permission to show. " Here's Betty taken as
a nun — Sister Dolor oso - — and Lloyd as an Easter
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angel. It's perfectly fascinating to hear Miss Marks
tell how she got that effect of flying. Arranged the
draperies with Lloyd lying on the floor, and photo-
graphed her from a trap door above. Tell him how
you added the doves' wings please."
Much to her surprise Miss Marks found herself
telling things to this young man that she would not
have dreamed of telling to another stranger; some
of the remarkable makeshifts she had used in cos-
tumes and backgrounds. His flattering air of inter-
est drew these confidences from her as irresistibly
as a magnet draws steel.
" You ought to do a series of these garden pic-
tures," he declared, " and call them ' Garden Fan-
cies ' after that poem of Browning's. By the way,
there is a couplet in that which would lend itself
charmingly to illustration, and I saw the very gar-
den that you should use for it, while I was out driv-
ing yesterday. It was one of those straight walk
prim bordered affairs that go with old English
cottages."
He could have found no surer path to Miss
Marks's good graces. Gay, not knowing that he had
a purpose to gain by it, listened in amazement as he
proceeded to outline picture after picture for the
series of Garden Fancies, even planning costumes
IIO LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
and suggesting clever means by which various ob-
stacles might be overcome. Her astonishment
showed itself in her face, when he even consented
to pose himself, as a Spanish troubadour in a moon-
lit garden with a guitar.
Kitty, who knew the object of this sudden inter-
est in photography, laughed outright, but nobody
noticed her irrelevant mirth. Miss Marks was too
interested in the new plan, and Gay was too puzzled
over his rapidly growing enthusiasm. Presently,
darting a triumphant look at Kitty, from the corner
of his eye, he rose to follow Miss Marks. She was
actually taking him into her inner courts. Kitty
made a little grimace behind his back. She resented
his I-told-you-so air, but she could not help admir-
ing the masterful way in which he had gained his
end.
One hasty glance around the studio changed his
assumed interest into real. Impressed by the won-
derful results Miss Marks had obtained by the com-
bination of brush and camera, he was seized by a
wish to do something in the same line himself.
Accustomed to the impulsiveness of his enthusiasms,
Gay was not surprised when he began to persuade
Miss Marks to start to work on the Garden Fan-
cies then and there.
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The English garden was too far away for them
to attempt that morning, but Miss Marks finally
agreed that the moonlight scene might be managed.
It was just the right time of day to take a moon-
light picture, while the sunshine was so direct that
it would cast the blackest of shadows. She could
retouch the plate to give it the right effect, and paint
in a moon.
" You'll have to hurry if I'm to be in it," ordered
Kitty, " for Mother is waiting for me this blessed
minute. I've a world of things to do in the next
few hours."
" Give us just a quarter of one of them," begged
Leland. " I'll attend to the balcony part if Miss
Marks will look after the costumes and tell me
where to find a step-ladder."
" Leland has plenty to amuse him now," thought
Gay happily, as she watched him giving directions
to Frazer, the coloured man, who came in answer
to Miss Marks's call. " His foot is on his native
heath and his name's ' McGregor ' when it comes
to a thing of this sort."
Ten minutes later Kitty found herself looking'
out of an improvised balcony, a charming- affair
outwardly, but most laughable within. A tall step-
ladder had been dragged into the bay window of
112 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
the music room, and the upper sash of the middle
window pushed down from the top. The thick
vines that grew over it were pulled back to leave
an oval opening. It was out of this leafy oval she
leaned from her seat on the top of the ladder, to
smile down on the troubadour below. There was
a rose in her dark hair, a half-furled fan in her
hand, and a coquettish glance in her laughing black
eyes.
Leland's costume had been hastily constructed
from scraps of stage property kept for such occa-
sions. It took but a moment to drape a long cape
over one shoulder in graceful folds, twist a piece of
velvet into a little cap and pin a white plume on one
side. A row of potted plants laboriously put in
place by Frazer hid the fact that he wore modern
trousers instead of the more picturesque knee
breeches which such a costume demanded.
" Fire away," he ordered, adjusting the guitar
to a more comfortable position.
" Suppose you sing a verse of a real serenade,"
suggested Miss Marks, " so as to get into the proper
spirit of the thing. Then just as you finish, while
you're looking soulfully into each other's eyes, I'll
squeeze the bulb."
Kitty, seeing the seamy side of his improvised
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cap, and feeling the absurdity of her position on the
top of the step-ladder, could only giggle when she
tried to look soulful. But Leland had taken part
in too many private theatricals to be disconcerted
now. With as impassioned a gaze as any Romeo
ever fixed on his Juliet, he struck the soft chords of
a Spanish serenade, and began to sing so meaningly
that Kitty's giggle was silenced, and she looked
down with a conscious blush :
" Thine eyes are stars of morning,
Thy lips are crimson flowers.
Good night, good night, beloved,
While I count the weary hours."
" There ! That ought to be perfect," cried Miss
Marks, emerging from under the black cloth which
covered the camera. " Mr. Harcourt, you're the
most satisfactory man I've ever had pose for me.
It's easy enough to get a score of pretty girls any
time I need them, but it isn't once in a decade one
finds such an altogether desirable model of a man.
You seem to know by intuition exactly the right
positions to fall into. I'm sure the series will be
a success now."
Leland bowed his appreciation of the compliment,
and Gay, knowing his vulnerable spot and how
II4 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
secretly pleased he was, could have danced a break-
down in her delight.
As they were all eager to see the result, Miss
Marks took herself at once to the dark room with
the plate, promising they should have a proof before
time for the Martinsville train. Then Gay and Le-
land walked home with Kitty, and stayed talking
awhile on the shady porch.
" It's been a very decent sort of morning," Le-
land admitted on his way home to lunch. A siesta
in the hammock shortened the afternoon. He was
in a most agreeable mood when they drove over to
the station to see the Waltons off on their train.
Better than her promise, Miss Marks had sent a
finished picture instead of a proof. It was fully as
good as the one of Brier Rose and Esmerelda, and
Leland was enthusiastic in his admiration of the
balcony he had improvised, and the Spanish beauty
within it. When it had passed around the circle
he coolly took possession of it, although Kitty
claimed it, as Frazer had brought it up to The
Beeches.
" I'll keep it till your return, Miss Kitty," he said.
" You have your mirror, so you don't need this. It
may inspire me to run over to the Springs myself
A CAMERA HELPS 115
a few days to see the original if you stay away too
long."
Something in the light tone made Gay glance up
quickly. She groaned as she saw the admiration
his expressive eyes showed so plainly.
" Now he's gone and done it ! " she thought in
dismay. " He's taken a fancy to Kitty instead of
Lloyd, when I've set my heart on saving Kitty for
Frank Percival. May blessings light on those old
Martinsville Springs for taking her out of the way
for awhile! Maybe I can get him switched off on
the other track before she comes back."
CHAPTER VI
" GARDEN FANCIES "
" Oh, where are you going, my pretty maid ? "
It was Alex Shelby who called out the question,
leaning forward from the doctor's buggy, to look
down the locust avenue. Lloyd was coming toward
the gate, swinging a hunter's horn back and forth
by its green cord. She waved it gaily as she sang
in response :
" I'm going a posing, sir, she said."
He turned the wheel and sprang out, asking
eagerly, " Is it anywhere that T can take you? "
" No, you're going in exactly the opposite direc-
tion, for I'm bound for the spring in the Lindsey
woods. Miss Marks asked me to meet her there
at eleven o'clock, but her note didn't come until
aftah mothah had gone out with the carriage."
Alex glanced at his watch. " If you could wait
till I take this case of instruments up to Uncle, I
could drive you over as well as not. It would detain
116
» GARDEN FANCIES" IIJ
you ten minutes, but even then you'd get to the
Spring much sooner than if you were to walk."
" I'll certainly accept yoah offah/' exclaimed
Lloyd gratefully, looking down the long hot way
that lay between her and the Lindsey woods.
" No, I'll not drive ovah to the doctah's with you,
thanks. That is such a hot, dusty stretch of road.
I'll just sit heah in the shade and wait." Laying
the hunter's horn on the stone bench near the gate,
she sat down beside it and began to fan herself with
her hat.
"What's going on at the spring?" he asked as
he climbed back into the buggy.
" I can't tell you. All I know is that old Frazer
came up with a note asking me to pose as Olga, the
Flax-spinnah's maiden. Miss Marks is always
illustrating some old fairy-tale. She wanted me to
bring grandfathah's hunting hawn for the prince.
I've been wondering evah since who she's found to
take that paht."
" Harcourt, I'll bet you anything ! " was Alex's
emphatic answer as he gathered up the reins. " I
saw him over at Clovercroft yesterday morning,
setting up a tripod in front of the bay window
Well, here goes. I'll be back in ten minutes."
As Llovd watched the cloud of dust whirling
Kl8 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
along behind the rapidly disappearing buggy, the
impulse seized her to call out after him that he
needn't come back to take her to the spring, for
she was not going. Several times that morning the
suspicion had crossed her mind that Miss Marks's
new model might prove to be Leland Harcourt, and
Alex's emphatic answer seemed to confirm her mis-
givings. If that were the case she felt that she could
not possibly go. He had made such a point of
avoiding her that night at the Cabin, that even Betty
had noticed it, and she was very sure she didn't
want to have her picture taken with a man who had
showed his aversion to her so plainly as all that. It
would be horribly awkward, she thought, if Miss
Marks had asked him to pose with her. He would
have to stoop and drink out of her hands as the
prince had done out of Olga's. Of course he
couldn't refuse, and it would be disagreeable to him
and embarrassing to her, knowing as she did how he
felt towards her.
It was unlike Lloyd to be sensitive over little
things, and to magnify trifles, and she had been un-
happy for several days because she had done so in
this instance. If she had met Leland Harcourt like
any other stranger, she would not have given his
manner toward her a second thought; but Gay's
"GARDEN FANCIES" Iig
piea beforehand in his behalf made her self-con-
scious. Of course he couldn't possibly know that she
had lain awake, looking at the stars, picturing her-
self as a sort of guardian angel, who should lead
him to great heights of achievement (as Gay had
assured her she could do). But she felt that he
must have divined her intentions toward him, and
was secretly amused at her presumption. Her face
burned every time she thought of the regal manner
in which she had swept into the room, trying to
make her entrance impressive, and then the polite
way in which he had handed her over to some one
else as if she were a mere child to whom he must be
civil, but whose school-girl prattle bored him.
" I can't beak him ! " she said in a disgusted tone
to a black ant, which was crawling along towards
the stone bench where she sat. But the little ant,
intent on its own affairs, hurried past her as un-
heedingly as if she had been part of the bench.
" And I suppose my opinion is of no moah im-
pawtance to him than it is to you," she added, with
a shrug of the shoulders. Then she laughed, for the
comparison suddenly seemed to put the affair in a
different light.
" I'm certainly glad you happened along this way,
Mistah Ant," she said, bending over to stop him
120 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
with a stick while she made her whimsical speech.
" Because I'm going to profit by yoah example from
now on. Heah me? I'm going to quit worrying
over what people may think of me and go along
about my business just as you are doing. You
nevah think about yoahself, do you! You don't
even know that you have a self, so of co'se you can't
feel slighted and sensitive."
Lifting the stick so that the little creature might
go on its eager way again, she watched it disappear,
and then began idly tracing figures in the dust at her
feet.
" I wish I had an enchanted necklace like Olga's,"
she mused, recalling the old fairy-tale for which
she was soon to pose. " Not one that could give me
gorgeous dresses whenevah I repeated the charm,
but one that would sawt of clothe my mind — put
me into such a beautifully serene mental state that I
wouldn't mind slights, and would be as unconscious
of self as that little old ant."
Then a surprised, pleased expression lighted her
face, as a sudden recollection 1 seemed to illuminate
the old fairy-tale, and give it a new meaning.
" Why, it's like that lovely verse in the Psalms
that Miss Allison read to the King's Daughters,
the first time I went to a meeting of the Circle.
"GARDEN FANCIES" 121
' The King's Daughter is all glorious within. Her
clothing is of wrought gold.' " Sentences from
Miss Allison's earnest little talk of long ago began
coming back to Lloyd like fragments of forgotten
music. Something about being anointed with the
" oil of gladness " and wearing garments that
smelled of myrrh and aloes and cassia " out of the
ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad."
Now in the story when Olga would change her
gown of tow to one befitting her royal station, she
had only to clasp a bead of her magic rosary and
whisper :
" For love's sweet sake, in my hour of need,
Blossom and deck me, little seed,"
and straightway she would be clad in a garment,
fine and fair as the shimmer of moonbeams. And
Lloyd, casting about in her mind for a like charm
that would make her " all glorious within " as Olga's
made her glorious without, suddenly bethought her-
self of her little necklace of Roman pearls. She
had not taken it back to school with her in her
Senior year, for she felt that she had outgrown its
childish symbolism. She could " keep tryst " with
life's obligations now without the visible reminder
of a little white bead, slipped daily over a silken
122 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
cord. Still, it had helped her to remember, so many
times in the past, that she was strongly tempted
to try the efficacy o>f her little talisman just once
more. Glancing at her watch, she saw that Alex
had been gone only five minutes. Then dropping the
stick with which she had been writing in the dust,
she ran lightly up the avenue, into the house and up
to her room.
" Maybe it is sawt of childish," she thought as she
opened the sandal-wood box and clasped the rosary
around her neck. " But I don't care, if it will only
help me to remembah not to be snippy and sensitive
and to go about my business like that little black ant.
It's funny how such a little thing started me on the
right path."
When Alex came back she met him with such a
shining face that he glanced at her curiously. " You
look as if you had heard good news," he said as he
helped her into the buggy. " What's happened ? "
"Oh, nothing," she laughed. "I've just been
practising my paht while I waited for you. I'm the
Princess Olga, and I've gotten rid of my gown of
tow, and I'm so relieved to find the real King's-
daughtah attire, that I'm as happy as a June-bug."
He did not understand her allusion, but it would
have made no difference if she had talked to him in
"GARDEN FANCIES" 1 23
Greek, with that charming dimple coming and going
as she laughed. It was a pleasure just to sit and
watch her, while she rattled on in her inimitable way
about June-bugs, wondering how happy they were
anyhow, and why people chose them as the unit
of measurement when they were measuring joy.
Over at the spring while they waited for Lloyd
to come, Miss Marks and Leland Harcourt experi-
mented at picture-making with Gay for a victim.
Stretched out on the rocks of the creek bank, with
her hands lying in the shallow water and her hair
streaming over her shoulders, she was obligingly
trying to obey instructions to " look as wet and
dead as possible."
Lloyd and Alex, coming on her unexpectedly as
they picked their way up the ravine, having tied
the horse where the woodland road ended, were
horrified to find her lying there so limp and still.
But the next instant Leland's voice sounded some-
where up among the bushes : " That's great, Pug.
Try to keep the pose a little longer till we get one
more plate. With a sea-gull and some rolling waves
painted in in the background, it will be a perfect
copy of that painting I saw in Brittany."
*' Well, hurry, please ! " called Gay plaintively^
£24 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" I can't stand it much longer. The sun on tay
wet face is burning it to a blister, and the rocks are
cutting my elbow, and I know it's a spider that's
crawling over the back of my neck."
Lloyd gave a toot of the hunter's horn to warn
them of their approach and the extra plate was
never made. For with a little shriek the " Drowned
Fishermaiden " scrambled up from the rocks in
embarrassed haste, and when she caught sight of
Alex, fled away into the bushes to gather up her
dishevelled hair and otherwise put herself to rights.
She was too agitated to notice Lloyd's meeting with
Leland, but while she made herself presentable the
sound of laughter floated in among the bushes to
her most reassuringly.
"They're laughing ■ at me," she thought, "but I
don't care how ridiculous I looked. Anything to
break the ice between them and put them on a
friendly footing."
At the sight of Leland's dark face with its
cynical, slightly amused expression, Lloyd's resent-
ment returned, but the touch of the little necklace
recalled her resolve. " I'll not be snippy and sen-
sitive," she repeated to herself, clasping one of the
beads in her fingers as if it really held some potent
charm to help her change her mental attitude,
"GARDEN FANCIES" 1 25
So when Gay joined them she found that Lloyd
had dropped her distant, disdainful manner of the
day before and was her own sweet, winsome self
It was with a sigh of relief that Gay left them to
the discussion of poses and costumes, and turned to
Alex, who was about to take his departure. The
one word, picnic, was enough to stop him. It was
what he had been hoping for ever since the Har-
courts had taken the Cabin. Gay's appeal for help
set him to work with the zest of a truant school-boy.
While he made a fire and carried water from
the spring, Gay emptied the baskets they had
brought, and spread the contents out on a great flat
rock. Then while the water boiled for the coffee,
and the potatoes were roasting in the ashes, she sent
him to look for a wild grape-vine.
" I want a lot of grape-leaves to make into little
baskets to serve the berries in," she told him.
" And bring them up here where I can keep an eye
on what is going on at the spring. There seems to
be a hitch in the performance somewhere."
The difficulty was with the prince's costume
Nothing they had brought gave quite the effect they
wanted, so finally Leland proposed bringing the
story down to date.
" The modern Princess is the Summer Girl," he
t26 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RlEtlNG
said. " So take Miss Sherman just as she is, and
I'll go back to the Cabin and put on a bicycle suit."
" They are getting on famously," thought Gay
as she listened to Lloyd's merry response to some-
thing he called back, as he went crashing away
through the bushes. The last little basket was made
and filled with berries before Leland came back,
dragging his wheel up the ravine. Gay and Alex,
having finished their preparations, climbed up the
bank to watch the pretty tableau, Lloyd making a
cup of her white hands and catching the water in
them, that the prince might stoop and drink.
'" Let's try it again, Miss Marks," cried Leland
enthusiastically. " How is this pose? " He dropped
gracefully to one knee, baring his head as he bowed
it over Lloyd's hands.
" Is the change in him or is it in me? " thought
Lloyd as the dark eager face smiled up at her, with
its quick flashing smile that she found so peculiarly
attractive. " He certainly is the most entahtaining
man I evah talked to."
" The show is over," called Gay as Miss Marks
began to put up her camera. "If your royal high-
nesses will deign to descend, dinner will be served
immediately." It was an attractive table she led
them to, the red berries shining in luscious heaps in
"MAKING A CUP OF HER WHITE HANDS"
"GARDEN FANCIES* 127
their little green baskets, mounds of fresh water-
cress beside every plate, and a big- bouquet of wild-
flowers in the centre of the rock table.
"What is the peculiar charm of a picnic?"
queried Alex as he fished an ant out of the sugar
and opened a half-cooked potato'.
" At home one would send such a dish back to
the kitchen in red-hot wrath. Here one eats it in
a sort of solemn joy."
" It's the spell of the June woods," suggested
Miss Marks.
" No, it's youth in the blood," said Leland. " All
the Junes in the world and all outdoors wouldn't
make a half-baked potato fit for the gods unless one
has ' the sun and the wind in his pulses.' "
" No," insisted Gay. " It can't be that, for Jame-
son isn't much older than you, and he despises
prowling around in the woods, as he calls it. He
made so much fun of it that Lucy went driving
with him instead of coming with us, and she adores
such outings, just as much now as she did before
she was married."
" Maybe no one feels the charm unless the gods
have given him a sort of Midas touch that will turn
everything disagreeable, like ants and underdone
potatoes, into golden experiences," said Alex. " The
128 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Midas imagination let us call it. And the way to
keep it in good working order is to give it constant
practice. Let's have a picnic every day."
" To-morrow," announced Leland, " I'll take you
all over to that old English garden that I discov-
ered, to take that Garden fancy of Browning's we
were discussing."
Gay looked up quickly. It had been understood
only yesterday that they were to wait for Kitty's
return for that picture. His taking it for granted
that Lloyd would assume the part augured well for
her hopes.
" You know that poem of Browning's, don't you,
Miss Sherman? " he asked, smiling across at her.
Now Lloyd had never cared for Browning. In
fact she frankly admitted that she had never got far
enough into many of his poems to know what he
was talking about. At Warwick Hall Miss Chilton
had been such an enthusiastic interpreter of his that
ten of the girls in Lloyd's class had formed a
Browning club. Although she declined their invi-
tation to join them, she was more complimented by
that invitation than any other of that school term,
and envied them their apparent enjoyment of what
to her was a tangle of vague meanings. Now when
she saw Leland take a well worn copy from his
"GARDEN FANCIES" 1 29
pocket and flip over the leaves to find the place, with
an ease that showed long familiarity with it, she
wished that she had joined the club. It made her
feel childish and immature to think that she could
not discuss this subject with him as any one of those
ten girls could have done. But it was one of the
simple poems to which the book opened. From her
seat opposite, Lloyd could see the marked margins
and underscored lines, as he read aloud :
" ' Here is the garden she walked across
Arm in my arm such a short while since.
Down this side of the gravel walk
She went, while her robe's edge brushed the box.
And here she paused in her gracious talk
To point me a moth on the milk-white phlox.' "
" Oh, I can just see that picture," cried Miss
Marks enthusiastically. " I wish we had time to
take it to-day."
" But wait, here's a better one," he added, turn-
ing the page.
" « This flower she stopped at, finger on lip,
Stooped over in doubt, as settling its claim,
Till she gave me with pride to make no slip,
Its soft, meandering Spanish name.
What a name ! Was it love or praise ?
Speech half-asleep or song half-awake ?
I30 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
I must learn Spanish one of these days
Only for that slow, sweet name's sake.' "
Lloyd picked up the book open at the place where
he laid it, face downward, on the rock.
" I wondah what flowah Browning meant," she
said, " that had such a ' soft, meandering Spanish
name. Speech half-asleep or song half-awake — '
It must have been something exquisitely beautiful
or he wouldn't have been willing to learn a lan-
guage just for the sake of knowing that one name."
Farther down the page were other underscored
lines. She read them softly, almost under her
breath.
" « Where I find her not, beauties vanish.
Whither I follow her beauties flee.
Is there no method to tell her in Spanish
June is twice June since she's breathed it with me?"'
" Isn't that sweet? " cried Gay. " Say it for us,
Leland. Say it in Spanish so we can hear how it
sounds."
With an indulgent smile, as if amused at her
childishness, he lazily did Gay's bidding, then as she
began exclaiming over the musical syllables to Alex,
he turned to Lloyd and repeated the line with an
emphasis which made it altogether personal. Of
"GARDEN FANCIES" 131
course she could not understand it, but the words
were like bird-notes, and there was no mistaking
the language of those dark expressive eyes that held
hers a moment in their admiring gaze. They said
as plainly as if they had spoken aloud, " June is
twice June, since you've breathed it with me."
Lloyd felt the colour surge up into her face, and
to hide it, turned quickly and began examining a
grass stain on the hem of her skirt, with apparent
concern. But an exultant little thrill flashed over
her. He liked her. She was sure of it, and it made
her glad, so glad that it amazed her to think that
only two hours before she had confided emphatic-
ally to a little black ant crawling over her path, that
she couldn't bear him.
When she had finished a critical examination of
the grass stain she glanced back again, hoping that
Gay had not seen her embarrassment. To her relief
Gay's entire attention was absorbed in an argument
with Alex as to the exact meaning of the quotation,
whether twice June meant a lengthening of the
calendar or an intensifying of its pleasures. Miss
Marks, ilke a good chaperone, could not have no-
ticed, for she was busy gathering up the dishes,
and Lloyd sprang up to help her.
Presently, as they started away from the spring,
132 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Leland came around to Lloyd's side. " You must
let me teach you Spanish, Miss Sherman," he said
in his masterful way which seemed to leave her no
choice in the matter. " An hour a day wouldn't
take much of your time, and would be enough to
give you some idea of the charm of the language.
Gay tells me you play the harp. Some of the songs
are exquisite."
" Oh, I nevah in the world could learn it, I am
suah ! " she answered lightly, with a shrug that
seemed to indicate the uselessness of undertaking
such a task.
" You don't know," he answered authoritatively.
" You've never had me for a teacher."
Again that flashing look that made his eyes
deepen so wonderfully and curved the cynical lips
into an altogether gentle and winning smile. It
seemed to photograph itself on Lloyd's memory,
recurring to her again and again in the most unex-
pected moments. She saw it on the way home with
Alex, all the time she was laughingly recounting
some of her Warwick Hall escapades. It came
between her and her book when she tried to read
herself to sleep that afternoon, and the last thing
that night when her eyes were closed and the lights.
"GARDEN FANCIES" 1 33
were out she saw again that glance that said as
plainly as the slow music of his Spanish words,
" June is twice June since you've breathed it with
me."
CHAPTER VII
SPANISH LESSONS
The Harcourt carriage swung rapidly along the
road, for the Little Colonel held the reins, and was
testing the speed of the new horses, just sent down
from Lexington.
" Isn't it glorious ? " she cried, with a quick
glance over her shoulder at Gay and Miss Marks
on the back seat. " It's like flying, the way they
take us through the air, and they're the best matched
team in the country."
Leland, on the seat beside her, watched with
growing admiration her expert handling of the
horses, and Gay watched him. Swathed in a white
chiffon veil, she was paying the penalty for being
so obliging the day before. She had lain so long
on the rocks in her pose of the drowned fisher-
maiden, that her face was burned to a blister, and
she could not touch it without groaning. But she
would willingly go through the ordeal again, sh§
SPANISH LESSONS 1 35
told herself, in order to bring about the present
desirable state of affairs.
" Now which way?" asked Lloyd as they came
to a turn. " I feel like a Columbus on an unsailed
sea. I thought I knew every gah'den around heah
within a radius of five miles, but I've nevah seen
any that fits the description of the one you're tak-
ing us to."
" Turn to the right," Leland directed. " Then
it's just a short way down a woodland road. You'll
come to an old-fashioned wicket gate and a straight,
box-bordered walk leading up to the back of such
a quaint vine-covered old house with a red door,
that you'll expect to see a thatched roof and hear an
English skylark."
"Well, of all things," laughed Lloyd, "why
didn't you say little red doah in the first place. That
would have located it for me. You've simply dis-
covahed the back premises of old Doctah Shelby's
place, and yoah w r ondahful English gah'den is their
kitchen gah'den. We could have reached their
front gate in ten minutes from our house, and heah
you have led us all around Robin Hood's bahn to
find it. That loop around Rollington took us a
good two miles out of the way."
" Well, that's the only way I knew how to reach
I36 LITTLE C0L0NEI7S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
it," he answered, with the flashing smile she had
learned to look for. " I hope that you don't feel
that it has been time wasted. / don't."
" Not behind hawses like these," she answered.
" We'll forgive you for the sake of the ride. I
nevah get tiahed of driving when. I can go this
fast."
She turned into a narrow lane leading around to
the front of the house, and waited for Leland to
open the gate.
" How natural everything looks," she exclaimed.
" I haven't been heah for yeahs, and when I was a
little thing of six or seven I used to be a weekly
visitah. I'd bring my dawg Fritz, and stay from
breakfast till bedtime. I called Doctah Shelby
* Mistah-wy-doctah ' and his wife ' Aunt Alicia,' "
she went on as Leland resumed his seat in the car-
riage. " They said that I reminded them of their
only daughtah, who was dead, and they used to
borrow me by the day. They spoiled me so that it
was perfectly scandalous the way I acted some-
times."
" Why did you stop coming ? " asked Gay.
" Mrs. Shelby had a fall that made an invalid of
her, and she has been away at sanitariums and hos-
pitals most of the time since. I've seen her often,
SPANISH LESSONS 137
of co'se, but not heah. It's only lately that they've
opened up the house and come home to live."
Places exercised a strong influence over Lloyd.
Just as she felt the challenge of the locust-trees in
the avenue at home, and could not pass those old
family sentinels without an unconscious lifting of
the head and that pride of bearing which they
seemed to expect from all the Lloyds, so this old
homestead had its peculiar effect upon her. As she
went up the path she had the same feeling of ab-
solute sovereignty that she had had a dozen years
before when her slightest wish was law in this
adoring household, and where every act of hers,
no matter how outbreaking, passed unchided. If
she chose to empty the sugar into the middle of the
garden walk and fill the bowl with pebbles, " Aunt
Alicia " took her afternoon tea unsweetened, rather
than ring for more, and thus call Mom Beck's atten-
tion to the naughtiness of her little charge.
Once, some babyish whim prompting her to order
every picture turned to the wall, the doctor meekly
obeyed, and when some chance caller remonstrated,
he protested that it was a very small thing to do to
give a child pleasure, and that there was no reason
why she shouldn't have them upside down if she
wished. So strong was the old spell now, that as
138 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
she stepped up on the porch and saw the same ugly
little Chinese idol sitting against the front door to
prop it open, that had sat there on all her former
visits, she stooped and stood it on its head.
" Why on earth did you do that? " gasped Gay.
"Simply fo'ce of habit," laughed Lloyd. "I
used to hate it so because it was such an ugly old
thing that I always stood it on its head to punish
it for staring at me. I did it this time without
thinking."
Leland laughed. Never in the short time he had
known her had she seemed quite so adorable as
she did at this moment, relapsing into the childish
imperiousness of her Little Colonel ways. While
they waited for Mrs. Shelby to come down he
watched her going around the room, renewing her
acquaintance with all the old objects that had once
held a fascination for her. She called his attention
to the tapestry on the wall, a shepherd and shep-
herdess beside a trellis on which hung roses as big
as cabbages, and told him the quaint fancies she had
once had about the romantic figures. The stuffed
birds under the glass case on the mantel each had
a name she had given it. She remembered them
all, from the yellow canary, to the mite of a hum-
ming-bird, poised at the top.
SPANISH LESSONS 1 39
Stopping before a queer old whatnot, filled with
bric-a-brac and shells, she caught up a round china
box. A gilt eagle, hovering over a nest of little
eaglets formed the lid, and her face began to dimple
as she lifted the china bird by its imposing beak.
" There ought to be peppahmintL inside," she
said. " There always used to be, because I'd howl
if there wasn't, and they couldn't beah to have me
disappointed. Well, I wish you'd look! Deah old
Aunt Alicia! She's remembahed all these yeahs
and kept it ready for me."
She held the box out towards him, and he saw
that it had been freshly filled with delectable little
striped drops.
" It hurts my conscience," she said, looking up
wistfully, as the familiar odour of the peppermint
greeted her, " to think how I have neglected her.
Heah I have been going to picnics and pahties and
all sawts of things evah since I came home from
school, and have nevah been neah her. I'm going
to find her this minute, and not wait for her to
come down as if I were some strangah."
The quaintly furnished old room straightway
lost its charm for Leland when she left it, but Gay,
pushing aside her veil to taste the contents of the
eagle's nest, which Lloyd had deposited in her lap,
140 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDINGt
scrutinized everything with interest. This was
Alex's home now, and she wondered how he would
look in the midst of such surroundings. She
couldn't imagine him with such an antiquated back-
ground. Miss Marks picked up a basket of da-
guerreotypes from the marble-topped table, and
began examining them.
They could hear Lloyd calling at the top of the
stairs, " Aunt Alicia," and then Mrs. Shelby's voice,
tremulous with pleased surprise : " Why it's the
Little Colonel! Oh, my dear! My dear! what a
joy it is to have you here again ! " Then they heard
Lloyd laughingly explaining their mission, and
after that they seemed to pass into another room,
for a low hum of voices was all that could be dis-
tinguished.
Presently Mrs. Shelby came down alone. She
was a gentle little old lady, with faded blue eyes,
and a sweet patient face. She wore a bunch of gray
curls over each ear in the fashion of her girlhood.
There was a lingering charm of j^outh about her,
just as there was a faint suggestion of lavender
still clinging to the fine old lace that fell over her
little hands. Almost as soon as she had finished
welcoming them an old coloured man followed her
"into the room, bearing a huge tray with tinkling
SPANISH LESSONS 1 41
glasses, a decanter of raspberry shrub, and a plate
of little nut-cakes. While he served the guests she
explained Lloyd's delay with almost girlish eager-
ness.
" I have taken a great liberty with your model,
Miss Marks, but Lloyd assured me you would be
perfectly willing. This last day of June is a very
happy anniversary of mine and the doctor's. I have
been thinking of it all morning, and when Lloyd
came up the stairs just now, so glowing and bright,
it seemed to me I saw my own lost youth rising up
before me, and I asked her to put on a gown I have
treasured many years, and be photographed in that.
" It is the one I had on when Richard proposed
to me," she explained, a faint pink tingeing her soft
old cheeks. " Fifty years ago to-day, in that same
old garden. This was my grandmother's place then.
Richard bought it afterwards. And a year from
to-day if we live, we will keep our golden wedding.
If you can use the gown in the photograph it will
make me very happy, for it is falling to pieces,
despite my care of it. Lloyd thought it very pic-
turesque and appropriate."
While Miss Marks was expressing her delight
over the privilege, for the unearthing of old cos-
tumes was one of her pet diversions, Lloyd came
142 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
down the stairs and stopped shyly in the doorway.
She had tucked up her shining hair with a tall ivory
comb, and it hung in soft curls on each side of her
glowing face, in the old fashion of Mrs. Shelby's
girlhood. The thin, clinging dress enveloped her
like a pale blue cloud, and a flat, wide-brimmed
garden hat swung from her arm by its blue ribbons.
With the donning of the ancient dress she seemed
to have put on the sweet shy manner that had been
the charm of its first wearer.
A long-drawn " oh ! " of admiration from Gay
and Miss Marks greeted her appearance, and she
turned a timid glance towards Leland, who had
risen quickly. His glance and his silence were more
eloquent than their words, for she turned away
blushing.
" Now if I may have a bit of paper to make a
moth to pin on the milk-white phlox," began Miss
Marks, but Mrs. Shelby stopped her eagerly.
" Oh, my dear, we will have the picture perfect
in every way. Richard has a case of butterflies and
moths in his office. I shall send a servant to bring
it and to call him over, for he will want to see Lloyd
in that gown I am sure. How I wish Alex were
here to be photographed with her. He is so broad
SPANISH LESSONS 143
shouldered and erect he reminds me daily of what
his uncle was at his age."
" Maybe he will come before we are through,"
suggested Miss Marks. At the mere thought of his
coming, Gay pulled her veil down hastily over her
blistered face. Behind its protecting screen she
watched the old couple keenly, when the doctor ar-
rived. They had eyes for nothing but Lloyd, and
their gaze followed her tenderly wherever she went.
" They're just daffy about her," thought Gay.
" It's plain to be seen they'd give anything in the
world to get her into the family. I hope Doctor
Alex won't come in time to be photographed with
her. If he'd never fallen in love with her before
he'd have to do it now. He couldn't help himself
when she looks like that, and then where would all
my plans be for poor Leland ? "
But Leland was taking care of his own interests.
As soon as Miss Marks had taken enough plates to
satisfy herself he led Lloyd off to the end of the
garden to show her a flower which he had found
with a soft meandering Spanish name.
" We'll begin the lessons to-morrow," he said,
as if it were all settled. The masterfulness of his
tone had pleased her the day before, but here in the
place where she had done all the dictating and others
144 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
had obeyed, it aroused a feeling that Mom Beck
would have labelled " the Lloyd stubbo'ness." She
didn't want to consent, simply because he had taken
it for granted that she would, so she laughingly
contradicted him.
" We'll begin to-morrow," he repeated, smiling
down at her so insistently that she dropped her eyes
before his. Then to her surprise she found that her
opposition had completely vanished. She felt that
it would be one of the pleasantest pastimes that
could be devised, to study such a musical language
under such a teacher. But she had no intention of
letting him know how she felt about it for a long
while, so she was thankful for the interruption
which came just then.
Miss Marks, who was exploring the rest of the
premises' in search of further possibilities, sent Gay
to summon her to the front of the house.
" She says to ' come into the garden, Maud.'
She is going to add a Tennysonian pose to her
series of Fancies, and she's found a place where
there's a bit of terrace for you to come tripping
down, a la Maud, to the tune of ' She is coming,
my own, my sweet ! ' "
Catching up her long filmy blue skirt, Lloyd hur-
ried away, leaving Gay and Leland to follow as they
SPANISH LESSONS 145
chose. Leland finished the verse in a clear tenor
voice as if singing to himself, but it followed Lloyd
down the walk as if meant for her alone:
u • She is coming, my own, my sweet!
Were it ever so airy a tread
My heart would hear her and beat
Though 'twere earth in an earthy bed.
Would start and tremble under her feet
And blossom in purple and red.' "
Then he hummed it almost under his breath, the
entire verse again, forgetful of Gay at his elbow
until she spoke.
" Wouldn't Kitty have looked adorable in that
darling old hat tied under her chin? It's too bad
she couldn't have been here to pose as Maud."
" Oh, I don't know," he answered absently.
" She's too dark for the part. Miss Lloyd looks it
to perfection."
Gay's eyes shone delightedly behind the white
veil, and for a few steps she could not help skipping,
as she blessed the Martinsville Springs, which had
taken Kitty off in the nick of time to save her for a
different fate. By the time Maud's picture was
taken Alex arrived, and Miss Marks was promptly
seized with an inspiration.
" I am going to have two pictures of Darby
I46 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
and Joan," she exclaimed, " to add to the series.
Alex, you take Lloyd down into the garden again
beside the phlox, and turn so that I'll get your
profile. It is so like your uncle's. I'll call that one
' Hand in hand when our life was May' Then I'll
take Mrs. Shelby and the doctor in exactly the same
position as a companion piece, and call that ' Hand
in hand when our hair is gray.' "
They made a joke of it, the two old people, and
obligingly took the places that Lloyd and Alex left,
but a mist sprang to Lloyd's eyes a moment later,
watching the devoted old couple who for fifty years
had been lovers and for forty-nine years had been
wed. Marriage like that seemed a beautiful thing;
she wondered if such an experience would ever be
hers. She wished Mammy Easter had found a
better fortune for her than the one she told over
her tea-cup.
It was noon by the time the pictures were all
taken, and Leland took Miss Marks home in the
carriage while Lloyd went up-stairs to change her
dress. She wanted Gay and Leland to stop at The
Locusts for lunch, but Gay refused because she
couldn't go to the table in a veil and under the
circumstances she couldn't go without one. She got
out of the carriage, however, and sat on the porch
SPANISH LESSONS 147
while Leland took the old Colonel for a short spin
down the road, to try the new horses.
" It's been a mighty nice morning," she said. " I
wish Lucy could have been with us. She adores
discovering old places like that and doing unex-
pected things. It almost spoiled my good times
thinking of the wistful way she looked after us
when we drove off."
" But she's married ! " exclaimed Lloyd. " I
shouldn't think she'd care for those things in quite
the same way as she did before. I should think
she'd rather stay with her husband."
"Bosh!" said Gay. "Being married doesn't
change a person's disposition and make tame old
hens out of lively little humming-birds. That's just
what Lucy was, a dear little humming-bird, always
in a flutter of doing and going; and you needn't
tell me that she enjoys poking there at home with
nobody but Jameson, as much as she would enjoy
going out with us and doing things."
"But he's her husband!" insisted Lloyd, as if
that term covered all that could be desired of human
companionship. Then she hummed meaningly:
*«« Hand in hand when our life was May,
Hand in hand when our hair is gray ! ' *
I48 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Gay shrugged her shoulders impatiently. " Oh,
that Darby and Joan business is all right when your
hair is gray, but Lucy is only a year older than I
am, and Jameson doesn't interest himself in a single
thing that she likes. He's devoted to her, so de-
voted he doesn't want her out of his sight; but it's
the kind of devotion that has taught me a lesson.
If ever I tie myself up that way it will not be while
life is May. I'll have a good time first."
Lloyd had no answer for such heresy. She was
going over in her mind the list of people from whom
she had unconsciously taken her exalted impres-
sions of married life: her mother and Papa Jack,
the old Colonel and Amanthis, Doctor Shelby and
Aunt Alicia, Rob's father and mother. She felt
that Gay was mistaken. To be sure there were old
Mr. and Mrs. Apwall, who quarrelled like cats and
dogs, but somehow even they had given her the
impression that they enjoyed their little encounters,
and quarrelled to pass the time, rather than because
they bore each other any ill-will. Then she re-
flected that these were all people of an older gener-
ation than Lucy, and maybe there was a difference
in the times. Surely Gay must have good reason
for speaking so feelingly. This was not the first
time that she had spoken of Lucy with tears in her
SPANISH LESSONS I49
eyes, and when she did that, Lloyd, recalling
Mammy Easter's tea-cups, was vaguely glad that
it had been foretold that hers would be empty.
The old Colonel came back in a few minutes
loud in his praise of the new horses, and to Lloyd's
surprise, in high good humour with their owner.
Evidently Leland had improved his opportunity and
had exerted himself to make friends with the old
Colonel, for to Lloyd's amazement he cordially in-
sisted on Leland's considering The Locusts a
second home as long as he should be in the Valley,
and to come at any hour he chose. The latch-string
would be out for him.
" I shall certainly avail myself of the privilege
very soon," he responded, " for to-morrow I have
the honour to begin giving Miss Lloyd lessons in
Spanish. So few young ladies nowadays play the
harp, that when one has the ability she owes it to
the world to learn the Spanish songs. Don't you
think so?"
Lloyd opened her mouth to protest that she had
not yet given her consent, but closed it again as the
old Colonel began expressing his pleasure at such an
arrangement. She felt trapped. It was to please
him that she had learned to play on her grand-
mother's harp. Any reference to it always put him
150 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
in a gentle humour. She wanted him to be cordial
and friendly with Leland, and was glad that he was
no longer prejudiced against him, so she held her
peace; but it exasperated her to have her consent
taken for granted in such a high-handed way. He
had ridden over her objection as regardlessly as if
she had never made any.
She had boasted to herself, " He needn't put on
any of his lordly ways with me! " and here she was
submitting meekly, without a word. It worried her
after they had driven away. All the time she was
up in her room, getting ready for lunch, she kept
thinking about it.
" I'll just give him to undahstand that it was on
grandfathah's account," she decided finally. " In-
stead of my influencing him as Gay expected, it
looks as if he were winding me around his fingah.
But he isn't ! He sha'n't ! I'll take the lessons, but
I'll have no foolishness about it. I'll surprise him
by sticking strictly to business, and I'll set him a
good example of the way to live up to his own
family motto/'
Mrs. Sherman, who made no objection to the les-
sons since the old Colonel approved of them so
heartily, was on the front porch with her embroid-
ery when Leland came up the next morning, the
SPANISH LESSONS t$t
first of July, to give the first lesson. She smiled
to see how energetically Lloyd threw herself into
it, thinking it was a matter of pride with her to
show him what rapid progress she could make.
It certainly was a matter of pride with the Colo-
nel, who enjoyed being waylaid to hear how beau-
tifully she could count to one hundred or name the
months of the year. It became his habit to take
the book, while, perched on the arm of his chair,
she rattled off the vocabulary for the day's lesson,
and reviewed all the others.
" That's right ! That's right ! " he would say
encouragingly. " At this rate you'll soon be ready
for a trip to the Alhambra, and I'm blessed if I
don't take you some of these days. I've always
wanted to go."
When Kitty came home from the springs Lloyd
insisted on her joining the class, but she declared
she was too far behind to attempt catching up.
Besides she was in charge of affairs at home now,
and Elise was to have a house-party soon. There
were half a dozen good reasons why she could not
take the time. The principal one, which she did
not give however, was that it was plain to be seen
that Leland was more interested in studying Lloyd
than in teaching her a language, and under such
152 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
circumstances, Kitty preferred not to make the
third party.
So while Kitty's mornings were filled with her
housekeeping duties, Betty's with her writing and
Gay's with her music and plans to keep Lucy occu-
pied, it gradually came about that Leland spent
more and more of his time at The Locusts. The
lessons lasted only an hour, but after that he usually
found some excuse to stay: there was a new song
that he wanted to hear, or a game of tennis, or a
stroll down to the post-office. Sometimes when
he had no excuse at all he lingered anyhow, loung-
ing on the shady porch, and talking of anything
that happened to come uppermost. Then at night
he was often there again, either because The Lo-
custs was the gathering place of the Clan, and a
frolic was afoot, or he went to escort Lloyd and
Betty to the Cabin or The Beeches to some enter-
tainment the other girls had planned.
" My oh ! What a buttahfly I'm getting to be ! "
laughed Lloyd one evening as she went into her
mother's room to have her dress buttoned. " A
hawse -back ride this mawning, a picnic this aftah-
noon, and now the rustic dance in the Mallards'
barn to-night. But nevah mind, little mothah," sha
added with a hug, as she caught a wistful look on
SPANISH LESSONS 1 53
Mrs. Sherman's face. " It'll all be ovah soon.
This is the last summah of my teens. When I am
old and twenty I'll nevah leave yoah side. ' I'll sit
on a cushion and sew a fine seam ' and take all the
housekeeping cares off yoah shouldahs as a dutiful
daughtah should."
Mrs. Sherman gave her shoulder a caressing pat
as she fastened the last button. " I'm glad to have
you go, dear," she answered, " especially to all the
out-door merry-makings. They keep you young
and well. Papa Jack and I will walk over after
awhile and look on."
" The Mallard barn dances are always so much
fun," said Lloyd, lingering to give a fir- 1 touch to
her mother's toilet. " Wait ! Yoah side combs are
in too high, and yoah collah isn't pinned straight in
the back. How did you evah manage to dress yoah-
self right bef oah I grew up to tend to you ? "
As she made the changes with all a young girl's
particularity about trifles, she went on, " That last
one they had three yeahs ago was lovely. Will you
evah forget the way Rob cake-walked with Mrs.
Bisbee? It makes me laugh to this day, whenevah
I think of it."
" I suppose Rob will hardly be there to-night,"
said Mrs. Sherman, smiling as she recalled the
154 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
ridiculous appearance he had made. His cake-walk
had been the feature of the evening.
" No, indeed," answered Lloyd. " He's no moah
likely to be there than the man in the moon. I wish
he would though. He used to be the life of every-
thing. We saw him this evening as we drove home
from the picnic. He had just come out from town,
and he looked so hot and dusty and ti'ahed it made
me feel bad. He's like a strangah now, didn't stop
to speak, only lifted his hat and turned in at the
gate at Oaklea, as if he hadn't gone on a thousand
drives with us. He ought to have been interested
in what we were doing for old times' sake."
Lloyd had not thought of Rob for days, but she
was reminded of him many times that evening, the
affair at the Mallards' barn was so much like the
one to which he had taken her three years before.
The same old negro fiddlers furnished the music.
The same flickering lantern light made weird shad-
ows on the rough walls, and the same sweet smell
of new hay filled the place. As the music of the
Virginia reel began she thought of the way Rob
had romped through it that other time, and wished
she could see him once more as jolly and care-free
as he was then.
" Why can one nevah have two good times ex-
SPANISH LESSONS 155
actly alike ? " she wondered wistfully. She was
standing near the wide double doors, looking out
across the fields as she thought about it later, recall-
ing how many things were alike on the two occa-
sions, even the colour of the dress she wore. She
remembered that because Rob had said she looked
like an apple-blossom, and it was rare indeed for
him to make such complimentary speeches. It
wasn't best for girls to hear nice things about them-
selves often, he said. It made them hard to get
along with, too uppity.
The music stopped and Leland Harcourt came
to find her. She was looking so pensively past the
gay scene that he bent over her, humming in a low
tone:
« * What's this dull town to me ?
Robin Adair?
What was 't 1 wished to see ?
What wished to hear ? * "
She started with a little laugh, blushing slightly
because he seemed to have read her thoughts.
" Robin Adair " was one of Mrs. Moore's old
names for Rob, and she had been wishing for him.
Over at Oaklea, Rob sat scowling at a book spread
out before him on the library table. He was think-
ing of Harcourt as he had seen him on the front
156 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
seat beside Lloyd, in his cool-looking white flannels,
the very embodiment of gentlemanly leisure. No
doubt she noticed the contrast between them, he all
dusty and dishevelled from his day's work and the
trip home on the hot car. Not that he would change
places, not that he regretted for an instant the part
he had to take in the grimy working world. But the
chance encounter had suddenly opened his eyes to
all that he had had to sacrifice for that work. Until
now it had not even left him time to realize how
much he had given up. Now to find this stranger
enjoying all that was once his, stung him to envy.
He smiled grimly as he recognized it as envy. He
had thought himself free from such a childish
trait. But he could not smile away the feeling. It
persisted till it accomplished more than the old
Judge's advice and his mother's pleadings, that all
work and no play was bad for him. Closing his
book he announced his intention of walking over to
The Locusts.
As he went up the avenue he heard the distant
scraping of fiddles and the rhythmic beating of feet
in the Mallard barn. He had forgotten that it was
the night of the rustic dance.
He was disappointed at finding no one at home
but the old Colonel. But his welcome was so cordial
SPANISH LESSONS 157
that he stayed even longer than he had intended.
The Colonel always had the latest news of every
one, but to-night he had to talk first of the wonder-
ful progress Lloyd was making in Spanish, and what
a fine fellow that young Harcourt was.
" Didn't like the chap at all at first," he confided.
" Thought he was too much of a confounded for-
eigner; but I'm a big enough man I hope to ac-
knowledge a mistake, and I own up I was preju-
diced."
When Rob finally rose to start home, the Colo-
nel would not let him go until he had promised to
come again the next night, when Lloyd and Betty
should be at home. Afterwards he regretted hav-
ing made the promise. Although he went early
Harcourt was already there, seemingly as much at
home as if he were a member of the family. It
made Rob feel like a stranger to see this newcomer
usurping the place that he had always filled in the
Sherman household.
It grated on him also to hear Lloyd saying, " Si,
senor " and " gracias " when she addressed Har-
court, and grated still more for Harcourt to turn
to her as he did continually with some aside in
Spanish. Never more than a phrase or a word,
and " just for practice," they laughingly explained,
158 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
but it seemed to emphasize a tie that had drawn
them together, and — Rob's remoteness.
■He left early. Walking slowly down the avenue
he thought of the hundreds of times he had passed
under those old locust-trees on sweet starlighted
summer nights like this. What a goodly company
of old friends they were! The kind that never
change. He looked up, vaguely grateful for the
soft lisping of leaves above him. They seemed to
understand why he was going, why he could not
stay.
Half-way down the avenue he heard the tinkle
of Lloyd's harp, and then her voice beginning to
sing. The seat beside the measuring tree was just
ahead and he made his way to it, quietly, on tip-toe
almost, that he might lose no note. But it was an
unknown tongue she was singing, a song that
Harcourt had taught her, and Rob could not un-
derstand a word. It was so symbolical of the
change that had come between them that a fierce
impulse seized him to rush back to the house and
throw the interloper out of the window. Then
he smiled bitterly at his own vehemence. What
right had he to be so savage over her friendship?
He was her big brother only, and even that merely
in name, because she had chosen to call him so in
SPANISH LESSONS 159
those years that they had been such loyal good
chums,, It was little and mean and selfish of him to
begrudge her the slightest thing that would give
her pleasure. This man with his fortune, his ac-
complishments, his rare social gifts had everything
to offer, while he, — he had not even time to put
at her disposal. Time to find bypaths to happiness
for her —
The sweet clear voice sang on, the old locusts
rustled softly as the night wind stirred them. Then
the song stopped, and for a long time he sat staring
ahead of him with unseeing eyes. At last he rose,
and taking a step towards the tree beside the bench,
passed his hand over the bark, groping for the
notches he knew were there but could not see.
He paused at the one a little higher than his
shoulder, and then his fingers found the four leaf
clover he had carved beside it, the last time Lloyd
had stood up to be measured. He could almost see
her standing there again like Elaine, the lily-maid,
fair-haired and smiling while he repeated the charm
of the four leaf clover :
" « Love be true to her —
Joy draw near to her —
Fortune find what your
Gifts can do for her — "*
l6o LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
He had forgotten how the lines went but it made
no difference. Anyhow they voiced what had
always been his dearest wish for her, and standing
there in the dark he vowed savagely that any man
who stood in the way of the old charm's coming
true, should have him to reckon with.
When he swung off down the path, taking the
short cut to Oaklea, his hat was pulled grimly down
over his eyes, and his mouth was set in a firm hard
line. He did not open his books again that night.
Lying on the couch by his open window, he watched
the lights at The Locusts shining through the trees,
till the last one went out, and he knew that Har«
court had gone.
CHAPTER VIII
" SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR "
The long July days slipped by, and Lloyd, look-
ing back on them as Hildegarde looked into her
magic glass, saw only pleasant scenes mirrored in
their memory. The fortunate things, the smiling
faces, the pleasant happenings were hers, and for
a time even other people's troubles, those shadows
of the world that are always with us, left her daily
outlook undimmed.
Like Hildegarde, too, she went on with her
weaving, but wholly unconscious that the shuttle
of her thoughts was shaping her web to fit the
shoulders of the dark-eyed knight who came often-
est. Mrs. Sherman saw it and was troubled.
" Jack," she said to her husband one afternoon,
when he had come out from town earlier than
usual, and thw were wandering around the shady
grounds together, planning some improvements,
'* I'm afraid those Spanish lessons are a mistake.
i6i
l62 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Lloyd is seeing entirely too much of Mr. Harcourt.
He is here morning, noon and night."
Mr. Sherman gave a quick glance towards the
tennis court where the two were finishing a lively
game. " Don't you worry, Elizabeth," was his
placid answer. " It isn't as if she'd never been
used to such devotion. She's never known any-
thing else. Malcolm and Keith used to spend fully
as much time with her, and Rob Moore fairly lived
over here."
" Yes, but this is different," protested Mrs. Sher-
man. " They were mere boys, and she dominated
them, but Leland Harcourt is a man, and an experi-
enced one socially, and he is dominating her. I can
see it in her quick deference to his opinions, and
her evident desire to please him. Not evident to
him, perhaps, but plain -enough to me. I've been
thinking that it might be a good thing for us to
go to the springs for awhile or to the sea-shore or
some place where she'd meet other people. In a
quiet little country place like this a man like Leland
Harcourt looms up big on a young girl's horizon;
a girl just out of school, eager for new interests.
It isn't wise in us to allow her to be restricted just
to his society, when we could so easily give her the
safe-guard of contrasts."
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR* 1 63
Mr. Sherman looked down at his wife with an
indulgent smile.
" Don't you worry,'' he repeated. " Lloyd will
do a lot of romantic day-dreaming probably, but
she has my ' yard-stick ' and I have her promise."
" But Jack, I verily believe the child thinks he
measures up to all your requirements. And really
there is nothing one can urge against his charac-
ter. It's more a matter of temperament. I am sure
she couldn't be happy with him. She's just >at the
romantic age now to be very much impressed with
that kind of a man. If she were older she would
see his shallowness — his lack of purpose, his in-
tense selfishness. I don't think that we oug'ht to
shut our eyes to the possible outcome of this con-
stant companionship we are allowing."
" Well," he answered hesitatingly, slow to ac-
knowledge his wife's distrust of Lloyd's judgment,
yet quick to see the wisdom of her point of view.
" Maybe you are right. But," he added wistfully,
" I had hoped to keep her home this summer. She
has been away at school so long — and she'll be
in town so much next winter if she makes her
debut. Wait till I have had a talk with her before
you plan any trips."
" But don't you see," urged Mrs. Sherman, * it
164 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
is something- too intangible to discuss. To speak
to her about it now, to make any opposition to him
at all, may quicken her interest in him and make her
champion his cause. That would be fatal, and yet
it's just as dangerous to wait. Love at that age
is like a fog. It comes creeping up so gradually
that you don't realize what is enveloping you, till
you're completely lost in it, and all the rest of the
world shut out."
" You speak from experience ? " he said teas-
ingly.
" You know very well," she confessed laugh-
ingly, " what a befogged state-/ was in. All papa's
breathing out of ' threatening and slaughter ' didn't
make the slightest difference. I was blind and deaf
to everything but you. And I'd want Lloyd to be
the same," she added hastily, " if you were as un-
reasonable as papa was then. But the circumstances
are too different to be compared. I'm simply warn-
ing you that the Little Colonel's name was not
lightly given. She has not only r*\ my determina-
tion in her makeup, but her grandfather's as well."
Here the gardener met them, and the conversa-
tion dropped. The next half hour was spent in
consultation over some changes to be made in the
conservatory.
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" i6§
When they went back to the house Leland Har-
court had gone, and Lloyd was just stepping into
Doctor Shelby's buggy, which was drawn up in
front of the house. The old doctor waited for them
to come within hearing distance before he leaned
out and called :
" I'm just borrowing the Little Colonel for
awhile. There's a case over at Rollington that
needs the attention of her King's Daughters Cir-
cle, and I'm taking her over to investigate it. We'll
be home before dark."
" All right," called Mr. Sherman, waving his hat
as Lloyd looked back at them with a smile and a
flutter of her handkerchief. During the winter
that Lloyd had joined the Circle, and in the sum-
mer vacations following, it had been a matter of
frequent occurrence for the old doctor to take her
with him on such errands. Remembering how in-
terested Lloyd had become in many of the cases,
Mrs. Sherman breathed a sigh of thankfulness,
hoping that this might prove to be one that would
enlist her sympathies and occupy so much of her
time that it would make a serious break in the
Spanish lessons.
It had been a happy afternoon for Lloyd. If
she had stopped and tried to recall what made it sck
x§6 UTTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RMING
she could not have mentioned any particular thing.
To be young and well and filled with the same glow
that made the summer day a joy was enough, but
to feel that some one whose opinion she valued
very much found her charming, and said so with
every glance of his dark eyes, was more than
enough. It made her cup of happiness complete
and brimmed it oven
The doctor was pouring out a tale of somebody's
woes, but the trace of a smile lingered on her lips
as she made a polite attempt to listen. She could
not quite shut out the thought of that last game
of tennis, and the trivial pleasantries that had gone
to make up the sum of her great content. There
was a dreamy, far-away look in her eyes as she
listened. The Spanish serenade that Leland Har-
court had sung before he left kept repeating itself
over and over, a sort of undercurrent to what the
doctor was saying. She beat time to it with her
finger-tips on the side of the buggy. Once it rose
so insistently that she lost what the doctor was
saying, and came to herself with a start when a
familiar name arrested her attention.
" Ned Bannon's wife ! " she repeated in astonish-
ment. " You suahly can't mean that it's Ida Shane
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" 167
who's sick ovah in that tumbledown cottage of the
McCarty's!"
" I surely do," he answered. " She didn't want
to come back to this part of the country, goodness
knows. She remembers what a commotion it
raised when she eloped from the Seminary with
Ned, five years ago. But Ned has scarcely drawn
a sober breath for the last year. She's sure of get-
ting needlework here, and with little Wardo to
consider there was nothing for her to do but put
her pride in her pocket and come."
" Little Wardo ! " breathed Lloyd wonderingly.
The ride seemed full of surprises.
" Yes, she has a little son about four years old,
I judge. And it is on his account that I have
asked the help of the King's Daughters. He'll
have to be taken away from her till she's better,
•for she is morbidly sensitive about keeping Ned's
failings from him. She has never allowed him to
find out that his father is a drunkard. She makes
a hero of him to the little fellow. Seems to think
that he'll blame her for giving him such a father
by marrying a man whom she had been warned
would bring her nothing but trouble and disgrace.
She's desperately ill, and of course in her weak
!68 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
condition she magnifies the matter. It has become
a mania with her."
" Poah Violet ! " exclaimed Lloyd in distress,
her thoughts flying back to the scene in the school
orchard five years ago, when watching the glimmer
of the pearl on Ida's white hand in the moonlight
she had been thrilled by her whisper : " He says
that's what my life means to him — a pearl ; and
that my influence can make him the man I want
him to be. Oh, Princess! I'd give my life to keep
him straight ! "
Not even an echo of the serenade was in her
memory now. Her knowledge of Ida's nearness
seemed to bring her old school-friend actually be-
fore her : the faint odour of violets, the shy glance
of her appealing violet eyes under the long lashes,
the bewitching dimple at the corner of her mouth,
the flash of her rings, the sweep of her long skirts,
the soft hair gleaming under the big-plumed picture
hat, more than all the air of romance and mystery
that surrounded her because of the pearl and the
secret engagement to her " Edwardo."
" I hadn't intended for her to see you," said the
doctor, when her exclamations and questions re-
vealed to him the intimacy that had once existed
between them. " But under the circumstances it
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" 169
will be the best thing I can do. I'll go in first and
prepare her for the meeting, however. She thinks
she hasn't a friend left on earth, on account of her
unhappy marriage. Everybody warned her against
it."
The front door stood open, and Lloyd sat down
on the broken step to wait. It seemed impossible
that she was going to find Ida, the embodiment of
daintiness and refinement, in this dilapidated old
place. The whitewash had long ago dropped in
scales from the rough walls. The window-panes
were broken, the shutters sagging, half the pickets
off the fence. Not a spear of grass ventured up
in the barren yard, where a rank unpruned peach-
tree struggled for its life in the baked earth. The
house stood so near the road that the thick summer
dust rolled in suffocatingly whenever a vehicle
passed.
" How can people exist in such an awful desolate,
forsaken spot ? " she wondered, looking around with
a shudder of disgust. That Ida, dainty beauty-lov-
ing Ida, who scorned everything that was common
and coarse, should be lying inside in that dark room
was more than she could believe.
A wagon rattled by, and she put her handker-
chief up to her face, stifled by the cloud of dust
170 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
that rose in its wake. When she ventured to take
it down again and draw a long breath, a chubby,
barefooted child was standing in the path in front
of her, regarding her curiously. The wagon made
so much noise that she had not heard his bare feet
pattering around the house. She gave a little start
of surprise, then smiled at him, for he was an at-
tractive little fellow, despite the fact that his face
was smeared with the remains of the bread and
jam he had just been enjoying at one of the neigh-
bours, and his gingham apron was in rags. He
had caught it on the barb wire fence as he climbed
through.
As he smiled back at her shyly from under his
long lashes, Lloyd's interest quickened, for there
was no mistaking the likeness of those violet eyes
and the dimple that came at the corner of his cupid's
bow of a mouth. They were so like Ida's that she
smiled and said confidently, " You're Wardo.
Aren't you ! "
He nodded gravely, then after another long
silent scrutiny, turned away to pour the sand out
of the old tin can he was carrying, in a pile under
the peach-tree. If it had not been for the jam and
the dirt Lloyd would have caught him up and
kissed him, he was such a dear little thing, with a
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" 171
thatch of short golden curls. But her fastidious
dislike of touching anything dirty made her draw
back. It was well for the furtherance of their ac-
quaintance that she did so. He was not accustomed
to caresses from strangers. He accepted her pres-
ence on the door-step without question, and pres-
ently, as the moments passed and she made no move-
ment towards him, he went up to her with friendly
curiosity.
"Is you got a sand-pile to your house?" he
asked.
" No," she confessed, feeling that he would con-
sider her lacking on that account and that she must
hasten to mention other attractions. " But I have
a red and green bird that can talk, and a little
black pony named ' Tarbaby.' It's so little that
there's nobody at my house now small enough to
ride it. So it stays all day long in the field and
eats grass."
" I'm little enough to ride it," he began con-
fidently.
Just then the doctor came out, and she sprang
up, her heart throbbing. " I'm going now for the
nurse," he said in a low tone. " She's due on the
next train. Keep her as quiet as possible. Of
course you'H have to let her free her mind, but
172 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
promise her almost anything- to soothe her. I'll
be back in quarter of an hour."
Frightened at being left alone with such a weight
of responsibility thrust upon her, Lloyd tiptoed
into the house. In the dim light she almost stum-
bled over the cot on which Ned Bannon lay in a
drunken stupor, and her first glance at the bed be-
yond made her draw back in dismay. She never
would have recognized the white face on the pil-
low as Ida's, had it not been for the appealing eyes
turned towards her.
Five years of poverty and illness and neglect had
changed the pretty little school-girl into a faded,
care-worn woman. She had been crying ever since
she was taken sick, and now was so weak and
hysterical that she caught at Lloyd with a cry, and
clung to her sobbing.
" Oh, it kills me to have you find me this way ! "
she gasped, " when I've tried so long to hide what
we've come to. But I'm glad you've come, for the
baby's sake! Oh, Lloyd, what's going to become of
my little Wardo!"
It was several minutes before she could talk co-
herently, and then she beg"an to sob out the story
of her married life, her miserable failure to reform
Ned. Lloyd tried to sto|> her presently, thinking
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" 173
she was becoming delirious, but she might as weli
have tried to stop a high tide.
" Oh, I have been so proud ! " she sobbed. " I
couldn't tell anybody. I couldn't tell you now if
I wasn't afraid that I might die, like that poor
woman across the street last night. She's left five
little children. But I can't leave my little Wardo
like that! " she broke out desperately. " I know he
has inherited Ned's awful appetite. I must stay
and help him fight it, for it's all my fault. I gave
him such a father. A father that he can never be
proud of! A father that will be only a disgrace
to him ! Oh, why didn't somebody warn me that
it was not only a husband I was choosing but my
little Wardo's father! Nobody ever told me that,
and I was so young I never thought of any one but
myself. And now the poor little innocent soul will
have to suffer for it all his life long! "
She was throwing herself about so wildly that
Lloyd was frightened, and rose from her chair to
call one of the neighbours. But she could not break
away. Ida caught at her dress and held her fast
in her frenzied clasp.
" But I tell you I won't let him grow up to be
like that ! " she cried with her eyes glaring wildly
at the drunken man on the cot across the room.
174 LITTLE GOLONEL'S KNIGHT COMBS RIUING
" I'll kill him with my own hands first, while he
is little and good. God would understand, wouldn't
he? He couldn't blame me for trying to save my
baby! But if he did I'd have to do it anyway. I'd
have to do it and take the punishment. I can't have
my little Wardo grow up to be like that."
The sound of his name brought the child to the
door. He came pattering in, and climbing up on
the bed beside his mother, stroked her face with his
dirty little dimpled hand. The soft touch quieted
Ida in an instant, and with an effort to speak calmly
she looked up at Lloyd.
" The doctor said the baby must go away for
awhile, for fear of the fever. But I can't give him
up to just anybody, Lloyd. The neighbours have
been good and kind, but I'm afraid he might find
out from some of the children about Ned — you
know. But with you — Oh, Lloyd, would it be
asking too much if — "
She stopped with her question half uttered, but
the imploring look in her eyes was a prayer that
Lloyd could not resist, and she held out her
arms toward the little figure cuddled up on the
bed.
" I'll take him till you're better," she promised
impulsively.
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" 175
The tears welled up in Ida's eyes again. She was
so weak the least thing started them.
" He's never been away from me a single night
in his life/' she said brokenly. " I couldn't give
him up to anybody but you." Then seeing the
frightened look that crept into the child's face as
he listened to the conversation which he but half
understood, she wiped her eyes and smiled at him
tremulously.
" Dear little son, you want to help mother get
well, don't you, lamb? Then go with mother's
dearest friend for awhile. She'll take care of you
while the good doctor makes me well. And she'll
tell you stories and make you have such a happy
time."
" And let you ride on the black pony," broke in
Lloyd eagerly, anxious to clear away the troubled
pucker on the child's face that came at mention of
a separation.
" An' hear the wed and gween bird talk ! " he
added himself, his face lighting up at the thought.
Then he laid his plump little hand on Ida's hot
cheek to compel her attention. It was a gesture
she loved, and she kissed his fingers passionately
as he said with an eager voice, " She has a bird
176 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
that can talk, muv'ah. I'll go and hear what it
says an' n'en I'll come back an' tell you."
Evidently his idea of separation was based on
the length of the neighbourhood visits he had made,
and he accepted Lloyd's invitation willingly, expect-
ing a speedy return.
" Let's go wite away, Dea'st Fwend," he ex-
claimed, wriggling down off the bed. " I'll get
my hat."
If anything had been needed to complete Lloyd's
surrender to the little fellow's charms, it was the
sweet way in which he gave her the title " Dearest
Friend." That was what his mother had called
her, and he thought it was her name. She caught
him up and kissed him, despite the jam streaks and
the dirt.
" Come on and have yoah face washed and yoah
curls brushed, so we'll be all ready when the buggy
comes back," she said, hurrying to make him pre-
sentable before his mood could change.
As she gathered his clothes together and packed
them for the short journey in a dress box which
she found under the bed, it made an ache grip
her throat to see how Ida had thrown the shield
of her mother-love around him in every way pos-
sible. There was no mark of poverty here. She
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR" n*
had cut up her own clothes, relics of a happier time,
to make the little linen suits that were so pretty
and becoming. No child in the Valley was better
dad, or looked so much like a little aristocrat, as
long as she was able to give him her daily attention.
He was so accustomed to being washed and
brushed and dressed that he made no objection to
what most children of that age consider an unnec-
essary process, and when Lloyd went about it with
unpractised fingers, he gravely corrected her mis-
takes, and laughed when she made a play of the
buttonholes being hungry mouths, that swallowed
the buttons in a hurry. Never in her life had she
exerted herself so much to be entertaining, for she
wanted to take him away without a scene. She
wanted, too., for him to look his best, that he might
win his own way at The Locusts. She thought
with a trifle of uneasiness that her impulsive act
might not meet her family's entire approval.
Ida's separation from him was a painful one,
for she realized her condition, and knew that it was
possible that this might be her last sight of him.
As Lloyd turned away with her parting cry ringing
in her ears, " Oh, be good to him ! Be good to
him ! " a great tenderness sprang up in her heart
for the child who put his hand in hers so trustingly,
*7& LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
and trotted away beside her obediently at his moth-
er's bidding,, At the cot he stopped to clamber up
and kiss the red face, burrowed down in the pil-
lows in a sodden sleep. " My poor farvah's sick
too," he explained looking up at her, as if bespeak-
ing sympathy for him also.
Once in the buggy, while they waited for the
doctor to unfasten the hitch-rein, he reached up
and put his hand on her cheek in his baby fashion
to ask her a question. The touch brought the tears
to her eyes, it was so confiding, and she was still
so shaken by the scene she had just witnessed. In
a great throb of tenderness for the helpless little
body given over to her care, she drew him closer,
with a hasty kiss on the top of his curly head.
" Dea'st Fwend," he said, smiling up at her as
if he understood the reason of her sudden caress.
Then he cuddled his head against her shoulder in
a satisfied way, saying, " Tell me again what the
wed and gween bird says."
As they drove in at the entrance gate to The
Locusts, Lloyd recalled an experience she had not
thought of in years; an autumn day, when only a
baby herself, not yet six, she had been left to make
her way alone up this same avenue. She had never
spent a night away from her mother, and she was
"SHADOWS OF THE WORLD APPEAR"- 179
to stay a week alone with her grandfather, who did
not know how to sing her to sleep and kiss her eye-
lids down so she wouldn't be afraid of the black
shadows in the corners. Here by this very gate
she had stood, assailed by such a great ache of
loneliness and homesickness that she was sure she
would die if she had to endure it another moment.
And there was the spot where, rustling around in
the dead leaves, Fritz had found the little gray
glove her mother had dropped when she stooped
to kiss her good-bye.
As she remembered how she had carried that
glove, all week, rolled up in a little wad in her
pocket, to help her to be good and not to cry, she
resolved that Wardo should not have the same ex-
perience if any effort of hers could prevent it. She
would devote her time to him night and day and
keep him so happily employed, there would be no
time for " the sorry feelin's " that had been her
childish undoing. There was no care or accustomed
tenderness he should miss.
It was nearly dark when ohe reached home, and
so afraid was she that the nightfall itself would
make Wardo homesick, that she began to provide
for his entertainment even before she made any
explanation to her astonished family.
180 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Oh, Papa Jack," she called. " Please find the
parrot right away for Wardo to see, then I'll
explain everything."
For once the red and green bird was on its good
behaviour, and began to show off as soon as it was
brought to the front. While Wardo watched it,
wide-eyed and absorbed, Lloyd gave an excited
and tearful account of her visit to Ida. The old
Colonel said something about the fever and '.he
danger of infection, but when she had finished her
story nobody else had the heart to show displeas-
ure at what she had done.
" And I won't let him be a trouble to anybody ! "
she added. " I'll take care of him every bit my-
self, and keep him out of the way."
As Mrs. Sherman watched her leading the child
up-stairs, talking to him at every step to keep his
thoughts diverted from home, and then heard her
giving orders to Walker about her old high chair
and little white crib to be brought down from the
attic, she turned to Mr. Sherman with a sigh of
relief.
" She's found her own antidote for the Spanish
lessons, Jack. We won't have to go away to the
springs or the mountains now, I'm sure."
" FOR ONCE THE RED AND GREEN BIRD WAS ON ITS GOOD
BEHAVIOUR."
CHAPTER IX
MORE SHADOWS
From that first night, Wardo had the entire
household at his feet. Lloyd scarcely touched her
own dinner in her anxiety to anticipate his wants.
He was very near tears sometimes, when his furtive
glances around the table showed only strange faces,
but he was " a game little chap " as the Colonel
said, and " a credit to whoever had taught him his
manners."
He could not be induced to speak save in whis-
pers, when Lloyd put a protecting arm around the
high chair where he sat, and with an indulgent
3mile leaned over with her ear almost touching his
lips. Before the dinner was over he fell asleep,
worn out by the unusual excitement of the day, his
curly head laid confidingly on " Dea'st Fwend's "
shoulder.
" Sh ! " whispered Lloyd warningly to the col-
oured man who came in to change the plates for
x8i
182 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
dessert. " Wait a minute." Carry him up-stairs
first, please, Papa Jack. If I can get him undressed
without waking him he'll miss one homesick crying
spell anyhow."
Leland Harcourt came just as she had accom-
plished the task, and Betty tiptoed into the room
to tell her. Lloyd looked down at the little white-
gowned figure in the crib, and shook her head as it
stirred restlessly. " I'll stay with him," offered
Betty.
" No, I must wait till I'm suah he's sound asleep.
You explain to Mistah Harcourt, please, and I'll
come down aftah awhile. Oh, Betty! Isn't he a
darling? It's going to be moah fun taking care of
him than dressing dolls used to be ! "
It wasn't so much fun next morning, however,
when he cried to be taken to his mother. Every
sob that shook the little shoulders tore Lloyd's heart
also, for remembering the violence of her own
childish grieving, she put herself into Wardo's place
so completely that she cried too. Then everybody
in the house rose to the occasion. Papa Jack
brought out Tarbaby, and walked him up and
down the avenue as long as Wardo was pleased to
sit in the saddle. Mrs. Sherman took him to the
stsables to see half a dozen gray kittens that had
MORE SHADOWS 183
made their home in the hay, and Walker carried
him pick-a-back to look at the calves.
After that the old Colonel unsheathed his sword
and got out his spurs, and started to tell the blood-
iest battle tales he knew, and when they did not
meet with the approval he expected, he actually in-
vented a game of bear, which they played in his den.
They played it till Wardo began shrieking with
thrills of real fear at the fearsome growling and
the big fur gloves thrust at him from behind the
leather couch. He grew so nervous and excited
that the Colonel was at a loss to know how to calm
the whirlwind he had unintentionally stirred up.
It was Betty who came to the rescue. She led
him down to the orchard, and taking him on her
lap in the old swing, swung him so high up into the
top of the apple-tree that they could look over and
see the eggs in a blue-bird's nest. Then little by
little she stopped their swinging, till presently they
were swaying very gently back and forth near the
ground, and she had charmed him into quietness
with one of the old tales that she used to tell Davy,
about the elves who live in the buttercups and ride
far miles on the bumblebees.
Glancing up towards the house, she saw Leland
Harcourt mounting the steps. It was the hour for
1 84 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Lloyd's lesson. So although she had intended to
spend the morning outlining a magazine story which
she had in mind, she took a fresh grip on the swing
rope, and began another tale.
That was the way Wardo's entertainment went
on for the next few days. He was not allowed an
idle moment in which to think of going home. So
what with all these amusements and the novelty of
constant attention from his elders, it was not long
before he developed into a veritable little tyrant,
demanding attention every moment of his waking
hours. But when her unremitting service grew irk-
some Lloyd had only to think of Ida, tossing help-
less and delirious at the mercy of the wasting fever.
Her daily visits to the cottage kept her in full reali-
zation of the seriousness of the case, and a deeper
feeling of tenderness swept over her whenever she
came back to Wardo after one of these visits, for
each time she knew that the dreaded crisis was
nearer, and she could not bear to think of his being
left motherless.
"It will just kill him!" she thought with tears
in her eyes, as she watched the pitiful quivering of
his mouth and the manly attempt to choke back his
sobs, whenever Ida's name was mentioned. So to
make sure that he was happily employed she took
MORE SHADOWS 185
him wherever she went, except on that one short
drive which she made daily to Rollington. When
she and Betty spent the day at The Beeches or the
Cabin, he was one of the party. When Miss Marks
had another expedition to finish her Garden Fancies,
he was included in the group, and a charming pic-
ture he made, as with a butterfly net in his hand, he
stooped to point to the figures on the old sun-dial,
that marked the flight of the happy summer.
It was from this expedition that they drove back
one evening in the early August twilight. He had
been asleep most of the way home, but roused up
as the carriage turned in at the gate. Betty, leaning
forward in her seat, drew a long breath.
" Oh, smell the lilies ! " she exclaimed, looking
across the lawn to where they stood, like tall white
ghosts in the twilight. " How heavenly sweet !
Such a delicious ending to such a nice day. Do
you know, Lloyd, I've been feeling all the way home
as if I were going to hear from my book to-night.
The publishers have had plenty of time to read it
since I sent it. I feel it in my bones that there'll be
a letter waiting for me."
" How do you feel rings wif your bones, Betty? **
asked Wardo, sleepily raising his curly head from
Lloyd's shoulder.
1 86 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Oh, I couldn't make you understand," she an-
swered. " It's just a sort of happy flutter all
through you that tells you something nice is going
to happen."
"What's flutter?" asked the tireless questioner,
but Betty paid no heed. The carriage had reached
the steps, and with a spring she was out, calling
eagerly as she stepped into the broad path of light
streaming across the porch from the hall door,
" Any mail for me, godmother? "
" Nothing but a package," answered Mrs. Sher-
man, coming out to meet them. " And it will keep.
Better run on in and eat your dinner first. Cindy
has been keeping it hot for you all."
But Betty could not wait. As she darted into
the hall Mrs. Sherman turned to Lloyd, who was
half dragging, half lifting the sleepy Wardo up the
steps.
" Poor little girl," she said in a low tone. " I
wanted to put off her disappointment as long as
possible, and not spoil her happy day with such an
ending. Her manuscript has come back from the
publishers."
" Oh, mothah ! " exclaimed Lloyd in distress.
" You don't mean that they've refused it ! They
suahly couldn't have done that! Maybe they've
MORE SHADOWS 187
just sent it back for her to make some changes
in it."
Betty's voice in the door stopped her. As long
as she lived, Lloyd never again smelled the odour
of August lilies when they were heavy with dew,
that she did not see the tragic misery of Betty's
white face as it appeared that moment in the light
of the hall lamp.
" They've sent it back, godmother," she said in
a low even tone. " It wasn't good enough. It's
all a miserable mistake to think that I can write,
for I put the very best of myself into this and it
is a failure."
" No ! No ! " began Lloyd, but Betty would not
wait for any attempted comfort. " I don't want any
dinner," she said, then with her mouth twitching
piteously as she fought back the tears, she ran up-
stairs, and they heard the door close and the key
turn in the lock.
Nobody ever knew what went on behind that
locked door, for Betty was as quiet in her griefs
as she was in her joy and made no audible moan.
She threw herself across the foot of the bed and lay
there staring out of the window in the hopelessness
of utter defeat. The katydids shrilling in the Lo-
custs seemed to fill the night with an unbearable
1 88 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
discord. She put her hands over her ears to shut
out the hateful sound. It seemed to her that noth-
ing mattered any more. As she slowly recalled all
her months of painstaking work, the keen pleasure
that each hour of it had afforded her was turned
into bitterness by the thought that it had proved
a failure.
Only once before had she felt such hopelessness.
That was at the first house-party, when she thought
she was doomed to be blind. They had brought her
the newspaper containing her first published poem.
It was called " Night," and as they guided her fin-
ger over the page that it might rest proudly on the
place where her name was printed, she had faltered,
" It's going to be such a long night, and there are
no stars in this one ! "
Now the outlook seemed even more hopeless,
bereft of the star of her great hope. The ambition
to be an author had been a part of her so long, that
it seemed even more indispensable than her eye-
sight.
The slow hot tears began to drop down on her
pillow after awhile, tears of mortification as well as
disappointment. The girls would have to know,
She had been foolish to make such a parade of her
attempt. She should have waited. But then she
MORE SHADOWS 189
had been so sure that her story was a good one.
That was the hardest part to bear, that she had been
so mistaken. It would have been easier, she thought
bitterly, if her rebuffs had come earlier ; if some of
her first contributions had been returned. But the
way had been made so easy for her. Her very
first poems had been accepted, printed, praised.
Everybody had predicted success, everybody ex-
pected great things of her, even old Bishop Chart-
ley. The girls at school had openly proclaimed her
as a genius, the teachers had praised every effort
and urged her to greater, the whole Valley looked
upon her as one set apart by a special gift.
Was it any wonder, she asked herself, that she
had come to believe in her own ability. It was as
if she had been urged down a flowery path by each
one she met, to find that every guide was mistaken,
and that the way they pointed out ended in a dismal
slough of disappointment.
Presently she heard Wardo's little feet on the
stairs, pattering up to bed, and his voice raised in
his ceaseless questioning; then a little later Lloyd's
voice singing him to sleep. After that there was the
sound below of people coming and going, Leland
Harcourt's laugh and the scrape of wheels on the
gravelled drive.
190 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDINS
She felt a dull throb of gratitude that the family-
left her alone.
A long time after she heard the closing and lock-
ing of doors, and then steps again on the stairs.
Some one stopped outside her door.
" Good-night, Betty deah."
" Good-night," she answered in a voice which
she tried to keep steady, but there was a sob in it,
and divining that the kindest thing would be not
to notice it, Lloyd choked back the word of sympa-
thy she longed to speak, and went on to her room.
Nearly an hour after Betty got up, and lighting
her lamp, sat down at the desk where the rejected
manuscript lay. Turning it over listlessly, she read
a paragraph here and there, trying to see it through
the eyes of the publisher who had returned it. If
he had sent merely a printed notice of refusal, such
as she had been told was customary, stating imper-
sonally that it was returned with regret because
unavailable, she would have started it off again at
daybreak to another place, knowing that what does
not fill the special need of one firm may be seized
with alacrity by another. But this man had taken
the trouble to explain why it was unavailable.
Now, in the light of that explanation, she won-
dered with burning cheeks how she could have
MORE SHADOWS 1 9 1
thought for one instant that it was good. She could
see, herself, that it was crude and childish and in-
effectual; not the style in which it was written.
Betty was sure of her ability there. She was as
conscious that her diction and composition meas-
ured up to the best standards, as an athlete is con-
scious of his strength. It was her view-point of
life that had amused the great publisher. He hadn't
ridiculed it in words, but she felt his covert smile
at her schoolgirl attempt to deal with the world's
big problems, and the knowledge that he had been
amused cut her like a knife.
Pushing the package aside, she took out the last
volume of her diary, and from force of habit made
an entry, the record of the return of her manuscript.
" It has come back to me, the little bark that the
girls launched so gaily, with ceremony and good
wishes. It has come back a shipwreck! It was
almost easier to face blindness than it is to face this
failure. How can I give up this hope that has
grown with my growth till it means more than
everything else in the world to me ? How can I live
all the rest of my life without it? Somehow for
years I have felt that the Lord wanted me to write.
The feeling was like the King's call to Edryn, and
I have gone on answering it as he did :
192 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" « Oh list !
Thou heart and hand of mine, keep tryst,
Keep tryst or die ! '
" Of course it would be folly for me to go on now,
when it has been proved beyond all doubt that I am
not able to keep the great tryst worthily, and yet —
life seems so empty with this one high hope and
purpose taken out of it, that I am not brave enough
to face it cheerfully."
It had long been a habit of Betty's, formed in
the early days at the Cuckoo's Nest, to comfort her-
self when things went wrong by imagining how
much worse they might have been. Now there was
a drop of consolation in the fact that she had never
displayed her pride in her book to any but the
girls. It had been a temptation to show it to her
godmother and Papa Jack and the Colonel, espe-
cially after the girls had applauded it so enthusi-
astically ; but the wish for them to see it at its best
had made her withhold it in its manuscript form.
The climax of her triumph was to be when she
placed in their hands a real, full-fledged book.
Their criticism might have spared her the humilia-
tion of a rejected manuscript, but she acknowledged
to herself that it was easier to have the sentence
MORE SHADOWS *93
passed on it by a stranger than by the three whose
opinion she valued most.
Tiptoeing noiselessly around the room in order
not to disturb any one at that late hour, she un-
dressed slowly, and creeping into bed sobbed herself
to sleep. Betty had always been a sensible little
soul, taking her small troubles like a philosopher,
and next morning, when she was awakened by the
first bird-calls and lay watching the light creep up
the wall, the old childish habit of thought asserted
itself, bringing an unexpected balm to her sore
heart. She had always loved allegories. At the
Cuckoo's Nest she had helped herself over all the
rough places in her road by imagining that she
was Christian in " Pilgrim's Progress," and that no
matter how hard a time she was having then, the
House Beautiful and the Delectable Mountains and
the City of the Shining Ones lay just ahead.
Now in her greater trouble it was the allegory
of Edryn that brought comfort, because he, too, had
heard the King's call and striven to keep tryst, and
she remembered that when he knelt to receive his
knighthood, something else besides pearls and dia-
monds flashed on his vestment above his heart, to
form the letters " semper fidelis."
" An amethyst glowed on his breast in purple
194 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
splendour to mark his patient meeting with De-
feat!"
" Maybe without that amethyst he couldn't have
spelled all the motto perfectly," thought Betty. She
sat up in bed, her face alight with the inspiration
of the thought. She had met defeat and she had
fallen into a grievous Dungeon of Disappointment,
but she needn't stay in it. She sprang out of bed
echoing Edryn's words : " Full well I know that
Heaven always finds a way to help the man who
helps himself, and even dungeon walls must harbour
help for him who boldly grasps the first thing that
he sees and makes it serve him ! "
It was a brave way to begin the day, and it car-
ried her over the first part of it so cheerfully that
Mrs. Sherman began to think that she had over-
estimated Betty's disappointment. It surely could
not have been as overwhelming as she imagined.
She did not know how many times that day Betty's
courage failed her. Edryn's high-sounding words
seemed like a hollow mockery and she brooded over
the failure till she began to grow morbid and ultra-
sensitive.
Late that afternoon Mrs. Sherman met her in the
back hall with the manuscript in her hands. She
was on her way to put it in the kitchen stove.
MORE SHADOWS 195
Promptly rescuing it, Mrs. Sherman finally obtained
her reluctant consent to let her read it.
" It is your right," said Betty bitterly, " no mat-
ter how much it humiliates me. You have done
everything for me, lavished everything on me as if
I were really your daughter, and I have disappointed
you at every turn. I couldn't be the brilliant social
success you hoped for, it was useless to try. And
I couldn't be the success in literature you had a
right to expect, though I did try that with all my
soul, mind and strength. I've been thinking about
it all day, and I made up my mind at last, that I'd
burn up that miserable story that I wasted so many
months on, and then I'd go to you and tell you that
under the circumstances it would be better for me
to go away, and not be an expense to you any
longer. As long as there was a prospect of my
amounting to something some day that would make
you proud of me, that would repay you in part for
all you've done, I didn't mind deepening my obli-
gation to you, but now — "
She turned to the window to hide her face, but
the next instant she found herself sitting on the top
stair with her head on her godmother's shoulder,
listening to such loving remonstrances that they
should have driven away the last vestige of her
196 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
bitter self-condemnation. It did help wonderfully
to hear that her godmother and Papa Jack were
not disappointed in her though grieved for her dis-
appointment; that they loved her for her own dear
little self alone, and not for the things they hoped
she would achieve, and that they couldn't let her
go away, for nobody could ever fill the place of
their dear little daughter Betty.
She wiped her eyes after awhile and smiled like
an April day, but she still persisted that she must
go away somewhere and teach if only to prove that
she was good for something.
Much troubled by her evident distress, Mrs. Sher-
man finally went to talk the matter over with the
old Colonel. Mr. Sherman was away from home.
Several days after she called Betty into her room.
" Papa has read your manuscript," she said, " and
he thinks it would be a good thing to let you have
your own way, and go off somewhere for awhile.
He says that in his opinion your writing shows
unusual promise, and that its only lack is the lack
of nearly all young writers, your ignorance of life.
You must know more of the world before you can
have a message for it that it will stop to listen to.
You must live and grow and gain experience, and
he thinks the best way for you to do all that, is to
MORE SHADOWS
197
depend on your own resources for awhile, and that
the kindest thing we can do is to open the cage
and give the little bird a chance to try its own
wings. It will never learn to fly as long as we
keep it hedged about so carefully.
" He finally convinced me by quoting that legend
of ' Camelback Mountain ' to me. He says you
are like Shapur now, a vendor of salt who as yet
can only follow in the train of others — write what
has already been written. You haven't the wares
with which to gain a royal entrance to the City of
your Desire. You need some desert of waiting in
which to learn the secret of Omar's alchemy."
" I know," said Betty. " I know now what my
writing lacks — the attar that gained him his royal
entrance." She quoted softly, " ' And no man fills
his crystal vase with it until he has first been
pricked by the world's disappointments and bowed
by its tasks.' "
" Oh, Betty, my dear little girl," said Mrs. Sher-
man taking the earnest face between her hands and
looking down fondly into the trusting brown eyes
raised to hers. " I suppose it's true, but I can't
help wanting to save you from the pricks and the
burdens. Still I won't stand in your way. Go
ahead, little Shapur, and may the golden gates
LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
swing wide for you, for I know you'll force them
open some day, with the filling of your crystal vase."
A quarter of an hour later Betty was hurrying
down the road in happy haste, a telegram in her
hand for Warwick Hall. It was to Madam Chart-
ley asking if she knew of any vacant position for
teachers, in any of the schools of her acquaintance.
CHAPTER X
BY THE SILVER YARD - STICK
With her days shadowed by anxiety over Ida's
illness, the care and responsibility of Wardo and
her sympathy for Betty's disappointment, Lloyd still
found one bright spot, untouched by other people's
troubles. If, like the old sun-dial at Warwick Hall,
she had taken for her motto : " I only mark the
hours that shine," those hours when Leland Har-
court came to teach her Spanish were the ones that
would have been numbered.
If she had felt that he regarded it as a bore, or
that it cost him the slightest effort, she would have
dropped the study immediately; but when he made
it plain that it was the chief interest of his days,
and the one thing that made his summer in the
Valley endurable, she could not help being flattered
by his assertions, and exerted herself all the more
to make the hour a pleasant one.
It was an agreeable sensation to know that she
could interest a man who had known so many in-
IfiO
200 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
terests ; that it was she who held him in Lloyds-
boro; that every turn of her head, every inflection
of her voice, every phase of her varying moods had
a charm for him. It made her tingle with satis-
faction when she realized that she had justified
Gay's confidence in her power, but sometimes after
he had gone she felt that she was not exerting it
to the extent she had promised. She wasn't " key-
ing him up to any higher pitch." She wasn't inspir-
ing him with the ambition which his family seemed
to think was all that was necessary to make him
capable of any achievement. The idea of her influ-
encing him did not seem as preposterous and ridic-
ulous as it had the first few weeks of their acquaint-
ance, but somehow it did not seem so< necessary.
Sometimes she wondered if the " sweet doing noth-
ing " that Gay said was in his blood had not af-
fected her also. Maybe that was why she liked his
very indolence, and forgave in him what she would
have condemned in any other chronic idler. Maybe
he was influencing her.
"But he sha'n't!" she declared to herself when
the thought first startled her, and to prove that he
hadn't she seized the first opportunity which came
in her way to take him to task. His signet ring
bore the same crest that was on the silver ladle,
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 20 1
and he used it one morning to seal a note for her.
With a significant glance in its direction she asked
saucily, " Sefior Tarrypin, when are you going to
put your family motto into actual use? When are
you going to begin striving till you ovahcome —
till you do something really worth while in the
world?"
With the question came the quick iemembrance
of a winter day by the churchyard stile, and Mal-
colm's boyish voice protesting earnestly — " I'll be
anything you want me to be, Lloyd." And then
like a flash came that other scene and Phil's plead-
ing voice, " I say it in all humility, Lloyd, this little
bit of turquoise kept me ' true blue.' "
If she had expected any such earnestness in Le-
land's reply she was soon disillusioned, for with
an amused side-glance at her, as if he found this
serious mood the most diverting of all, he said in-
differently :
" Oh — manana"
" To-morrow!" she translated quickly. "But
to-morrow never comes."
" Then neither need the effort."
" But without the effort — the striving," she
persisted, looking down at the imprint of the tiny
dagger on the seal, " there never will be any crown."
2G2 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
He shrugged his shoulders carelessly. " What's
the odds, when one doesn't care for a crown? "
" You're just plain lazy ! " she cried, provoked
that her effort to inspire him had met with such a
reception.
He smiled as if she had paid him the greatest
of compliments, then sat up with an air of interest.
" This is a topic we've never struck before,"
he said lightly. " It's like coming across an inviting
bypath we've never travelled over. Now suppose
you tell me just what is your ideal way for a man
to spend his life in order to get the most out of it."
Lloyd stole a quick glance at him to see if he
were in earnest. The light tone seemed almost
mocking, but the half-closed eyes gazing out across
the lawn were serious enough, and she studied her
reply a moment, feeling that maybe her opportunity
had come at last.
" I think," she began timidly, " that the man who
gets the most out of life is the one who makes most
of himself — who starts out as they did in the old
days to win his spurs and his accolade. Maybe
you know the story of Edryn, the one that gave
Warwick Hall its motto."
He nodded, with that slightly amused smile which
always disconcerted her. " Yes, I know. That's
t BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 203
Gay's pet war-cry — ' Keep tryst.' But go on, I'd
like to hear your version of it."
In the face of such an invitation she found it
very hard to proceed, but after a moment's hesita-
tion she said almost defiantly :
" Oh, I know you'll considah it a bit of school-
girl sentiment to look at life in such a figurative
way, but I think it's beautiful :
" ' To duty and to sorrow' " she quoted softly,
" ' to disappointment and defeat thou mayst be
called. No mutter what the tryst there is but one
reply if thou wouldst win thy knighthood! ' "
" But suppose one never hears any call," he asked
teasingly. " Never feels the spirit move him to
make any particular exertion."
" Then it's yoah own fault ! " cried Lloyd. " It's
just as it says in the legend. ' Only those will hear
who wake at dawn to listen in high places, and only
those will heed who keep the compass needle of
their soul true to the North star of a great ambi-
tion!'"
" Pretty strenuous work, isn't that, for an August
day? " he answered. " And that's all very well for
poets and priests and young idealists to dream of,
but when all's said and done, what's the good?
What's the use?"
204 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Clasping his hands behind his head he leaned back
in his chair and began reciting in a dreamy way,
as if he were chanting the rhythmical lines, a poem
called " Drifting." It was like an incantation, and
Lloyd sat listening as if he were weaving some
spell around her :
" « My soul to-day
Is far away
Sailing the Vesuvian Bay.
My winged boat,
A bird afloat,
Swims round the purple peaks remote.
« « I heed not if
My rippling skiff
Float swift or slow from cliff to cliff;
With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies,
Under the walls of Paradise.* "
As he went musically on, verse after verse, Lloyd
sat listening, wholly under the spell of his voice,
yet with a baffled impotent sense of being carried
along by a current in exactly the opposite direction
from the one in which she had started to go.
" • No more, no more
The worldly shore
Upbraids me with its wild uproar — * *
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 205
It was a Lotus land of irresponsibility and ease and
personal gratification that he was revealing to her
as his ideal of life. He hadn't openly made fun
of her enthusiasm and zeal, but he had chilled her
ardour and silenced her, and left her with the feel-
ing that her knights with their struggles after acco-
lades and ambitions and all those things were silly
folk who made much ado about nothing. It made
her cross.
In the silence that followed there was a shriek
from Wardo, somewhere back near the servants'
quarters, and then such a lusty crying that Lloyd
sprang up frightened, and ran to the rescue. She
was conscience-smitten for having left him so long
to the care of Enoch, Cindy's little grandson, whom
she had bribed to amuse him for an hour. It
was only because his constant presence and inter-
ruptions seemed to bore Leland that she had done
it. Wardo did make tyrannical demands on her
attention, she had to admit, dearly as she loved the
child. But when she found him crying from a bee-
sting, and his poor little lip swollen out of all resem-
blance to a Cupid's bow she felt a twinge of resent-
ment towards Leland. If she hadn't sent Wardo
away from her, she thought reproachfully, he
wouldn't have been stunsr, and she wouldn't have
206 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
sent him if Leland had acted nicer about having him
around. He had actually muttered in Mom Beck's
hearing that it was " a beastly bore always having
that kid poking in."
She had resented it at the time Mom Beck re-
peated it, but excused it on the ground that he was
not used to children, and that Wardo's persistent
questions and demands did tax one's patience dread-
fully sometimes. But now as he clung to her, sob-
bing and screaming, she thought reproachfully, " He
might at least have come around to find out what
was the mattah, when he knows how devoted I
am to the poah little thing, even if he didn't take
any interest in him himself. I'll keep Wardo with
me all the time aftah this, even if it does bo'ah
him."
Leading him back to the porch she took him in
her lap and quieted him with the promise of a won-
derful box of paints which he should have next day,
with which to colour all the pretty pictures in all the
magazines. And she quite ignored Leland for awhile
to punish him, not knowing that he understood her
pique and was amused at it, and that he was enjoy-
ing the picture she made rocking back and forth in
the low chair, with Wardo's golden curls pressed
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 207
against her shoulder, and the dimpled arms clinging
around her neck.
Next day she forgot the paints until it was too
late for her to get them, and Betty who was going
over to The Beeches and past the store, offered to
take Wardo and let him have the pleasure of buy-
ing them himself. After they had gone she went
down to the porch to wait for Leland. It was
almost lesson time. Yesterday's feeling of resent-
ment had entirely passed, and she looked down the
avenue expectantly from her seat behind the vines.
Any moment he might turn in at the gate. The
thought gave her a pleasant thrill of anticipation.
As the moments slipped by she opened her book
and began repeating the verses marked for her to
memorize.
Presently she looked up to see a small coloured
boy wandering up the avenue as if he had
no particular destination in view and no great de-
sire to arrive anywhere. She supposed he was the
bearer of a message to the cook, but instead of go-
ing around the house he came towards her with a
note in his hand. It was from Leland she saw at the
first glance, and written in Spanish at the second.
She could read enough of it to understand that
he was not coming that morning, but for the rest
208 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
of it she had to turn to her lexicon for help in
translating-. After some time and with much diffi-
culty she managed to make out the reason. He had
gone to Louisville for the day quite unexpectedly
with his brother — a matter of business. He was
sorry not to be able to keep his engagement with
her. Only dire necessity kept him away, and he
would be with her in the evening. Until then adieu.
She had to turn to her lexicon again for that next
word, and having found it wondered how he had
dared to put it in — that caressing little name,
that word of endearment which he would not have
presumed to use in English. It made the colour
flame up in her face.
But he was not coming. She let the note fall to
her lap with an exclamation of disappointment.
Then wide eyed and surprised she sat up straight,
suddenly aware how deep that disappointment was ;
suddenly realizing what she had never known till
this moment, how large a place Leland Harcourt
had grown to hold in her thoughts. Everywhere
she turned she could see his face with that quick
flashing smile she loved to bring to it. She could
see that impetuous toss of the head, the eager
gesture of his long slender hand, the easy grace of
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 2og
his manner that gave him his distinguished, patri-
cian air.
" Why, I'm like Hildegarde ! " she whispered
wonderingly. " ' His eyes are so blue they fill all
my dreams ! ' Only Mistah Harcourt's are dark."
Now if Lloyd had never heard the story of the
Three Weavers, never been a member of the Order
of Hildegarde, never made the promise to her
father about the silver yard-stick, her reverie in the
hammock that morning might have led to a very
different result. But because she had promised, and
because she must keep tryst no matter how hard it
was to do, she faced the matter squarely.
" He wouldn't have put that word in the note
if he wasn't beginning to care for me," she ad-
mitted, " and it wouldn't make me have that queah
little sawt of half-way glad feeling if I wasn't be-
ginning to care for him."
The hammock swung faster. She was thinking
of a day on the seashore years before, when she
had been playing out on the rocks. And while she
built her little castles the tide came creeping in,
creeping so quietly that she did not know it was
there until all the sand between her and safety was
covered and a fisherman had to wade in and carry
her out. Although she did not put the comparison
2IO LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
into words, that was what she felt was happening
now, and much as she liked him and loved to be
with him and missed him when he did not come,
she felt that his influence over her was creeping up
like a tide that would surely drown her ability to
keep her promise to her father.
" He does influence me," she admitted to herself.
" I might as well be honest about it. Sometimes he
can almost make me believe that black is white.
How do I know but what I might grow to be like
poah mistaken Hertha? He was only a page, but
she called him prince in her thought until she really
believed him one."
Then as yesterday's conversation came back to her
she sprang from the hammock saying to herself,
" And he isn't even a knight, or he wouldn't have
made fun of my poah little attempt to make him
listen to the King's call. I'll not think about him a
minute longah. It would only be squandahing the
golden thread that Clotho left me."
Running up the stairs she got her hat and started
to follow Betty. But all the way up and all the way
down and all the way that she went towards The
Beeches that little word at the end of the letter —
that sweet caressing bird-note of a name, sang it-
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 31 i
self over and over to her. He had called her that,
and to-night he was coming.
She did not go all the way to The Beeches, for
she met Betty on the way back, Wardo proudly
bearing his box of paints, and Betty re-reading a
letter which she had found in the office. It was
from Madam Chartley. There was a vacancy in
Warwick Hall itself and she was to> fill it; was to
be her beloved Miss Chilton's assistant in the Eng-
lish classes. Her happiness was as great over this
news as her disappointment had been over the re-
turn of her manuscript. As Madam Chartley
wanted her at the school by the first of September
there were only two weeks in which to make her
preparations to leave.
Although Lloyd had heard the matter discussed
she never fully believed that Betty was going away
from Locust until she had the letter in her own
hands and read Madam Chartley's expression of
pleasure at the prospect of having Betty with her
permanently. It swept away all thought of her own
affairs, for Betty had grown as dear to her as a
sister in the years they had been together. She fol-
lowed her mournfully into the white and gold room,
offering to help her with her preparations, and
pouring out her regret and her disapproval of
213 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Betty's plans. It wasn't necessary at all she insisted
for Betty to leave them, and Locust wouldn't be the
same place with her gone.
Wardo required less attention than usual that
afternoon, for charmed with his new paints, he sat
at a low table in Betty's room while the girls sewed
and talked, and coloured the pictures in every maga-
zine he could lay his hands on. It was sunset when
Lloyd noticed how long he had been bending over
the table, and persuaded him to lay aside his brush
till next day.
" Look at the pretty red sunset," she urged, trying
to interest him in something else. " It's as red as a
cherry."
He looked at it solemnly, considering her com-
parison. " No, it's wed as the blood of a thousand
dwagons," he answered.
Lloyd looked at him in astonishment. " What
do you know about dragons, child ? "
" Betty telled me, when I painted one wif my
paints, here in this book." He began turning the
leaves of one of the magazines. " Dwagons is the
stwongest lings there is," he added with a know-
ing wag of his head, feeling that she needed en-
lightenment. " But my fahvah could fight one —
He's so stwong. My fahvah could fight anyfing."
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 213
" Always the same old story," said Lloyd in a low
tone to Betty. " Isn't it dreadful? Always harping
on the perfection of his hero. Seems to me it would
have been bettah if she had not tried to keep the
truth from him. The disillusionment is going to be
feahful some of these days. It will shake his be-
lief in everything."
As she rocked back and forth with his warm little
body nestled against her, she thought how differently
Ida would have chosen could she have known that
this precious little soul was to be given into her
keeping. If somebody had only gone to her with
old Hildgardmar's warning — " Remember that in
the right weaving of this web depends not only thy
own happiness but the happiness of all those who
come after thee," it might have made a world of
difference. But nobody had opened her eyes to the
enormity of the responsibility she was assuming,
and now, maybe despite all her careful training
and frantic efforts to make her little son what she
would have him be, she might not be able to turn
his life out of the channel of his inherited tastes and
appetites.
It must be awful she thought, hugging him closer,
to love a child with the passionate devotion that Ida
loved this one, and have it grow up into a worthless
2T4 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
vagabond like Ned Barman. Then a stray wonder
crossed her mind if Leland Harcourt's mother would
have been disappointed in him if she could have
lived to see him wasting his splendid talents and
opportunities; just drifting along in an aimless,
thistledown sort of existence when he might be such
a power for good if he would only exert himself.
" He doesn't measuah up to the third notch at
all," she admitted with a feeling of regret.
Just then there was a long distance call for her at
the telephone, and hastily putting Wardo down she
went to answer it.
" It's from Mistah Harcourt," she called care-
lessly, in answer to her mother's inquiry from the
next room. " He was coming ovah to-night but
something detained him in Louisville, and he called
me up to tell me not to expect him."
She hoped that she had kept the flutter out of her
voice that the sound of his voice brought into her
pulses. For at the close of this commonplace mes-
sage was the request that she make no engagement
with any one else for the next night. He had some-
thing to tell her, and then — there was that same
word with which he had closed his note — that soft
musical name, seeming twice as personal and signifi-
cant because of the tone in which he said it. She
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 215
felt that he must be conscious of the quick blush it
brought to her face as she hastily hung up the re-
ceiver.
That night for the first time that summer Lloyd
was alone with her father and mother. Betty had
Madam Chartley's letter to answer, and the old
Colonel had gone out to dinner. The three sat on
the broad white-pillared porch in the moonlight,
Lloyd on the step at her father's feet, her arm on his
knee. Ever since the telephone message her
thoughts had been in a tumult. It was useless for
her to pretend that she didn't know why Leland
wanted to see her alone, and what it was he was
coming to tell her. She was glad and sorry and half
frightened and altogether confused. " He isn't the
prince at all," she kept saying to herself as if it were
a charm that would help her ward off his approach
and keep her true to her Hildegarde promise.
And yet — - his wooing was the kind one reads
of in books. She would be sorry to have that come
to an end. It was so delightful to have some one
write poems to her and sing songs in such a way
that every tone and glance dedicated them to her
alone. If one could only go on that way through
all the summers, being adored in that fashion, know-
ing she was crowned queen in somebody's heart, how
2l6 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
delightful it would be. But she didn't want things
to come to a crisis when she would have to make
grave decisions and solemn promises. She didn't
want to 1 go one step farther than this borderland of
romance where they lingered now. What she
wanted was just to go on building her little castles
as she had done that day on the sea-shore, and yet
be assured that the tide wouldn't come creeping up
any farther. It was just far enough now to be in-
teresting. She wished they would begin to talk
about things like that, but she shrank from bringing
up such a subject herself. After awhile she
broached one almost akin.
" Mothah," she asked, breaking a long com-
fortable silence that had fallen on them, " do you
think that Lucy is happy ? "
" No, not entirely — that is just at present," Mrs.
Sherman answered slowly, as if considering.
" She's hardly adjusted herself yet to the new
order of things, but she will in time because
she's such a yielding little soul, and is really devoted
to her husband. For instance, when he insisted she
gave up her church to please him and joined his.
It meant a great struggle and a sacrifice on her part,
and he is not at all devout, doesn't attend services
more than twice a year; so it couldn't have made
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 21 7
such a vital difference to him where she went. Then
at home her father always placed a certain amount
in the bank every month to his wife's credit, so there
never wa: any unpleasantness about money matters.
While Tamt on is very wealthy and lavishes luxuries
and beautiful :lothes on her, he reserves the pleasure
of buying and spending- entirely to himself. Treats
her like a child in their financial arrangements, and
doles out little allowances as if she couldn't be
trusted to spend it intelligently. She's so sensitive
that she'd rather go without than ask him for a
cent, and it often puts her in an embarrassing posi-
tion to be without."
" In other words," put in Papa Jack, " he's
thoroughly inconsiderate and selfish, although I
imagine he'd be mightily amazed if any one applied
that term to him since he is so lavish in giving
things in his own way."
" Yes, he is," was the answer. " I've noticed it in
a dozen little ways. It's always his wishes and his
tastes that have to be consulted, never Lucy's. Yet
aside from that trait he is a thoroughly fine man,
and because she respects him and looks up to him
and is such a sweet yielding little creature, he'll
come in time to be the centre of her universe, and
she'll revolve around him like a loyal little planet.
2l8 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
But a girl of a different temperament wouldn't. If
she were impetuous and highstrung like you for
instance," she added with a smile at Lloyd, " she
would see the injustice of it and resent it so bitterly
that there would be continual friction and jar. With
your temperament you couldn't live peaceably with
anybody like that."
" I know I couldn't," admitted Lloyd frankly,
" especially if he showed any jealousy. Mistah
Jameson is jealous of every friend Lucy evah had
at the Post. He doesn't like it a bit when she refers
to the good times she used to have with the boys
there, even when they were just ordinary friends.
Half a dozen times I've seen the tears come to her
eyes at some inconsiderate thing he'd say, and I'd
think if I were Lucy I couldn't sit there and take it
like a martyr. I'd have to jump up and shake him
till his teeth rattled."
" What a cat and dog time you would have,"
laughed Mrs. Sherman. " Worse than little Mary
Ware's nightmare that she had after Eugenia's wed-
ding."
" By the way," exclaimed Mr. Sherman, slapping
his pockets to find a letter he had placed in one of
them, " I knew there was something I intended to
tell you. Jack Ware is on his way here now."
BY THE SILVER YARD -STICK 219
Then in answer to the surprise and the questions
that greeted his announcement he explained, " I sug-
gested making him assistant manager of the mines
and the Company wants to have a look at him, and
put him through a sort of examination. He's so
young they rather doubt my judgment in the mat-
ter. But they'll find out when they see him. We
telegraphed him to come, and he left Arizona several
days ago. He'll be here only a day and night
probably."
Lloyd left her seat on the step and took a chair
beside her father, sitting straight and alert in her
interest. It was hard to realize that Jack Ware
was grown. He was only fourteen when she had
known him on the desert. " Oh, will you evah for-
get," she laughed, " the way he looked when we sur-
prised him at the washtub, all tied up in an apron,
helping Joyce with the family washing?"
" His readiness to pitch in to whatever is to be
done is his chief characteristic," was the an-
swer. " That is what makes him so valuable at the
mines. Patient and reliable and strong, he is one of
the finest young fellows of my acquaintance. He'll
be one of the big men of the West some day, for
young as he is, he is into everything that makes for
220 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
the welfare and development of the territory he
lives in."
All the rest of the evening was spent in recalling
that visit to Ware's Wigwam, and when Lloyd went
up to bed, although Leland Harcourt's name had
not been mentioned, she felt that her doubts and
unspoken questions about him had been answered.
She must not listen any more to that little name,
that caressing little name that left such a thrill in
its wake.
" Wise old Hildgardmar," said Mrs. Sherman in
a playful tone after Lloyd had left them. " I don't
suppose when you sent for Jack that it entered your
head you were giving her the very safeguard of
contrast that I hoped she might have, but you will
be doing it all the same."
" No, I didn't," he confessed, " but I think you
are magnifying the interest she has in Harcourt.
She never mentioned his name all evening."
" But she talked all around him," answered Mrs.
Sherman, " and I think she came to the conclusion
before she went up-stairs that he does not measure
up to your standards, and is almost sure that he
does not even meet hers."
CHAPTER XI
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS
The old Colonel was in the library, telling for the
hundredth time to the small listener on his knee the
story of the battle that had taken his right arm.
For since Wardo had found that his father's father
was in the same wild charge against the Yankees,
and had fought like a tiger till a wound in the head
and another in the knee sent him to the rear on a
stretcher, he could not hear the story often enough.
And that led to other tales of things that had hap-
pened when the two soldier-friends were school-
boys. It puzzled Wardo to find any resemblance
between the mischievous boy whom the Colonel re-
ferred to as Cy Bannon, and the dignified judge
whose picture hung on the wall of the Colonel's
den.
" Oh, his name was Cyrus Edward then, just as
yours is now," explained the Colonel when he finally
understood the difficulty. " But it was too long a
Z2A
222 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
name for such a grasshopper of a lad. He'd have
been out of sight before you could say it all. So
they cut it down to Cy, just as yours is cut to
Wardo."
" Will I be Judge Cy wus Edwa'd Bannon then
when I'm gwoed up ? " asked Wardo.
The seriousness of the big innocent eyes fixed on
him made the Colonel move uneasily. " Heaven
knows," he muttered. " / don't. But it's to be
hoped you'll take after him instead of the one next
in line of succession."
The question made such a profound impression
on him he could not shake it off, and acting on the
impulse of the moment he decided to take it to the
Judge himself for an answer. He would show him
the winsome little lad who bore his name. He would
demand of him what right he had to withhold from
him the protection and shelter that was his heritage.
The child's father had been cast off in proud scorn
for his profligate ways. Secretly the Colonel had
always thought that his old friend had shirked re-
sponsibility, and that the open repudiation of him
by his family had given Ned his final downward
shove.
It made no difference to the Colonel that Ned's
name was a forbidden one in the household. He'd
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 223
tell Cy Bannon a few things. Then his face soft-
ened and he smiled a trifle foolishly, muttering
something about its being a case of the pot calling
the kettle black. The Judge might come back at
him with the argument that he had been just as
harsh with his own child for far less cause ; but that
would only give him a chance to urge a reconcilia-
tion on the ground that he had surrendered grace-
fully, and had been glad of it ever since. Cy would
be a mighty queer sort of man, he concluded, if he
could hold out against such a little grandson as
Wardo. He was a child to walk into anybody's
affections.
Lloyd had left the pair so deeply absorbed in war-
stories, that she was surprised on her return to the
library a little later, to find no trace of either of
them. They'd gone for a trolley ride Walker told
her, and expected to be gone most of the morning.
So relieved of her responsibility Lloyd made a
longer visit in Rollington than usual. The crisis
had been passed some time now, and Ida was so
much better she was beginning to talk about
Wardo's return. She would be able to sit up in a
few days. As Lloyd entertained her with accounts
of Wardo's sayings and doings she realized more
and more what a large place he had come to fill in
224 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
the household, and how sorely they would all miss
him when they had to give him up. Ida's future
looked so hopeless. It would be a long time before
she would be strong enough to begin sewing again.
She talked wearily of the burden she must assume
as soon as possible, and Lloyd came away weighed
down with a sense of the injustice and wrong in the
world and her helplessness to right it.
It was nearly noon when she reached the house.
Wardo, who had just come in with her grandfather,
rushed down the steps to meet her, his sailor hat on
the back of his head, and his arms outstretched to
give her glad welcome. He clasped her around the
knees, and put up his face to be kissed. His morn-
ing's adventures made him feel that he had been
away an age. Then his voice trembling with the
importance of his news, he announced the three
things of his visit which had made the most im-
pression on him.
" I saw the place on my gwan'fahvah's head
where the Yankee bullet hit him, wite over his eye !
An' the Colonel he shaked his stick at my gwan'-
fahvah, and got wed in the face when he talked."
Then digging down into the mite of a pocket that
graced his blouse, he triumphantly brought out the
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 225
third item, a silver dollar that Judge Bannon had
given him.
By this time the Colonel had come out, and in
answer to Lloyd's excited questions confessed the
truth of Wardo's tale. He had shaken his stick at
the Judge. They had had a stormy interview and
he lost his temper. He was sorry at first that he
had taken Wardo, the child was so frightened, but
it proved a good move, for his appealing little face
pleaded his cause better than anything else could
have done, and in the end the Judge was completely
won over by his handsome little namesake.
" And," concluded the Colonel triumphantly,
" he's promised to take Ned back and give him one
more chance. He'll keep the lad and his mother in
any event, and he's to send for them just as soon
as she's able to be moved."
" Oh, you blessed old peace-makah ! ' cried Lloyd
running up the steps to throw her arms around his
neck and give him as rapturous a hug as Wardo
had given her. " You're a perfect darling, and
you've made me so happy I don't know what to do
or say. I believe I'm as happy as Ida will be when
she heahs it, and I'm going ovah there the minute
I've had lunch, to tell her. You're a public bene*
226 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
factah and everything else in the dictionary that's
extra nice and fine."
It was joy to the Colonel to have his praises sung 1
like that, and he went around the rest of the week
with a self-satisfied virtuous feeling that kept him
beaming benignly on everything and everybody.
In such an angelic humour was he, that Walker
confided to Mom Beck that he was " right sma'ht
worried 'bout ole Marse."
It was a day of surprises for the whole family.
On Lloyd's return from her second visit to Rolling-
ton, about the middle of the afternoon, she saw
Jack Ware on the rear platform of the trolley-car,
which passed the carriage when she was nearly
home. He had arrived two days sooner than any
one expected he could. Taller, broader and browner
by far than the slim lad who waved her farewell
from the Wigwam, he was unmistakably the same
Jack, and she would have recognized him anywhere.
The second glance showed her father standing
just behind him. They both leaned out and waved
their hats as they passed the carriage. A moment
later they were stepping off the car opposite the
entrance gate, and waiting for her to come up.
" Anothah knight comes riding," she thought
with a smile, wondering what put the whimsical
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 227
notion in her head, for she did not count Jack in
that class. He was simply her good comrade of the
plains, nothing picturesque about him.
" I don't suppose there could be about the mod-
ern knight," she thought, amused that such fancies
should come to her. " His only thought is to ' get
there.' When young Lochinvar comes out of the
West now, his ' steed is the best ' from that stand-
point, but you can't make the pictuahs and poems
out of trolley-cars that you can out of hawses in
those old-time fancy trappings."
Stepping out of the carriage, she sent it on ahead
and turned to Jack with such a cordial welcome that
he reddened with pleasure under the brown of his
sunburned cheeks.
" This is my ' Promised Land ' as well as
Mary's," he said as they walked slowly towards
the house, and he paused to look up at the grand
old trees arching over them. " You've no idea how
I've looked forward to seeing all this. Mother
always pictured it as a sort of Beulah land. Then
Joyce took up the same tune, and lastly Mary.
She's the most enthusiastic of all, and sat up till
midnight the day she found I was coming, to make
a list of all the things she said I mustn't fail to see
or ask about."
228 "LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Taking 1 a memorandum book from his pocket he
opened it and held it out for Lloyd and her father
to see. There were three pages whereon Mary had
set down instructions for him to follow. Lloyd
laughed as she glanced at the head-line.
THINGS TO DO WITHOUT FAIL
1 Make Mr. Rob Moore's acquaintance, and see
Oaklea.
2 See The Beeches and all Mrs. Walton's curios,
especially the bells of Luzon and mother-of-pearl
fire-screen.
3 See if Elise Walton is as pretty as she used to
be, and notice how she does her hair now.
4 Ask Lloyd to play on the harp and sing the
Dove Song, when the candles are lighted in the
drawing-room.
The list was such a long one that Lloyd did not
read farther, but glanced at the page headed —
THINGS NOT SO IMPORTANT, BUT l'D LIKE TO KNOW
I Ask about Girlie Dinsmore if you have a
chance. Is she as much of a baby as ever?
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 229
2 What has become of that horrid Bernice
Howe?
3 Does Betty still correspond with the " Pilgrim
Father?"
4 Look in the book-case on the north side of the
library, and copy the name of that book on Spiders.
5 Find out all you can about the man Allison
is going to marry.
There were a dozen similar items.
"Isn't that characteristic of Mary?" exclaimed
Lloyd. " She's such a deah little bunch of curiosity.
Maybe I oughtn't to call it that. A live, intense
interest in everything and everybody would be moah
like it. But only twenty- foah hours to do it all in !
How can we manage it? "
" Not even that," answered Mr. Sherman, " for
part of it must be spent with the stock-holders."
" And you couldn't stay longah ? " began Lloyd.
" No, I'm due back at the mines very shortly, and
I want to make a flying visit to Joyce in New York
before I return, and stop over at Annapolis for a
glimpse of Holland. You know I've never been
East before, and I want to make the most of it."
" Well," said Lloyd, planning rapidly as they
walked on. " We'll crowd just as much as possible
230 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
into this one evening. There'll be time for a drive
befoah dinnah, that will give you a bird's-eye view
of the Valley, and a short call at Oaklea and The
Beeches. We can ansah Mary's questions as we
drive along. Befoah we start I'll telephone in to
town and ask Rob to come ovah and take dinnah
with you to-night, and we'll ask the Waltons to
come ovah — "
She would have paused just there even if they
had not reached the house and her sentence been
interrupted by Jack's introduction to her mother
and Betty, for as she mentioned telephoning it
flashed across her what Leland had telephoned her,
not to make any engagement for that evening, that
he wanted to see her alone.
" But suahly," she thought, " he'll undahstand
that that is impossible undah the circumstances —
the only night Jack will be heah."
The next few hours flew by as if winged. They
caught Lloyd up out of the dream-world in which
she had been living and thoroughly wakened her.
It was such a busy, breezy world from Jack's out-
look, so much to do and see and conquer. As she
listened to his description of the little mining camp
that had grown into a town in the short time he had
been there, and then to the enthusiastic plans h§
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 231
unfolded to her father of what the mine owners
might do to develop and civilize it, she found her-
self regarding this young Aladdin of the West with
growing consideration.
He and Rob found mutual interests from the
moment of meeting. She noted with surprise how
oddly alike they were in their views. She hadn't
known before that Rob was interested in so many
things that she knew nothing about, political situa-
tions and Juvenile Court reforms, and trusts and
unions and all those things. But then she had
scarcely seen him since he had taken a man's place
in the world. Good old Rob! She was proud of
the way he was discussing these things with Jack
and her father and the Colonel. There was a note
of authority in what he said that the older men re-
spected. But it did seem so funny for him to be
talking of anything weightier than tennis and skat-
ing and his Latin exams, or college scrapes. He
talked almost as well as Leland Harcourt she ad-
mitted.
After dinner Jack took out his memorandum and
crossed off all the items that had been attended to.
While they were laughing over Mary's questions
and dictating answers for him to write lest he for-
get them, the Waltons arrived with Gay, who had
232 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
been spending the day with them. A little later
Alex Shelby followed. He was on Mary's list, and
had a number of messages to send to the little girl
who had amused him so greatly at Eugenia's wed-
ding with her quaint speeches and unexpected
questions.
From the sound of voices and the number of
people in the drawing-room, one might have imag-
ined that a reception was in full swing when Leland
Harcourt came up on the porch. Lloyd, recognize
ing his step, hurried out to meet him and explain
why she had been unable to grant his request. She
ushered him into the drawing-room to meet their
guest, anxious that they should be favourably im-
pressed with each other. One could always count
on Leland for doing the graceful thing socially she
thought complacently, but this one time he failed
her.
He had been at the house so constantly all sum-
mer that she did not think it necessary to make any
special effort for his entertainment now, other than
to draw him into the conversation with Jack and
Rob. They were the comparative strangers and
she was giving them the most of her attention.
Rob had been at the house only twice that summer.
Ke was as interested as she in hearing about Joyce
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 233
and Mary, so when she found that Leland did not
seem to care to talk, she went back to their former
conversation, recalling the duck hunt, the picnic at
Hole-in-the-rock, and their dinner at " Coffe Al's "
with Phil Tremont
Everybody else was talking. Everybody else
seemed in good spirits but Leland Harcourt.
Lloyd could almost feel his silence it became so
marked.
" He's sulky," she thought. " It's just his horrid
jealousy cropping out like his brothah Jameson's.
He doesn't want me to be nice to my oldest and
deahest friends. I wish he wouldn't act that way."
Then she sang, since it was next in order on
Mary's memorandum, and while she sang, although
she did not once look at him directly, she was un-
comfortably conscious that his eyes were fixed on
her with the determined gaze which they always
wore when he had some resolve which he intended
to carry out at all hazards.
As she turned from the harp he was the first to
rise and place a chair for her. Bending over her
he said, under cover of the applause, " I'll not be
put off any longer. You must let me see you a few
minutes just as soon as I can make an opportunity
for you to slip out of the room."
234 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Low as his voice was, Rob, who was sitting just
behind him, heard what he said, and then something
else that he added in Spanish. Just a word, but it
seemed to carry some potent appeal, for with a
slight flush she rose. Leland made the opportunity-
he wished, by saying to Jack that one of the pleas-
ures not to be missed was hearing Gay play the
violin. Of course Jack immediately asked for the
nocturne which he suggested, and Gay, always
obliging, at once complied.
Under cover of the music Leland stepped into
the hall, holding the portiere aside with a bow for
Lloyd to pass through. Rob's glance followed
them across the hall, across the moonlighted porch
to the avenue, where the locust shadows fell dense
and black. Then he turned his attention resolutely
to the music, listening as if in rapt enjoyment, but
in reality never hearing a note.
The nocturne came to an end, and there was an
encore and still another before Lloyd came back into
the room. She was alone, and Rob, in one quick
glance, saw that all the bright colour had left her
face. She was gripping her little lace fan nervously,
and her hazel eyes had deepened almost to black as
they always did under the strain of unusual excite-
ment or emotion. He was sure that she was very
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 235
near tears, and with his usual impulse to shield her
from all that was unpleasant, he moved his chair
so that no one else saw her agitation and began talk-
ing volubly about the first thing he could think of.
It happened to be Mary Ware's method of getting
rid of an unwelcome truest by playing Fox and
Stork, and as she listened to the lengthy story he
purposely made of it, she had time to regain her
composure before any one else came up.
Afterwards he heard her explaining to Mrs.
Walton, " Mistah Harcourt had to leave early, and
didn't want to break up the pah'ty by coming in to
say good night."
When Rob heard next day that Leland was leav-
ing the Valley at once for a trip to South America,
he thought he understood the cause of Lloyd's agita-
tion. It distressed her to have him go so far away.
He had been positive for some time that there was
some understanding between them. Now this con-
firmed his suspicions.
Lloyd was grieved over the parting, but not to
the extent Rob imagined. Many a night after, she
sat curled up on the window-seat in her room, look-
ing down through the trees to the place where she
had stood with Leland the night she bade him
good-bye. She had not dreamed of such a stermy
236 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
interview as that, she had not imagined any wooing
could be so impassioned, reaching to such heights
and depths. He hadn't paid the slightest attention
when she tried to stop him, but had asserted trium-
phantly that he always got what he started out to
win, and that this was a matter of life and death,
and he'd win her love or die in the attempt. Some-
times, in thinkng it over, she was afraid he would
make his threats true, and then sometimes she
thought with a quick indrawn breath, remembering
how his wild protestations had thrilled her, that it
would have been sweet to listen if she could only
have been sure that it was right. He vowed he
would come back when he could prove to her that
he had won the accolade which she seemed to think
was so essential, but she did not look for him. In
her heart she said that the one real romance of her
life was at an end.
Everything seemed to come to an end just then.
Jack left the next morning, and before the close
of the week Wardo was taken away. Ida was able
to be moved to the old Bannon homestead near
Anchorage. Although it was the one great thing
Lloyd had wished for, she missed her little charge
at every turn, and the days stretched out ahead of
her long and empty.
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 237
The first of September Betty went away with
Elise Walton under her wing, happy in the fact
that she was to enter Freshman at Warwick Hall,
where the older girls had had such glorious times.
The next day the Harcourts closed the Cabin and
went back to San Antonio. Gay spent her last night
in the Valley at The Locusts, and there were more
bed-time confidences before they fell asleep, long
after midnight.
" Seems as if the end of the summah brings the
end of everything," sighed Lloyd regretfully.
" It's more like the beginning of everything for
you," contradicted Gay. " You'll be beginning your
shopping soon, and your trips to the tailor and the
dressmaker and the milliner, and you know you'll
enjoy getting all the lovely clothes you're to have
as a debutante. It'll be as much fun as planning a
trousseau. Then there'll be your debut party in
your Aunt Jane's lovely big town house, and all
the rest that's to follow. It'll be just grand! A
regular procession of social successes and triumphs.
" And as for Leland," she continued, mentioning
him for the first time since his departure. " You
needn't worry about that. Of course we knew what
had happened just as soon as he bounced in looking
like a thunder-cloud, and announced his intention
238 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
of leaving next morning. We'd seen it coming on
all summer. Jameson is tickled to death over it,
for this trip to South America is one he has been
wanting him to take for a long time. They have
some property there that needs looking after, and
he thinks now that his ambition is roused he'll take
some interest in things."
" But no mattah what he does," said Lloyd
firmly, " I'll nevah change my mind. I don't want to
get married, Gay," she added almost tearfully. " I
read a story the othah day, the diary of a young girl
that made me think of myself. She said, ' I don't
want to be married. Just to be loved and adored
and written to and crowned Queen of Somebody's
heart.' Of co'se any girl wants that."
" That's just the way I feel," confided Gay after
a moment's pause. Then, " You've been so busy this
summer with your own affairs I don't suppose
you've noticed what's been going on around you;
but I'm afraid I've got myself into a pickle. You
see I've already invited Kitty down to San Antonio
to spend Lent with me, and I've written to Frank
Percival about her, and told her about him and got
them interested in each other. You know ever since
I've been so intimate with Kitty I've wanted her to
marry Frank, so that she'd always live near me.
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 239
And now — now I'm not so sure that I'm going to
live there myself."
" You dreadful little match-makah," laughed
Lloyd, so amused by Gay's confession that she
never thought to inquire what had caused her
change of mind about her own residence. " You
oughtn't to meddle in such things. Just look what
a pickle you got me into. If you hadn't made me
promise what you did about being nice to Mistah
Harcourt, and told him the things you did about
me, we'd nevah have had the scene we did, and
would have been good friends always. But look
what you've done. Sent him on a hopeless chase
aftah a shadow, for he says he'll nevah change his
mind, and I know I won't change mine."
Gay giggled. " When an irresistible force meets
an immovable body, what docs happen? I've always
wondered."
" Just what will happen when Mistah Harcourt
comes back," was Lloyd's dignified answer. " I'll
not be moved."
" And he's not to be resisted," said Gay. " So
there we go in the same old circle. But I'm glad
for some reasons that you're so determined, for if
I should make up my mind to live in the Valley
240 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
then I'd be glad you were here instead of in San
Antonio."
" Oh, are you all going to buy the Cabin ? " ex-
claimed Lloyd, sitting up in bed in her eagerness.
" How lovely."
" No, ' we all ' are not," confessed Gay. " I knew
you didn't have any idea of what was going on this
summer. But — well, you know who my first
' Knight of the Looking'-glass ' was. He says the
Scripture says that ' the first shall be last,' and he
insists he is both. He wants to buy the Cabin some
day, so that my little mirror can hang there always,
up among the roses where he first saw me. It
would be sweet and romantic, wouldn't it? But
it doesn't seem exactly fair to Kitty to get her tied
up down there and then skip out and leave her."
'* Kitty isn't tied up yet, by a long shot," laughed
Lloyd, who found it hard to take Gay's shy confes-
sion seriously. " But I can't get used to this light-
ning change in you. You were so suah you'd not
have any Darby and Joan emotions in yours while
' Life is May.' You've talked all summah against
early marriages."
" I'm not an ' immovable body ' like you. And I
would be a little nearer gray hairs if we waited for
two years as we'd certainly have to do, but even if
THE END OF SEVERAL THINGS 24 1
we didn't wait it wouldn't be the same as it is with
Lucy and Jameson, and some other young married
people I know. Alex is so different. Well, he is,"
she insisted indignantly. " What are you laughing
at? You know he's different."
" Yes, I do know it," answered Lloyd, instantly
sobered by her realization of the fact that Gay was
no longer joking, but was laying bare her heart's
dearest secret. " He's a deah, good fellow, and he'l)
be just as loving and true and sweet to you always
as the old Doctah is to Aunt Alicia. Nobody could
want moah than that I'm suah. So heah's my bless-
ing and the hope that you'll live to keep yoah Golden
Wedding as happily as they are going to do." She
leaned over and kissed her tenderly.
They talked so late that night that Gay almost
missed her train next morning, but as she scrambled
breathlessly on to the rear platform she called back
happily, " What's the odds, even if it did make me
late ? It was such a nice wind-up to such a glorious
summer."
CHAPTER XII
SIX MONTHS LATER
It was a cold snowy afternoon, late in January.
Rob Moore, looking at his watch as he hurried
along* the street, found that he was ten minutes
ahead of the time at which the next car was due
to start to the Valley. Rather than wait on the
windy corner or take refuge in the already crowded
drug-store, he walked on down to the car-shed. He
rarely left town this early. As he sprang up the
steps and took his seat in the waiting car, he saw
that it was the one usually filled by the school-
children living in the suburbs. It was already
nearly filled now by half -grown boys and girls,
flocking in with their book straps and lunch-baskets.
It made him think of his own High school days.
They laughed and joked and called messages back
and forth as freely as if they were at home. Here
and there he recognized the younger sisters and
•brothers of some of his old classmates, so like them
242
SIX MONTHS LATER 243
that it gave him a curious sense of having stepped
backward several years. There was Wat Sewall
wriggling and writhing out of his overcoat with the
same contortions that Fred always went through
with. That slap on the back with its accompany-
ing " Hi, there, old man," was exactly like T. D.
Williams' salutation. He nearly always laid a
fellow out flat when he spoke to him. And the
couple on the seat in front of him, exchanging
class pins, was only a repetition of a scene he had
witnessed dozens of times.
With a reminiscent smile he shook out the pages
of the evening paper which he had bought as he
came along and glanced at the head-lines. But be-
fore he had time to read further the girl in front
of him exclaimed, " Look, Harry ! Here comes
Miss Sherman! Isn't she perfectly stunning in
that dark blue broadcloth? I think she's the pret-
tiest debutante of the season."
" She's a peach," was the enthusiastic answer.
" I say, Ethel, she looks like you."
Rob did not see the girlish blush which rose to
Ethel's cheeks, for at the first exclamation he had
lowered his paper to peer quickly through the win-
dow. He had just a glimpse of a slender stylish
figure hurrying into the ticket office.
244 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
The girl in front was speaking. " I suppose I've
been more interested in the debutantes this year
than any other because Cousin Amy is one of them.
She comes out to Anchorage for a week-end now
and then to rest up, and I keep her talking the whole
time about what they do. She says that Miss Sher-
man is the most popular of them all, with the girls
as well as the men. She's had so many beautiful
entertainments given in her honour, and she's been
asked to help receive or pour tea or do something
or other at every single function that's been given
in Louisville this winter. I think it's perfectly
grand to be out in society when you can be as great
a success as that. They say that the American
Beauties sent to her in just one day sometimes
would fill a florist's shop window. There's a man
from Cincinnati who sends them all the time. He's
crazy about her. I should be too if I were a man.
Cousin Amy has a photograph of her taken in
evening dress, and she's simply regal looking. I
don't wonder she makes a sensation wherever she
goes."
" Here she comes now/* interrupted the boy,
turning with a stare of frank admiration. Rob
turned too, as Lloyd came down the aisle, glancing
from "me side to another for an empty seat. Hef
SIX MONTHS LATER 245
face was glowing from her walk in the cold wind,
and the little hat of dark blue velvet and her rich
dark furs made her seem fairer than ever by con-
trast. Hers was a delicate, patrician style of beauty,
and Rob in one critical glance saw that this winter
in society had given the graceful girl the ease and
poise of a charming woman. The little school-girl
on the seat in front had good reason for admiring
her so extravagantly. He rose as she came nearer,
and stepped out in the aisle to give her the seat by
the window.
" Oh, Rob! This is great! " the little school-girl
heard her exclaim cordially. " I haven't seen you
for an age. How does it happen you are going out
on such an early train? "
Much as she was interested in " Harry's " re-
marks, she wished he would keep still at least until
the car started. She wanted to hear how this big
handsome man answered her adorable Miss Sher-
man. She would have been shocked could she have
heard his second remark.
" There's a big flake of soot on your nose,
Lloyd."
" Thanks," she said, almost looking cross-eyed
in her endeavour to locate it. " There usually is in
this dirty town. There! Is it off? " She scrubbed
246 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
away with a bit of a handkerchief she took from
her muff. " And I was flattering myself as I came
along that I looked especially spick and span," she
sighed. " It's refreshing to have somebody tell you
the truth about yoahself, and you nevah were one
to mince mattahs, Bobby."
The old name on the lips of this pretty girl so
like the old Lloyd in some ways, yet so bewilder-
ingly unlike in others, stirred him strangely.
" Better throw off your furs and that heavy
jacket in this over-heated car/' was his only an-
swer. " You'll take cold when you get off if you
don't." She thanked him for the suggestion, and,
as he hung her wraps over the back of the seat,
settled herself comfortably for the hour's ride.
" Now tell me all about it," he began as the car
started. " All that you've been doing these last
months. Of course I've kept up with you in the
papers. I know that you went here and went there,
and that you wore sky-blue pink folderols at this
banquet and velvet satin crepe de chine at the Coun-
try Club dinner, with feathers and jewels to match,
but that's no more than all the rest of the world
knows. I want to be let in on the ground floor and
told about the inner workings of this social whirl.
How have you managed to do it all ? To vibrate be-
SIX MONTHS LATER 247
tween town and country and not peg out. You look
as fresh as a daisy; as if the pace that kills agrees
with you."
" I haven't vibrated much," she answered. " I've
made Aunt Jane's house my headquartahs, and
you know what a crank she is about hygiene.
Every moment not actually engaged in ' whirling '
she had reduced to a system of simple living.
What I have suffered in the way of naps in a dark-
ened room when I wasn't sleepy, and hot milk when
I loathed the idea of swallowing anything, and
gymnastic exercises in the attic when the weathah
was too bad for long walks, would fill a volume."
" Is the game worth the candle?" he asked so-
berly.
She hesitated. " Well, yes. For a season any-
how. I wouldn't want to keep up such a round
yeah aftah yeah, but I have had a good time, and
I must confess it's awfully nice to be really grown
up and have everybody treat you with the considera-
tion due yoah age."
They were out in the open country now. The
car stopped, and as the door opened to admit a
passenger, the shrill voices of some children skating
on an ice pond near the road floated cheerily in.
248 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Lloyd looked out the window with a smile at the
gay scene.
" I'd like to be out there with them," she con-
fessed. " Look at that little girl in the red mittens
and Tarn O'Shanter. She skates exactly the way
Katie Mallard used to. Oh, deah, didn't we used
to have fun with her down on our ice pond ? "
" Do you remember the day Malcolm broke
through when he was trying to cake-walk on the
ice ? " asked Rob with a reminiscent grin.
" He was laughing about that only last week
when he took me to the Country Club dinnah. I've
seen a lot of Malcolm this wintah."
" I thought he was rushing Molly Standforth."
" Well, he is, pah't of the time, but he's rushed
me too, as you call it, just as much."
Rob gave her a keen glance, but she made the
announcement in such a calm way that he said to
himself there couldn't be much in it as far as she
was concerned, or she wouldn't have spoken of it
in the way she did.
At Anchorage the boy and girl in front left the
car, he with such open solicitude for her comfort
as he helped her off that Lloyd's eyes met Rob's
with a twinkle.
" Aftah all, it's good to be young like that," she
SIX MONTHS LATER 249
said. " Don't you remembah Kitty and Guy Ferris
at that age ? How we used to tease Kitty for keep-
ing a dead rose and a valentine and a brass button
from his military coat, tied up with a blue ribbon
in a candy box ? "
" But we boys had a better time teasing Guy
about the lock of Kitty's hair that he carried around
in the back of his watch. His watch got out of
order, and when the jeweller opened it and found
all that hair in the back, he didn't say a word, but
with a most disgusted look tossed it into the waste-
basket as if it hadn't been Guy's most sacred pos-
session. I was along with him, and I simply roared.
Guy didn't have the nerve to ask for it, just stood
there looking like the big silly he must have
felt."
The series of reminiscences that this story started
lasted all the way out to the Valley. The red streak
of the wintry sunset had faded out of the west when
the car stopped there, and Lloyd looking out into
the cold gray gloaming saw that the snow was
beginning to fall again.
" Let's get out and walk the rest of the way,"
she exclaimed impetuously, snatching up her jacket
and furs as she rose.
" I haven't had a twilight walk in the country this
250 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
wintah, when it's all good and gray like this, with
snow-flakes in yoah face."
They were off in another instant, and as he stood
on the station platform helping her on with her
wraps, she held up her face to feel the stray flakes
blowing cold and soft against it. He smiled at
her childish delight in them, and seeing the smile
she started up the narrow path ahead of him,
laughing over her shoulder.
" There's no use denying it," she called back.
" When I want to be the propah dignified young
lady I'll have to stay in town. Just the smell of the
country, the fresh earth, the fallen leaves, has such
a rejuvenating effect that I want to tuck up my
skirts and skip and run as I used to."
" Come on," he exclaimed gaily, falling in with
her mood. " I'll race you to that dead sycamore
up the road."
She looked up at him, her face dimpling as she
noticed how he towered above her and how broad
were the shoulders in the big overcoat. Then she
shook her head sadly.
" Nevah again, Bobby ! We're too old and dig-
nified. I'd almost as soon think of racing with
the Judge as with you now. What if somebody
should see us? They'd be shocked to death.
SIX MONTHS LATER 25 1
There's some one now," she added, peering forward
through the dusk.
" Only old Unc' Andy coming back from his
rabbit traps," answered Rob, as the grizzled old
coloured man shuffled nearer. Uncle Andy had
been the gardener at Oaklea more years than Lloyd
could remember, and now as he stepped out of the
path with elaborate courtesy to let her pass, she
delighted his soul by stopping with a friendly in-
quiry about himself and family.
" Lawd, if it aint the Little Cun'l herself ! " he
chuckled. • " All growed up and a bloomin' like a
piney! I reckon, Miss Lloyd, youse forgot the
time that you pulled up all the pansies in my flowah
beds 'cause you said they was makin' faces at you."
" No, indeed, Uncle Andy," she answered with
a laugh, and started to pass on. But the encounter
with the old servant seemed somehow to set her
back among the days when she had been almost
as much at home at Oaklea as she was at The Lo-
custs, and prompted by some sudden impulse she
called over her shoulder as she had often called
then: "Unc' Andy, tell Mrs. Moore that Mistah
Rob won't be home for dinnah. He's going to
stay at The Locusts."
It was a familiar message although it had been
252 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
several years since Andy had heard it. He looked
back bowing and scraping, and then walked on
chuckling to himself.
Taken by surprise, Rob did not remonstrate
when she thus took his consent for granted. If
she had waited to ask his permission to send such
a message home he would have made some excuse
to decline, and then left her at the gate. That night
under the measuring tree when he listened to her
singing he had resolutely made up his mind to keep
out of the way of temptation. Since then he had
become convinced that she was engaged to Leland
Harcourt and had put her out of his dreams as far
as possible. Now that she had left him no choice,
he gladly accepted the opportunity that fate seemed
to throw in his way, and gave himself up to the
enjoyment of it.
The fitful snow had stopped falling again by the
time they reached the gate, and the stars were be-
ginning to glimmer through the bare branches of
the locust-trees. As Lloyd looked up the avenue,
and saw the lights from many windows streaming
out across the white-pillared porch into the win-
ter night, her gay mood suddenly changed to one
of intense feeling.
" Isn't it deah ? " she said in a low voice. " I
SIX MONTHS LATER 253
nevah had it come ovah me so overwhelmingly,
how good it is to come back to the things that nevah
change — that nevah fail ! The home-lights and
the home-loves, the same old trees and the same
old sta'hs and the same old chum ! "
Rob made no answer, but his silence was only
another proof to Lloyd that she had found her old
chum unchanged. He never answered at the times
when she knew he felt most deeply. Rob's silences
expressed more sometimes than other people's
speeches.
He was talkative enough at dinner, however, and
between them he and Lloyd made the meal such
a lively one that the old Colonel heaved a sigh when
it was over.
" I'd give a good deal if our whist club didn't
meet to-night," he said in response to Lloyd's ques-
tion. " I surely would have asked them to post-
pone it if I had known you were coming out to-
night."
" Suahly not a time-honahed institution like
that ! " exclaimed Lloyd teasingly, " and when it's
yoah turn to entahtain it. Rob, we haven't found
out what refreshments mothah' has for them.
Think of wasting all this time without knowing."
It had always been a matter of interest with
254 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES J&DlNG
them in earlier times to have a finger in this par-
ticular pie. It was one thing in which Mrs. Sher-
man was most careful to humour her father's
whims, and she always pleased him by giving her
personal attention to the dainty little suppers which
she served after the game.
Lloyd led the way to the pantry and they lifted
covers and opened doors, smelling and peering
around till they unearthed all the tempting dishes
that had been so carefully prepared for the occa-
sion.
" We'll be in at the end," warned Lloyd as the
Colonel's old cronies began to arrive, " and in the
meantime I'll pop some cawn. I used to think that
old Majah Timberly came for my cawn as much
as he did for the game."
To his great annoyance a telephone message
called Mr. Sherman over to the Confederate Home.
He had looked forward to a quiet evening in front
of the great log fire, and was loath to leave the
cosy room and cheerful company. Presently some
household matters, claimed Mrs. Sherman's pres-
ence up-stairs, and she too had to go>, leaving Lloyd
at the piano, playing runs and trills and snatches of
songs as a sort of undercurrent to their conversation.
Rob in a big armchair in front of the fire, looking
SIX MONTHS LATER 255
comfortable enough to want to purr, glanced around
the familiar old room that long association had
made as dear to him as home.
" Why don't you read your letters ? " he asked,
his gaze happening to rest on a pile of various sized
envelopes lying on the table near him, all bearing
Lloyd's name.
She turned around on the piano stool and held
out her hand for them as he rose to take them to
her.
" I forgot all about the possibility of there being
any mail for me," she said, tearing open the first
one. " This is from Betty. I know you want to
hear that, so I'll read it aloud."
Crossing the room she seated herself under one
of the silver sconces in the chimney corner, so that
the candlelight fell on the paper. She had never
relinquished the idea that came to her on her return
from school that Rob was growing especially fond
of Betty. It seemed to her such a desirable state
of affairs that she longed to deepen his interest in
her.
" I am not being carried to the skies on flowery
beds of ease, by any manner of means," wrote
Betty. "Life at Warwick Hall as a pupil is one
thing. It is quite another to be a teacher. But I'm
256 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
gaining experience and that's what I came for, and
best of all I'm having some little successes that
make me take heart and feel like attempting more.
I have had two little sketches of school-girl life
accepted and paid for (mark the paid for) by the
Youth's Companion, and a request for more.
' True hope is swift and flies with swallows' wings.
Kings it makes gods,, and meaner creatures kings."
You can imagine how happy I am over it, and what
castles in the air I am already building again."
It was a long newsy letter, telling of a reception
she had attended at the White House, to which
she took half a dozen girls in Madam Chartley's
place, and describing a famous lecturer who had
been at the Hall the day before.
" Betty's a girl in a thousand ! " said Rob ap-
provingly as she slipped the letter back in its en-
velope " She's a dear little piece, with sense and
pluck enough for a dozen."
His hearty tone confirmed Lloyd's suspicions,
and she looked as pleased as if he had paid her a
compliment instead of Betty. She led him on to
express a still deeper appreciation, by telling of
some of the things that Elise Walton had written
home about Betty's kindness to the new girls and
SIX MONTHS LATER 25)
how they all adored her. Then she opened the next
letter.
" From Phil Tremont," she said, glancing down
the page. " He's back in New York and has just
seen Eugenia, who is still delighted with house-
keeping, and makes an ideal home for Stewart and
the doctor. And he's seen Joyce," she added, turn-
ing the page, " and Joyce is as happy as a clam,
struggling along with a lot of art-students in a flat,
and really doing well with her book-cover designs
and illustrations."
She read a paragraph aloud here and there, then
hastily looked over the last part in silence, laying
it down with a little sigh. Rob glanced up inquir-
ingly. " I wish he wouldn't make such a to-do
about my writing moah regularly. It makes a
task of a correspondence instead of a pleasuah, to
know that every two weeks, rain or shine, I'm ex-
pected to send an answah. I like to write if I can
choose my own time, and wait till the spirit moves
me, but I despise to be nagged into doing it."
" You write to Betty every week," he suggested.
" Yes, sometimes twice or three times. But that's
different. I haven't seen Phil for two yeahs and
when you don't see people for a long time you
can't keep in touch with them."
258 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" The song says, ' Absence makes the heart grow
fonder,' " quoted Rob mischievously.
" Maybe it does if you're old friends, and have
lots to remembah togethah, but it seems to me that
absence builds up a sawt of wall between people
sometimes, especially if you've known each othah
only a little while, and at a time when you're both
growing up and changing all the time. Do you
know," she added musingly, dropping the letter
into her lap and leaning forward to gaze into the
fire, " I believe if Phil and I had been togethah
daily I'd have grown awfully fond of him. When
we were out on the desert in Arizona, I was only
fou'teen that spring, he was my ideal of all that was
lovely and romantic, and I believe if it hadn't been
for those talks Papa Jack and I used to have about
Hildegarde and her weaving, I'd have done like
foolish Hertha, cut my web for him then and there.
I did imagine for awhile that he was a prince, and
the one written for me in the sta'hs."
"And now?" asked Rob, in a low tone, as if
afraid of interrupting the confession she was mak-
ing more to the fire and herself than to him.
" Now," she answered, " when he came back
to be best man at Eugenia's wedding I still liked
htm awfully well, but I could see that my ideals
SIX MONTHS LATER 259
had changed and that they didn't fit him any moah
' as the falcon's feathahs fit the falcon.' Still I
don't know, maybe if we had been thrown togethah
a great deal from the time I first met him, it might
have been different, but as I say, absence made a
sawt of wall between us and we seem to be growing
farthah and farthah apart."
" And now you're sure he's, not the one the stars
have destined for you ? "
" Perfectly suah," she answered with a laugh,
then leaning back in the chimney corner again,
opened the third letter. The envelope slipped to
the floor as she read, and stooping over to return
it, he saw quite unintentionally that it bore a South
American stamp. She was reading so intently
that she did not notice when he laid it in her lap,
but as soon as she finished she tossed it into the
fire without a word. Her face flushed and her
eyes had an angry light in them. As she caught
his grave look, she shrugged her shoulders with a
careless little laugh, to hide the awkward pause,
and then said lightly :
" I think Mammy Eastah's fortune will come
true. There won't be any prince in my tea-cup."
"Why?"
260 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Wait till I get the cawn-poppah and I'll tel!
you."
She was back in a moment with the popper and
several ears of corn which she divided with Rob,
and started to shell into the big dish which she
placed on the floor between them. She shelled in
silence a moment or two.
" It's this wintah in society that's given me that
opinion," she said finally. " The view I've had
of it through my Hildegarde mirror. The knights
have come riding, lots of them, and maybe among
them I might have found my prince in disguise, but
the shadows of the world blurred everything. Out
heah in the country I'd grown up believing that it's
a kind, honest old world. I'd seen only its good
side. I took my conception of married life from
mothah and Papa Jack, Doctah Shelby and Aunt
Alicia, and yoah fathah and mothah. They made
me think that marriage is a great strong sanctuary,
built on a rock that no storm can hurt and no
trouble move. But this wintah I found that that
kind of marriage has grown out of fashion. It's
something to jest about, and it's a mattah of scan-
dal and divorce and unhappiness. Sometimes it
made me heart-sick, the tales I heard and the things
"SHE POURED THE CORN INTO THE POPPER AND BEGAN TO
SHAKE IT OVER THE RED COALS."
SIX MONTHS LATER 26 1
I saw. I came to little Mary Ware's conclusion,
that it's safah to be an old maid."
Drawing a low stool nearer the fire, she poured
the corn into the popper and began to shake it over
the red coals.
" It's dreadful to be disillusioned," said Rob,
smiling at her serious face. " That's one reason
why I keep so ' far from the madding crowd.' My
old friends have been good about remembering me
with invitations and I've been sorely tempted to
accept some of them just to see what kind of a
show was going on. But I couldn't accept one and
refuse another and I couldn't afford to go in whole-
sale; carriages and flowers and the bummed up
feeling that .follows make it too expensive for a
poor man like me. It's nearly over now, I suppose,
anyway."
" Yes, the fancy dress ball on Valentine's night
will be the last big thing befoah Lent."
" Who is to be your escort ? "
" Mistah Whitlow, probably. He hasn't asked
me yet, but he saw Aunt Jane this mawning and
told her not to let me make any engagement, for
he was coming to ask me as soon as I got back to
town Monday."
H Bartrom Whitlow ! " exclaimed Rob, shifting
262 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
his easy lounging position to an upright one, and
looking very stern. " Lloyd, you don't mean to
say you're going with that man! He isn't fit to
be invited to decent people's houses, much less fit
to shake hands with their daughters. Some of the
others are bad enough, goodness knows, but he is
the limit. You* simply can't go with him."
" Well, you needn't ro'ah so," exclaimed Lloyd
with a little pout, as if she resented his dictatorial,
big-brother tone. Secretly it pleased her, for it
had been a long time since she had heard it.
" Rather than let you go with him I'll accept
my invitation and take you myself ! "
" What a sweet martyr-like spirit ! " laughed
Lloyd, teaslngly. " I certainly feel flattered at the
way you put it, and I appreciate the great sacri-
fice you're willing to make for my sake. Of co'se
I don't want to go with Mistah Whitlow if that's
the kind of man he is, but it seems rathah late in
the day to raise a row. He's called on me several
times this wintah and sent me flowahs and danced
with me, just as he does with all the othah girls. I
know Aunt Jane believes he is all right, because she
is very particulah about my company. I can't see any
way to get out of going with him as long as she's
given him to undahstand that I would, but for me
SIX MONTHS LATER 263
to hold you to yoah offah and make you make a
martyr of yoahself on the altah of friendship."
" You know very well, Lloyd Sherman, no fel-
low would count it martyrdom to escort the most
popular debutante of the season to the last great
function."
She opened her eyes wide, astonished at such an
unusual thing as a compliment from Rob.
. " Oh, I'm just quoting," he added to tease her.
" That's what I heard an enthusiastic admirer of
yours call you on the car this evening. But I'm
in dead earnest, too. My offer is a sincere one."
" Very well," responded Lloyd quickly, " I'll hold
you to it. I suppose you've seriously considahed it.
You'll have to go in fancy costume, you know."
His face showed plainly that he had not thought
how much his offer involved, but after an instant's
hesitation he made a wry grimace and laughed.
" That's all right. I die game. I haven't been to
anything for two years, but I'll see you through
on this deal. ' I'll never desert Micawber.' Name
the character I'm to represent and I'll get the cos-
tume."
" I think a Teddy beah would be most in keeping
if you're going to glowah and growl the way you
did a moment ago, or anything fierce and furious;
*S64 KITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Bluebeard for instance. That would be fine, and I'll
carry a bloody key and you can drag me around
by the hair as an object lesson to all thoughtless
girls who weave their mantles to fit unworthy shoul-
dahs instead of using their yah'd sticks to do it
right."
" That old tale seems to worry you a lot, Lloyd."
" It does," she confessed. " I've thought about
it every day this wintah. Now this is all ready for
the salt and buttah," she added as the last grain
in the wire cage burst into snowy bloom. " I'll take
it ovah to the old gentlemen while it's hot. You
can be popping the next lot while I'm gone."
Mrs. Sherman joined them presently, and the
question of costumes was settled. " There's no
use of yoah going to any expense for one," said
Lloyd, with her usual delicate consideration,
" There are trunkfuls of lovely things still in the
attic. Come ovah next week and we'll look through
them."
So it came to pass that the old intimacy was, in
a measure, resumed, for several calls were necessary
to complete the arrangements for Valentine night.
That those arrangements were highly satisfactory
might have been inferred from the account of the
affair which appeared in the Society columns next
SIX MONTHS LATER 265
day, in which Miss Sherman and Mr. Rob Moore
were awarded the palm for the most unique and
striking costumes. They had gone as Bluebeard
and his beautiful Fatima. It was the crowning
good time of the season, Lloyd declared, for Rob
under cover of his disguise entered into the spirit
of the occasion with all his old zest, and when Rob
tried, nobody could be better company than he.
After that he fell into the way of an occasional call
at The Locusts. He was too busy to spare many
evenings, but when Lloyd came back to the Valley,
nearly every Sunday afternoon was spent in their
old way, taking long tramps together through the
quiet country lanes and winter woods.
CHAPTER XIII
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING
The beginning- of Lent was the end of all the
social gaieties and most of the girls who had flit-
tered through the season with Lloyd fluttered away
like a bevy of scattered butterflies to various resorts
on the Florida coast. Kitty departed to make her
long-talked-of visit to Gay in San Antonio, Katie
Mallard went with an invalid aunt to Biloxi, and
Lloyd came back to the country. She was almost
as much alone as she had been that winter when she
had not been allowed to return to Warwick Hall
after the Christmas vacation.
True, Allison was at home after her interesting
trip abroad, with the Maclntyres, and Lloyd spent
many hours at The Beeches. But Raleigh Clai-
borne's sister from Washington was there on a visit
part of the time, and Raleigh himself made several
flying trips, and although Allison's engagement
made her doubly interesting to the younger girls,
266
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 267
it seemed to rise up as a sort of wall between them
and their old intimacy. She had so> many new in-
terests now that she did not enter quite so heartily
into the old ones.
So it came about that Lloyd fell quite naturally
into her former habit of dropping in to see Mrs.
Bisbee and Mrs. Apwell and all the other old ladies,
who welcomed her with open arms. One blowy
afternoon in March she took her embroidery and
went to sit with Mrs. Bisbee awhile, beside the
window that Mrs. Walton had laughingly dubbed
the " window in Thrums." The old lady, growing
chatty and confidential over her quilt-piecing, seemed
so unusually companionable, that Lloyd remarked :
" It really seems as if I'm catching up to you all,
Mrs. Bisbee. As I get oldah everybody else gets
youngah. Why, this wintah mothah has been just
like a sistah. I had no idea she could be so much
fun. We do everything togethah now. I help with
the housekeeping so that she can hurry through
with it early in the mawning and then we practise,
piano and harp, or she plays the accompaniments
for my songs. And then we read French awhile
and we go for long walks and we discuss every
subject undah the sun, just as Betty and I used to
do. And we plan things to do in the deliciously
268 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
long - cosy evenings — surprises, you know, for
grand fathah and Papa Jack. I believe I'm enjoying
this pah't of my yeah bettah than the first."
Mrs. Bisbee looked out of the window wistfully
at nothing.
" That's the way that it used to be here when
daughter was at home," she sighed. " Sometimes I
think if I'd had the planning of the universe I'd
have fixed it differently. Just when your little girl
is grown up to be a comfort and a joy, and the best
company in the world, some man steps in and takes
her away from you. I had daughter to* myself only
one short year after she got through school. Then
she married. Of course it would have been selfish
to have stood in the way of her happiness, yet — "
She shook her head with another sigh, and left
the sentence unfinished. " I have often wondered
how I could have stood it if her marriage had been
an unhappy one, like poor Amy Cadwell's. You
know her."
" Only slightly," answered Lloyd, recalling a face
that always aroused her interest: a face with thin
compressed lips and watchful defiant eyes, that
seemed to have grown so> from the long guarding
of a family skeleton.
It was not gossip the way Mrs. Bisbee told the
'THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 269
story, only the plain recital of a sad bit of human
history that had fallen under her observation. The
cloud of it rested on Lloyd's face as she listened.
" That's the worst thing about growing up," she
exclaimed bitterly when Mrs. Bisbee paused, " the
finding out that everybody isn't good and happy as
I used to think they were. Lately, just these last
few months that I've been out in society I've heard
so much of people's jealousies and rivalries and
meannesses and insincerity, that I'd sometimes be
tempted to doubt everybody, if it were not for my
own family and some of the people out in this
little old Valley that I've trusted all my life.
" There's Minnie Wayland, whose engagement
was announced last month to Mistah Maybrick. I
don't see how she dares marry when her own fathah
and mothah made such a failure of it, that they can't
live togethah, and Mistah Maybrick's wife got a
divorce from him on account of some dreadful scan-
dal the papahs were full of. I couldn't go up and
wish her joy when the othah girls did. She talked
about it in such a flippant mattah of business way,
as if millions atoned for everything. One of the girls
laughed at me for taking it so seriously, and said
that matches aren't made in heaven nowadays, and
that I'd have to get ovah my old-fashioned Pnri-
270 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
tanical notions and ideals if I expected to keep up
with the sma'ht set. I thought for awhile that
maybe it was only the sma'ht set who are that way,
but what you've just told me about Mrs. Cad well,
and what I've heard lately about several families
right in our own little neighbahhood, shows that
it's all a bad old world, and these yeahs I've been
thinking it so good I've been blind and ignorant. I
suppose it's for the best, but I'm sorry sometimes
that my eyes have been opened."
Mrs. Bisbee sighed again at her vehemence, and
then quite unexpectedly piped up in a thin tremulous
voice, with one of the songs O'f her youth. In a
high minor key and full of quavers, it was so ridic-
ulous that they both laughed.
«* • I sat beneath a hollow tree,
The blast it hollow blew.
I thought upon the hollow world,
And all its hollow crew.
Ambition and its hollow schemes,
The hollow hopes we follow,
The world and all its hollow dreams —
All hollow, hollow, hollow ! ' "
" That's the way it seems to you now," she said.
" It's the reaction. But you mustn't let it make you
pessimistic. When you get to feeling like that you'll
have to do like old Abraham did, quit looking at all
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 27 1
the sinners in Sodom, and hunt around for the ten
good men."
A whole row of Sunday-school lessons rose up in
Mrs. Bisbee's mind. She had taught a class for
thirty years in the vine-covered stone church whose
spire she could see from her window, and Lloyd was
used to her startling and unexpected application of
Scripture texts.
" Or better still," she continued, " turn your back
on entire Sodom, and look away to the plains where
the faithful pitched their tents. The world is full
of that kind of people to-day as it was then, the
faithful who never join themselves to the idols of
the heathen, but who tend their flocks and live good
peaceful lives, and in all their journeyings, wherever
they go, raise an altar to the Lord.
" It's the marriages that are founded on that rock
that never fall," she added reverently, her mind
skipping from the tent-dwellers of Genesis to the
wise builder in the parables with the ease of long
practice. " ' And the rain descended, and the Hoods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock/"
" Sometimes just the wife's part is built on it.
She's the only one that raises the altar. Sometimes
the man is the one. Of course that's better than all
272
LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
being on the sand, and saves many a marriage £rom
being the wreck it would have been if they'd left God
out of it altogether. There ! I never did think it all
out in words quite as straight and clear and con-
vincing to myself before. But I've often had the
idea come to me when I'd be sitting in church look-
ing at old Judge Moore's white head in the front
pew, and thinking of the trouble he'd had- — the
sorrow and accidents and misfortune that have beat
on his house — and his faith standing up bigger
and stronger than ever. Even his wife's death
couldn't shake it."
Here she paused to lean nearer the window and
nod and smile at some one driving past the house.
" It's Agnes Waring," she explained, as Lloyd
looked up too late. " Or Agnes Bond, I should say.
I never can remember to call her that, although she's
been married over two years. Now there's a happy
marriage if ever there was one. The good old-
fashioned sort like the Judge's, for they're both of
the faithful. And do you know, my dear," she con-
tinued lightly, " I shall always hold you responsible
for that. It was your making such a picture out
of Agnes at that Martha Washington affair that
brought her out of her shell and gave John Bond a
chance to discover her. Miss Sarah thinks so too.
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 273
By the way, she was here yesterday, and she told
me that she has about consented to break up house-
keeping and go to live with Agnes. It's so lonely
for her since poor Miss Marietta died."
" Yes, I know," said Lloyd softly, thinking of the
happy release that had come to Miss Marietta only
the week before.
" Now, there was another case," resumed Mrs.
Bisbee. " Nobody who saw her lying there in that
beautiful dress that was to have been her wedding
gown, and with that wonderful smile lighting up her
face, could doubt what sort of a foundation she and
Murray Cathright built on. That was a love that
outlasted time and reached past even death into
eternity itself. So don't you go to doubting that
it doesn't exist any more, my dear."
Lloyd made one more call on the way home, stop-
ping in at the Apwalls' with a magazine which Mrs.
Bisbee had asked her to leave. Oddly enough the
conversation turned to the same subject that she and
Mrs. Bisbee had been discussing, but she went away
in a very different mood from the one in which she
left the first place. Old Mr. Apwall irritated her.
He was in one of his sprightly facetious humours.
when he delighted in making personal remarks in a
teasing way.
274 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" Well, my little lady," he began. " I hear you've
had a whole string of admirers dangling in your
wake this last year. Oh, you needn't deny it ! "
he added, shaking a finger at her in a way he con-
sidered playful. " We've heard the gossip about
that young Texas fellow and that man from the
North who nearly wore out his private car coming
down to see you every whip-stitch and that old duck
from Cincinnati that you refused. Refused them
all! Oh, yes, you did, though. We heard about
it. But you must remember the story of the lass
who went through the forest looking for a straight
stick. She kept throwing them away and throwing
them away, getting harder to please at every step,
until she'd gone through the whole forest, and had
to pick up a crooked one at the last."
He laughed childishly at his own tale. " Look
out that you don't get a crooked stick ! "
Mrs. Apwall broke in sourly. " That's about all
there is left lying around to choose from these days,
to my notion. But land sakes, Alexander, quit teas-
ing the child. You talk as if all her chances are
gone by and that she's doomed to be an old maid.
The happiest lot of all, / say, for there's no man
living but has some crook in him,, and most of 'em
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 2?$
are all crookedness." She darted a warlike glance
in his direction.
Lloyd left as soon as she could get away politely,
wondering how they had heard so much of her
affairs. She had refused both proposals, but she
didn't know that any one outside the family knew
anything about it. She wondered now if she had
been over particular, for the crook that Mrs. Apwall
insisted was in every man was only a slight one in
the case of the owner of the private car, principally
a matter of little refinements of speech and appear-
ance which one had a right to expect of a man in
his position and whose lack argued to a dainty girl
like Lloyd some corresponding coarseness of nature.
She had seen the other man slightly intoxicated one
night at a theatre party, and could never quite for-
get the maudlin smile with which he poured out com-
plimentary speeches by the wholesale.
The conversation at the Apwalls' brought back
two very disagreeable occasions that she did not care
to remember, and she made up her mind as she
walked rapidly along towards home that it would be
many a day before she went back there. They
always gave her a gloomy impression of life.
The roads were so muddy that she had to take
to the railroad track, stepping from one cross-tie to
276 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
another to avoid the sharp cinders between. Pres-
ently she found herself walking along - the rail as she
and Betty used to do on the way to school, balancing
themselves with outstretched arms and counting how
many steps they could take without slipping off.
That was the way she and Rob had taken their walk
the week before. It had been too muddy to go any-
where save along the track and they had walked the
cross-ties for two miles in the face of a keen March
wind. It was soft and balmy to-day, fluttering her
hair and skirts in a playful way wholly unlike the
boisterous flapping with which it had ushered in the
month. .
As she went along she peered into fence corners
and up at the budding branches, happy over every
sign of spring. . If the roads were dry enough by
the end of the week she and Rob intended to take
a long tramp through Tanglewood in search of
wild flowers. Anemones, harebells and spiderwort,
foxgloves and dog-tooth violets, she knew them all,
and the haunts where they came the earliest. She
rarely gathered them, but went from one hiding-
place to another for a glimpse of their shy faces,
welcoming them as she would o>ld friends. Lloyd
loved the woods like an Indian, and one of the most
satisfactory things about Rob's companionship was
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 277
that he enjoyed them in the same way. Often they
tramped along", scarcely saying a word a mile, find-
ing the vibrant silences of the wood better than
speech, and their mutual pleasure in them sufficient.
After the winter in town, which had been an un-
usually cold and severe one, Lloyd longed for the
beginning of spring, and from the call of the first
robin and the budding of the first pussy-willow,
spent as much time as possible out of doors.
April came in with a week of sunny days which
hurried everything into luxuriant leafage and bud.
When Rob came over one warm day for his usual
Sunday afternoon walk, the whole world seemed
so near the verge of bursting into full bloom that
the very air was aquiver with its half- whispered
secrets. Faint delicious odours stole up from the
moist earth and the green growing things that
crowded up out of it. Even the old locusts, con-
scious of a hidden wealth of sweetness which was
soon to make a glory of their gnarled branches,
nodded in sympathy with all that was young and
riotous.
There were so many things to discover near at
hand that Lloyd and Rob sauntered about the place
first, before starting farther afield. There were
spring beauties covering the little knolls in the
278 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
pasture, like a fall of rosy snow. There were
violets down by the ice-house, and early columbines
starting out from the crevices of the rockery, hold-
ing - up slender stems, whereon by. and bye their
airy blossoms would poise like a flock of light-
winged butterflies. Lloyd, happy over every tiny
frond she found unfolding itself in tlv; fern bed, and
every yellow dandelion that added its mite of gold
to the young year's coffers, was so absorbed in her
quest that she did not notice any difference in Rob's
manner.
He walked along beside her, saying little, but with
the same air of repressed eagerness that the whole
April day seemed to share, as if like the locusts, he
too was conscious of some inner wealth of bloom,
some secret happiness w T hose time for sharing with
the spring had not yet come. Once when he an-
swered her enthusiastic discovery of a snowdrop
with only an absent-minded monosyllable, she
glanced up at him curiously. There was such a
light in his eyes and such an unwonted tenderness in
his expression that she wondered what he could be
thinking about.
Across the pasture they went, down through the
orchard where the peach-trees were turning pink
and the clusters of tiny white plum buds were al-
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 279
ready calling the bees, and around again to the
beech-grove at the back of the house. It was a
sweet flower-starred way, and Lloyd, bubbling over
with the spirit of the hour, began to hum a happy
little tune. Suddenly she stopped short in the path,
turning her head slightly with the alert motion of a
young fawn.
"What is it that smells so delicious?" she de-
manded. " It's almost heavenly, it's so sweet."
Then after another long indrawn breath, " I'd
think it was lilies-of-the-valley if it were any place
but out heah on the edge of the wood-lot. They
couldn't be way out heah. It must be some rare
kind of wild flowah we've nevah discovered."
Leaving the path, they both began searching
through the underbrush, pushing aside the dead
leaves, and stooping now and then to examine some
plant that did not seem entirely familiar.
" I'm positive it's a white flowah," declared
Lloyd, closing her eyes and drawing in another
breath of the faint, elusive fragrance. " Only a
white flowah could have such an ethereal odah. It
makes you think of white things, doesn't it? Snow
crystals and angel wings ! Oh, they are lilies-01-
the-valley ! " she cried the next instant, stooping
280 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
over a bed of green from which Rob was raking
the dead leaves with a stick.
" And don't you remembah now," she cried, her
eyes like eager stars as she recalled the incident,
" we planted them heah ourselves, yeahs ago. I re-
membah digging up a whole apron ful of some
thrifty green things out of the flowah bed undah
yoah mothah's window and lugging them ovah home
all the way from Oaklea. You planted them in this
place for me, because we thought we'd build a play-
house heah, but aftahwards we changed our minds
and built it by the grape-vine swing."
" It seems to me I do have a faint recollection of
something of that sort," Rob answered. " I know
I had a row with Unc' Andy once for digging up
some of his pet borders and transplanting them over
here, but I didn't know they were lilies."
" I suppose we didn't know because we nevah
happened to wandah this way aftahward when they
were in bloom," she continued, seating herself be-
side them and parting the thickest sheaths of green
to reveal the perfect white flowers hidden away
among them. Throwing aside her hat, she bent
over to thrust her face into their midst, revelling in
the purity and exquisite fragrance.
" There's nothing like them ! " she exclaimed, so
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 28 1
intent on the beauty of the tiny white bells that
she did not see the expression with which Rob was
looking down on her. There was a likeness be-
tween the two, he was thinking, the white-gowned
girl and the white, white blossoms. They seemed
spiritually akin. She touched one of the racemes
softly.
" It's a miracle, isn't it ! " she said in a low, rev-
erent tone.
" A miracle that anything so sweet and white and
perfect can suddenly come into being like this. It
must have made those old lily bulbs wondah at them-
selves the first time they unfolded and woke up to
find that such a heavenly thing had happened to
them, — their hearts filled with this unearthly
beauty and sweetness. Don't you suppose it made
the whole world seem different, that they're not
yet done wondering ovah the surprise and joy of
it?"
She said it with a shy side-glance as if half-afraid
he would laugh at such a childish fancy. Then she
looked up startled, at the unexpected intensity of his
answer.
" I know it made the whole world different," he
said in such a strange exultant voice that she hardly
knew it for Rob's. Dropping to one knee beside her
282 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
he singled out one of the lilies just beginning to
burst from its sheath, and folded it close shut again
in its green leaves.
" Look ! " he said in the same exultant voice.
" That's the way I've been for years, with something
hidden away in my heart, unrecognized at first,
then its sweetness only half-guessed at. And I kept
it hid, and I thought never to tell you. But this
morning in church it happened to me, this miracle of
blossoming. I was sitting looking at you as I've
done a thousand times before, and all of a sudden
it came over me, just as sweet and unexpected as the
bursting of these lilies, the knowledge that life is
dear and the world beautiful because you are in it.
I think I've always held the thought of you in my
heart, Lloyd, but it has come to such full flower
now, dear, I couldn't hide it from you long, even if
I tried. It seems to me now that all of my life must
have been a gradual growing up for this one thing
— to love you ! "'
Then his face, glowing with an eager gladness
that almost transfigured it, paled a little before the
mute misery in hers,
" Oh, Rob ! " she stammered, finding it hard to
believe that she had heard aright. "Don't tell me
THE MIRACLE OF BLOSSOMING 283
that! I've always loved you deahly, but not that
way." Then as she saw all the light fade out of his
eyes and his face settle into grim stern lines, she
reached out both hands crying, " Oh, you deah old
Bobby ! I wouldn't have had it happen for the world !
I can't beak to hurt you this way! "
Her eyes filled and two big tears splashed down
on the hands she had thrust impulsively into his.
With a gentleness that stirred her even more than
his words had done, he bent and touched them with
his lips.
" Never mind, dear," he said with a great tender-
ness that brought a sob up into her throat. " Don't
think of it any more if it makes you unhappy. If
you could have loved me it would have been heaven,
but as you can't we won't talk about it any more.
And — I still have my miracle. Nothing can
change that."
She could not answer, the tears came crowding
so fast, and as they walked back towards the house
together all the brightness seemed to have dropped
out of the April day. The sweetness of the lilies
still followed them, however, and when she glanced
around, wondering why, she saw that Rob still held
the one he had knelt to pick for her. He twirled it
284 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
absently in his fingers, but as they parted at the steps
he held it out to her with a smile so tender and full
of understanding, that another sob came up in her
throat and she took it without a word.
CHAPTER XIV
THE ROYAL MANTLE
The week that followed was an unhappy one for
Lloyd. Everywhere she went it seemed to her that
lilies-of- the- valley were thrust into her face. On
the way to town people got on the car at nearly
every station with great bunches of them that they
were carrying to offices or to their friends. The
florists' windows were full of them. Men passed
her on the street wearing them on their coats, and
even the little shop-girl, who waited on her at the
ribbon counter, had them stuck in her belt. When
she called at Mrs. Bisbee's there was a box of them
growing on her window-sill, and at home the whole
house was permeated by the fragrance that floated
out from the great crystal bowl on the library table.
She could not get away from them, and they kept
Rob constantly in her thoughts.
She told herself that she had never known any-
thing quite so considerate and sweet as the way
285
286 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
he had taken her answer. The more she thought
of his quick putting aside of self in order that she
might not be unhappy, the more it grieved her that
he must be disappointed. She did not see him again
until the following Sunday. He came into church
behind the old Judge and Mrs. Moore, and Lloyd
dropped her eyes to her hymn-book, her heart in
such a flutter that it sent a queer little tingle all
over her. She was afraid to meet his glance, for
fear the consciousness of their last meeting would
send the telltale red to her face.
In the pew just behind the Moores' sat Katie
Mallard with a girl from Frankfort, who was visit-
ing her, and as Rob took his seat Lloyd saw the
guest's pretty eyes fixed inquiringly on him. Then
she whispered something to Katie behind her fan.
Instantly the wonder crossed Lloyd's mind what
the newcomer thought of him, and then she won-
dered how he would appear to her if she could see
him with the eyes of a stranger, without the inti-
mate knowledge their long acquaintance had given
her.
She stole a glance in his direction, as the or-
ganist pulled out the stops and struck the opening
chords of the voluntary. He was certainly good
to look at, and, she concluded, the veriest stranger,
THE ROYAL MANTLE 287
if he were any judge at all of such things, must
see at a glance that his was a strong character, that
he would scorn to do a dishonourable thing and
that the years behind him were clean and honest.
Then with a start she realized that she had been
holding him up to her silver yardstick, and that
he not only met its three requirements, but went far
beyond. He had family, social position, everything
that her father had desired for her save wealth,
and she remembered how earnestly he had added,
on that solemn watch-night, " but all these are
nothing when weighed in the balance with the love
of an honest man."
This greatest of all had been given her, but she
could not accept because — well, she didn't know
why- — but probably because it was just Bobby who
had offered it, and she couldn't think of him as
being the one the stars had destined for her — a
boy that she had made mud pies with. The old
Hildegarde story had been good for her in many
ways, but it had made the prince of her dreams
a vague personality unlike any man she had ever
met. She had never put into words, even to her-
self, what she expected him to be like, but the shad-
owy image that her imagination sometimes held
up had no flaw like ordinary mortals, no human
288 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
faults and failings. And she would know him
when he came, in some strange, mysterious way
that needed no speech — his coming would be her-
alded like Hebe's : " Before her ran an influence
sweet, that bozved my heart like barley bending."
The congregation rose for the Gloria and her
eyes met Rob's. For one instant in the quick light-
ing of his face she had a revelation of all that his
" miracle of blossoming " meant to him, then he
flashed her a reassuring smile that seemed to say:
" Never mind, old chum. We'll go on just as we've
always done."
That she had interpreted it aright Lloyd knew
when he came that afternoon as usual and pro-
posed a walk over past the Lindsey Cabin. He
seemed to have put himself into' her place so fully
that he understood just how she felt towards him;
knew that it hurt her to have to withhold the one
great thing he desired, and that his friendship was
still as dear to her as ever. So with a fine consid-
eration that she was quick to appreciate, he came
back to his old place so naturally, and as such a
matter of course, that it put her at her ease with
him and made it possible for her to ignore the epi-
sode of the lilies as if it had never been.
May came with its locust blossoms and the birth'
THE ROYAL MANTLE 289
day anniversary that made her " old and twenty."
One of her gifts was a beautiful saddle-horse, and
she began her daily rides again. Several times
when Rob could arrange to leave town earlier than
usual he rode with her.
Early in June Betty wrote that she was going up
into the pine woods of Maine for her vacation.
She had been offered a position to teach an hour
a day in a sort of summer school, a girls' camp,
and the position had too man)^ advantages to re-
fuse. She would be back in time for a week or ten
da} r s at The Locusts before the opening of the fall
term at Warwick Hall. Lloyd, who had looked
forward to Betty's companionship for the entire
summer, was sorely disappointed. The same day
that that letter came, Rob told her that he was
going away for awhile. Some investments his
father had made years ago had turned out to be
worth investigating, and he was sure he could dis-
pose of them advantageously. At any rate he was
going to Birmingham to try. He might be back
in a week or two, and he might be away the entire
month of June. If Betty had been at home prob-
ably Lloyd would not have missed him at all, but
because she had to take so many of her walks and
rides alone, he was often in her thoughts.
290 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
" 1 can't expect to have every summah as gay
as last one was," she said to herself one morning-,
as she busied herself about her room, changing the
arrangement of the pictures. She leaned over to
dust the ones above her low bookcase. They ran
in a long panel, just above it, the series of gar-
den fancies that Leland Harcourt had suggested.
It was on a June morning like this almost a year
ago that she had posed for some of them in Doc-
tor Shelby's old garden. It seemed at least four
times as long as that. She had grown so much
older and wiser. She stooped to look again at the
picture of Darby and Joan, under which was writ-
ten, " Hand in hand while our hair is gray." As
she passed her duster lightly over the glass which
covered the two 1 dear old faces, she remembered that
next week this devoted couple were to celebrate their
golden wedding, and that she had promised to let
them " borrow " her for a whole week before, to
help with the preparations.
An hour later she was opening the gate that led
to the old-fashioned door where the ugly little Chi-
nese idol still kept guard and held it open. She
found Mrs. Shelby out on her cool upper piazza,
behind the moon-vines, in a low sewing chair. She
was stitching daintily away on a bit of fine linen.
THE ROYAL MANTLE 29 1
" A wristband for one of Richard's shirts," she
explained, after her first moments of delighted
greeting. " And I'll go right on with it, for I'm
making him a set all by hand for my anniversary
present to him. He's always been so proud of
my needlework and had so much sentiment for the
things I've made myself. I can't begin to tell you
how glad I am to have you here. I've been sitting
here all morning thinking that if my little Alicia
had lived what an interest she would have taken
in all my preparations. I keep forgetting that she
wouldn't be a young girl like you. It's Alicia's
granddaughter who would have been your age."
It took only a question or two to open the gates
into this gentle old soul's happy yesterdays, and
Lloyd listened and questioned, enjoying the quiet
romance that she gathered bit by bit as one gathers
the posies of an old garden and clasps them into a
full-rounded nosegay.
" Aunt Alicia," she asked presently, " were you
suah at the time that you were making no mistake ?
Didn't you have any doubts or misgivings about
the doctah's being the right one ? "
Mrs. Shelby laughed. " I must confess that I
was a very silly girl who had read so many senti-
mental stories that my head was full of dreams of
292 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING,
some faultless being who should appear like the
prince to the Sleeping Beauty and change the whole
world for me with a kiss. It was a long time be-
fore I could recognize him in the disguise of a
poor country doctor. But I think we are apt to be
that way about most things in life, my dear. Fa-
miliarity disguises the real worth of most of our
blessings. We don't appreciate them till we are
forced to miss them for awhile."
"But what finally showed you?" persisted
Lloyd. " What made you see through the dis-
guise ? "
" Oh, my dear," laughed Mrs. Shelby again. " I
couldn't explain a thing like that! How do these
moon-flowers know what calls them to open, or the
tide when it is time to rise ? They feel it, I suppose.
They just know! That is the way it was with me."
Lloyd came again next day prepared to spend
the week. It would be hard to tell who enjoyed the
visit the most. Gentle Aunt Alicia fluttered around,
hugging the sweet pretence to her heart that for
this little space at least she had a real own daughter
beside her, hers to call upon for any service that
the little Alicia would have gladly tendered. The
old doctor spent ever}'- moment he could spare from
his office in the spacious screened porch leading
THE ROYAL MANTLE 293
from the kitchen, where all the preparations were
carried gaily forward.
Here, after the invitations were sent, Lloyd spent
her time. Under her supervision the old satin wed-
ding gown was brought out and aired and pressed
and slightly altered. Its white folds had turned
to a mellow ivory in the years it had been laid away,
just as the sentiment which cherished it had grown
deeper and richer with time. Once as Lloyd inter-
cepted a glance the old doctor exchanged with his
wife as they brought out these reminders of their
far-away bridal, it made her feel that she was touch-
ing with intimate fingers the heart of a sweet and
tender old romance.
From the yellowed pages of an old diary, she
read a description of the original wedding feast>
and with an enthusiasm which went ahead of Mrs.
Shelby's own prepared to copy it in every detail
for the golden wedding. Jellies and cakes and
salads, candied rose-leaves and rare spiced confec-
tions that had graced the first were all reproduced
for this great occasion. Lloyd beat eggs and shelled
nuts and stirred icing with a zest, while she planned
the decorations and gave orders right and left to
a household who joyed to do her bidding.
It was not until next to the last great day that
294 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Mrs. Shelby made the discovery they had over-
looked a certain gold-cake, whose recipe was miss-
ing. " And I don't suppose it's to be found any-
where in the Valley," she mourned, " unless they've
kept Phronie Moore's old cook-book. She was one
of my bridesmaids, and she made it with her own
hands. It was one of her own special recipes that
she was noted for, and I wouldn't have lost it for
anything."
" You know the Judge must have kept it, Alicia,"
the old doctor gently insisted. " You know the
slightest thing she ever handled was sacred to him,
and it stands to reason that anything she'd taken
so much pride in, and written every page with her
Dwn hands, as you say, would be preserved. No
doubt his daughter-in-law can find it for you with-
out the least trouble."
" Even if she could I wouldn't want to borrow
it," began Mrs. Shelby, but Lloyd interrupted
briskly. " I'll fix it all right for you, Aunt Alicia.
I'll run right ovah to Oaklea as soon as Daphne
gets this in the oven, and ask Mrs. Moore to let
me copy the recipe for you."
So that is how it came about that late that after-
noon, Lloyd opened the great iron gate at Oaklea,
3itd, following the familiar path under the g«aat
THE ROYAL MANTLE 295
oaks, reached the house to which she had long been
a stranger.
Rob's dog, a fine Gordon setter, came out with a
boisterous barking, but seeing who it was, leaped
up, licking her hands and wagging a friendly wel-
come. It seemed as if Rob ought to be somewhere
near. Everything about the place suggested him.
A familiar wide-brimmed gray hat lay on the hall
table, his riding-whip beside it. Up-stairs whither
the coloured maid led her, there were other remind-
ers of him : Indian clubs and a tennis racquet in
a corner of the hall, and a cabinet holding the vari-
ous collections that had been his fads from time
to time.
" Come in here, dear," called Mrs. Moore from
the depths of a sleepy hollow chair. " I'm too tired
to move, so I knew you'd excuse my sending down
for you to come up-stairs."
It was Rob's room into which she was ushered.
Mrs. Moore held out both cordial hands without
rising, and drew her down for a kiss.
" Rob's coming home to-night," she explained,
" so of course everything had to be swept and
garnished for so grand an occasion, and I've nearly
used myself up making things fine in his honour."
Her eyes filled with tears. " It's the first time
'2g6 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
he's been away since the dear ' Daddy ' left us,
and I had no idea four weeks could be such an age.
I'm so excited and happy over his coming that I
can scarcely talk about it calmly. But you know
what a dear good son my ' Robin Adair ' is to me,
so you can make allowances for a fond mother's
foolishness."
It was some moments before Lloyd had an oppor-
tunity to make known her errand, apologizing pro-
fusely for putting her to any exertion when she
was so tired.
" Oh, it's no trouble," answered Mrs. Moore. " I
think I know right where to put my hand on the
book in father's room. I'll step across the hall and
see."
Left to herself Lloyd gave a shy glance around
the room, remembering the time when it had been
a familiar playground, but now she had an embar-
rassed sense of intruding. Many an hour she had
spent romping in it while Mom Beck and Dinah
gossiped by the fire. They had had their menagerie
and lions' den in that curtained alcove. Here on
2he hard-wood floor between the chimney-corner
and the window they had chalked the ring for their
marble games. She leaned over and examined the
floor at her feet with a smile. Those were undoubt-
THE ROYAL MANTLE 20/
edly the dents that their top-spinning had left.
Mom Beck had told them at the time, no amount
of polishing could ever wipe out such holes.
The little tin soldiers that used to stand guard
on the window-sill had given place to other things
now. The rocking-horse that had carried them
such long journeys of adventure together had been
stabled for years in the attic at The Locusts. Col-
lege trophies and pennants hung on the walls. A
rifle and a shotgun stood in the corner where a
wooden gun and a toy sword used to stay. The
low table and the picture books had given place to
a massive desk and rows on rows of heavy volumes
bound in leather.
Then she recognized several things belonging to
a later period. There was the shaving-paper case
she made him the day he bought his first razor.
She had been so proud of the monogram she burnt
into the leather. It looked decidedly amateurish to
her now. On the leather couch among its many
cushions was the pillow she had embroidered in
his fraternity colours and sent to him while he was
at college.
Between the front windows where the desk stood,
and just above it, ran four long rows of photo-
graphs set in narrow panels. Most of them were
298 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
group pictures, the first dating back to the time of
her first house-party, and ending with some that had
been taken the week of Eugenia's wedding. It was
like a serial story of all their good times, and hastily
changing her seat she leaned her elbows on the
desk for another look. But the nearer view revealed
something that she had not seen at the first glance.
She was the central figure of every group. It was
ker face that one noticed first, laughing back from
every picture.
Abashed at her discovery, she scuttled back to
her former seat, but cot before her quick glance
had showed her another photograph on the desk,
in a silver frame. It was the last one Miss Marks
had taken of her, in her commencement gown. She
did not know that Rob had one of them. She had
not given it to him.
Mrs. Moore called out something to her from
across the hall, and as she turned to reply she faced
still another picture of herself, this one in an old-
fashioned silver locket swinging from the side of the
mirror. It was the Princess Winsome with the
dove. She was afraid to look any further. She felt
like an eavesdropper, for the very walls were call-
ing out to her those words of Rob's that she had
been trying for weeks to forget : " All my life seems
THE ROYAL MANTLE 299
to have been a growing up for this one thing — to
love you ! "
She sprang up. with the impulse to leave the room,
to get away from these telltale voices that she had
no right to listen to. But just then Mrs. Moore
came back with the book.
"You can copy it here at the desk," she said,
laying out a sheet of paper and Rob's big heavy-
handled pen. She did not sit down while Lloyd
wrote the few lines, but stood with her hand on the
back of the chair till she had finished. Then she
said with an amused smile, " I want to show you
something funny, Lloyd. I came across it this
morning while I was looking over some old things
of Rob's. It's your first piece of needlework. You
made it over here one rainy day under Mom Beck's
instructions. It's so long ago I suppose you've for-
gotten, but I remember that Rob tried to make one
too, and stuck his fingers so often that he cried and
gave it up, and you gave him yours to comfort him."
Opening a box which she brought from some
drawer, she took out a sorry little pin-cushion. All
puckered and drawn, its long straggling stitches
scarcely kept in place the cotton with which it was
stuffed. The faded blue silk was streaked and dirty
as if it had been used for a foot-ball at some stage
300 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
of its existence, and the pins that formed the
crooked letter L had rusted in their places. But
that it was accounted something precious, one could
see from the way in which it was tied and 'wrapped
and carefully put away in this box by itself.
It was a relief to Lloyd to find that Mrs. Moore
did not attach any significance to the fact that Rob
thus treasured her old gift. She only laughed and
said he was like her in that regard. She couldn't
bear to throw away anything connected with his
childhood. Only that morning she had come across
the little blue shoes that he had learned to walk in,
and nearly cried over them, they recalled so plainly
those happ}^ days.
" We are both full of sentiment for old things,"
she continued. " I believe it will hurt him nearly
as much as me if we decide to leave Oaklea and try
to make a home somewhere else."
" Leave Oaklea I " repeated Lloyd wonderingly.
" Yes, Rob has had such a splendid opening
offered him in Birmingham that he has been
strongly tempted to move there. Oh, I haven't told
you the good news, have I ! He succeeded in selling
that property to" a big corporation that needed it to
extend their manufactories, and was able to get such
a fine figure for it that now he can give up that
THE ROYAL MANTLE 30 1
horrid grind in the hardware business and go away
in the fall for the last year of his law course. He
has studied so hard with his grandfather that this
one year is all that is necessary, and he will be the
youngest lawyer to be admitted to the Louisville
bar when he gets through. His grandfather is
prouder of that possibility than anything else con-
nected with the boy."
" But about your going away," began Lloyd,
anxiously, when she had expressed proper interest
in the news. " Oaklea won't be the same place with
strangahs living heah. I can't imagine such a
thing."
" It isn't settled yet," Mrs. Moore answered cheer-
fully, and then rambled on to some other topic. But
Lloyd heard no word of what she was saying. A
sudden panic had seized her at the possibility of
Rob's being taken out of her life for ever. The
bare thought gave her a sinking of the heart and a
sense of desolation such as a little child might have
at being left alone in the dark. As she sat there
trying to imagine how it would seem never to see
him again, such a revelation of her own self came
to her that it sent the colour surging up in her face
and set her heart to fluttering like a startled bird.
She knew now for whom she had been weaving all
302 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
these years. This moment of self insight had torn
away the disguise. Her Prince had come into his
kingdom!
A pause in Mrs. Moore's remarks brought the
embarrassing knowledge that she had not heard the
question whose reply was being waited for, and she
started to stammer some incoherent excuse, when
a shrill whistle from below made them both start.
The familiar sound was followed by a joyous bark-
ing from the Gordon setter, and then Rob's voice
called gaily, " Where are you, mother ? Six whole
hours ahead of time, just to surprise you ! "
Mrs. Moore sprang up, all her weariness for-
gotten, and ran down-stairs to meet him. Lloyd
stood hesitating in the middle of the floor. She
didn't want to intrude on this meeting, yet she
couldn't stay there in his room, the room that bab-
bled his secrets and reflected him on every side like
a mirror. Still hesitating, then going forward and
halting again, she reached the landing midway on
the stairs and saw him standing with his arm
around his mother, who had forgotten everything
else save the joy of his return.
Then he glanced up and saw her standing there,
one hand on the polished rail, and her white dress
trailing down the steps behind her. And the late
THE ROYAL MANTLE 303
afternoon sunshine stealing through the amber
medallion window above her rested with such soft
touch on her fair hair that it seemed that a halo of
dim gold surrounded her. For an instant he
thought he must be dreaming, and stood gazing at
her with a look of happy wonder as if this were only
another vision of the dream-saint always enshrined
in his heart.
But his next glance showed him that it was Lloyd
in reality, for at his adoring gaze she went all rosy
red, and looked away in shy confusion. Stopping
only for the briefest greeting, she hurried past him,
saying that Aunt Alicia was waiting, and the won-
derful cake wouldn't be done in time, that his
mother would tell him about it, and she'd see him
at the wedding to-morrow.
What happened afterward was all a sort of
golden haze to Lloyd. The afternoon of the anni-
versary came and went. She greeted the guests who
came in a constant stream with their gifts and good
wishes. She sang the old songs when they asked
her to, she saw that every one was served to the
sumptuous refreshments in the dining-room; she
played her role of daughter of the house to such
perfection that Aunt Alicia caught her hand
gratefully every time she passed, and followed her
304 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
with loving* eyes as she flitted from room to room.
She carried away the impression that it was all a
beautiful sacred occasion, for the whole Valley
bared its heart for that little space to show its love
for the good doctor who for half a century had been
its standby in its times of stress and anxiety and
bitter bereavement.
Yet the only moment that stood out quite clearly
was the one when Rob passed down the receiving
line and stopped for a word about the perfect June
day, and how sweet the white-haired bride of fifty
years looked in her old-time satin gown and white
roses. Lloyd had answered gaily, fluttering her
fan and adjusting the slender bracelet on her arm,
in a careless way, but she had not looked up at him
in her usual straightforward fashion.
The festivities were not extended into the evening.
Because Aunt Alicia was not strong the invita-
tions were only for the afternoon, and by sundown
the last guest had departed. Even Lloyd went, say-
ing merrily that she left them to begin their second
honeymoon, but that she would be back next morn-
ing to help put things in order.
There was company at The Locusts that night,
some business acquaintances of Mr. Sherman's
whom he had invited to dinner, and who were in-
THE ROYAL MANTLE 305
terested in nothing but statistics about the South
and other like stupid things. Tired by the day's
exhausting demands, Lloyd left them when they
went into the drawing-room, and stepping out on
the porch sat down on the steps. The moon was
coming up, turning the locusts to silver.
Presently she heard the sound of hoof-beats down
the pike, and as she listened a solitary horseman
turned in at the gate. She was not expecting Rob,
but even at that distance she recognized the familiar
slouch of his broad-brimmed hat and the erect way
he sat in the saddle. And she knew before a word
was spoken, the moment he dismounted and stood
before her that he had not come for a call, only to
bring some message. But he did not deliver it at
once, only asked who the guests were, and sat down
beside her on the steps and talked about the trivial
happenings of the afternoon.
Then a few minutes later she was walking along
beside him under the locusts. The moonlight lay
in silver patches among the black shadows and the
air was heavy with the breath of roses. They
stopped at the old measuring tree, and Rob dropped
the light tone in which he had been jesting, and his
face grew tense in his deep earnestness.
" It's no use trying any longer, Lloyd," he said
$Q6 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
abruptly. " I can't give you up. The golden wed-
ding to-day was too much for me." He took a
step nearer. " Dear, isn't there anything I could do
to make myself worthier in your sight ? In the old
days knights could go out and prove their valour
and fealty. Couldn't you give me some such
chance? Set me a task? I'd go to the world's end
to doit!"
Lloyd did not answer for a moment. Leaning
against the trunk of the gnarled locust, she stood
idly tracing the outline of the four-leaf clover that
he had cut beside the date the last time they meas-
ured there. Then she said in a low tone :
" Yes, you can bring me the diamond leaf that
we've talked about so often. By that token you'd
prove that you were not only a true knight, but
that all these yeahs you've been my prince in dis-
guise. "
He smiled ruefully, thinking she had purposely
set him a hopeless task. They had read the legend
together, and he knew full well that Abdallah found
the diamond leaf of happiness only in Paradise, but
he took out his watch and opened the back of the
case, saying hopefully, " My lucky charm has never
failed me yet, how long will you give me to find
it?"
THE ROYAL MANTLE 307
She held out her hand for the little talisman, the
four-leaf clover she had given him so many years
ago, but as he picked it up, the dry leaves crumbled
to dust at his touch, and only one fell unbroken
into her outstretched palm.
" My good omen has failed me when I needed it
most! " he said bitterly, but Lloyd answered shyly,
" No, don't you see ? This is the fo'th leaf. You
have brought me what I asked for."
For an instant he stood there, an incredulous
joy dawning in his face, then grasping the little
hand that closed over the clover, he asked wonder-
ingly, " And my unworthy shoulders really fit your
royal mantle now, dear ? You are sure ? "
She looked up at him then, not a doubt in her
trusting face as she slowly made answer, " Yes,
Rob, ' as the falcon's f eathahs fit the falcon ! ' "
And then the old locusts, looking down on the
ending of a story that they had watched from its
beginning, stopped their swaying for a space, with
a soft " Sh ! " each to each as one lays finger on lip
in holy places.
CHAPTER XV
" AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS " AND BETTY'S
DIARY
" The lights are out and gone are all the guests."
It is very late, but I must sit up and write the full
account of it while it is all fresh and clear in my
mind. Besides I am too wide awake to sleep even
if I should try. It was a beautiful, beautiful wed-
ding ; but I must go back ever so far if I am to have
no gaps in this record.
It is three years now since I went away to War-
wick Hall to teach; full, hard years, but so rich in
experiences and so helpful in my work that I'd
gladly go on with them if I were not needed here
at home. But they do need me now that Lloyd is
married and gone, and although she has not gone
far and will be in and out every day, and her room
is just as she left it, and her place will always be
hers, still I am the daughter of the house in many
ways, and can in a measure make up to godmother
308
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" 309
and Papa Jack all they have done for me. I think
they do feel repaid to a great extent by my little
successes and the prospect of more to follow by
and by. It made me so glad and proud when I
heard Papa Jack telling the doctor to-day about the
essays the Atlantic had accepted of mine, and how
# pleased he was over the series of sketches that the
New York publishers are going to bring out in
book form in time for the holidays. The same pub-
lishers that refused my poor old novel too.
It does not seem possible that two years and a
half have gone by since Lloyd wrote to me of her
engagement, but it seemed a long time to look for-
ward to then. Her father and mother would not
have consented to give her up any sooner even if
Rob had been in a position to ask it. Now he has
been a member of his grandfather's firm for a full
year, and everybody says he is one of the most
promising young lawyers ever admitted to the
Louisville bar. He has gone into his life work as
he went into all his games — to win ! And he is so
big and strong and dependable, I know that god-
mother and Papa Jack feel perfectly safe in giving
Lloyd up to him. I think that even the old Colonel
finds it a little easier to be reconciled to the idea of
her leaving because he is so fond and proud of
3io LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Rob. But he seems to take it to heart more than
any one else.
Lloyd thought he did, too, and when she first be-
gan to plan her wedding she asked her father if he
would feel hurt if she asked her grandfather instead
of him to go with her to the altar and give her away.
" You know, Papa Jack," she said in that saucy way
of hers that no one about the place can resist, " you
cut him off from the one chance he should have had
to perform that ceremony, by running away with
mothah. So it's only fair you should make it up to
him now by giving him the honah of escorting me.
Besides you and she have each othah, and he feels
so left out and lonely and is making such a deadly
serious affair of my going away."
Papa Jack saw it from her point of view and was
entirely willing to do as she wished. When the old
Colonel found out what Lloyd wanted, he was so
touched and pleased and complimented that I think
he must have lain awake nights trying tc think of
things to show his appreciation. This last week she
called presentation week, because every single day
he surprised her with some lovely present.
The first day he gave her the little silver sugar-
bowl with butterfly handles and the cream-pitcher
shaped like a lily that he had promised her the first
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" 311
time she had a " pink party " up in his room, when
she was a tiny little girl. The next day it was a
purse full of bright new gold pieces, and the next
a locket that had been his mother's, all set round
with sapphires, and with sapphires strung at inter-
vals on the slender chain that held it. One day the
gift was a treasure of a rosewood chair and writing-
desk that had belonged to Lloyd's grandmother
Amanthis, with all the little mother-of-pearl articles
that go with a desk, just as she had used them. She
was too surprised for anything the day he gave her
the harp. It had been called hers since she started
to learn to play on it, but she never for a moment
supposed he would allow it taken away from The
Locusts. The sixth present had no intrinsic value,
but he had treasured it for years, a medal bestowed
on one of his Virginia ancestors by the king, as a
reward for his services to the crown in those early
days of struggle and stress in the colonies.
Then last and best of all in Lloyd's eyes was
a splendid copy of the beautiful portrait of her
grandmother Amanthis. I cannot distinguish it
from the original that has always hung over the
mantel in the drawing-room. The Colonel had a
fine artist come on from New York to paint it, while
Lloyd was at the seashore this summer.
312 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
She was so happy over it and all her heirlooms„
She said she didn't want her father and mother to
give her any new silver. They had talked about
a full set. She said there was so much old family
plate over at Oaklea, which she would far rather
use. So godmother gave her a chest of linen, and
Papa Jack some shares in the Arizona mines. She
has actually seemed to take pleasure in the thought
that she is marrying a poor man, and has been pre-
paring for it all during her engagement by keeping
her expenses within a certain limit instead of spend-
ing in the lavish way she has always been accus-
tomed to. She's taken such pride too in learning all
the housewifely arts that her grandmother and the
Judge's wife were so noted for.
Eugenia and Stuart Tremont came several days
ago, and Joyce came with them to be one of the
bridesmaids. Phil could not leave his work just
now long enough to come, but he sent the dearest
little gift — a cut-glass honey dish and cover, with
a honey spoon to go with it. The spoon is a flat
gold one with a cluster of bees on the handle. The
note he sent with it was dear, too, thanking her so
beautifully for the inspiration and help her friend-
ship had been to him, and for her good advice that
sent him to " The School of the Bees."
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" 313
Lloyd was so pleased that she hunted up a little
unset turquoise he had once given her as a friend-
ship stone, and Rob took it to town and had a
jeweller set it into a tiny stick-pin for her, and she
wore it as the " something blue " at her wedding.
Rob couldn't afford to give her an expensive
present like the diamond pendant that Raleigh Clai-
borne gave Allison when they were married last
summer, but it pleased Lloyd more than a queen's
tiara could have done. It was just a little clasp to
fasten her bridal veil. He had it made to order —
only a four-leaf clover, but the fourth leaf was
diamond-set, because, like the one Abdallah found
in Paradise, it was the leaf of happiness.
It was just a quiet church wedding, as simple as
it could possibly be made, in the late afternoon of
one of the sweetest, goldenest October days that
ever shone on the Valley. Only her most intimate
friends were invited to the ceremony, because the
little stone church is so small, but the doors were
thrown open to everybody at the reception that
followed at The Locusts.
Since the church has been frescoed inside and
done over in soft cool greens, it makes me think
of the heart of a deep beech woods. The light slips
in through its narrow deep-set windows just as it
314 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
does between the trees in the dim forest • aisles.
Lloyd wouldn't have it filled with hothouse roses.
She said nothing could be as appropriate as the wild
flowers growing all around it in the country lanes
and meadows. So there was nothing but tall plumes
of goldenrod nodding in every open window, while
the altar was a bank of snowy asters. She wanted
them she said because aster means star, and it was
at the altar her happiness would be written for her
in the stars.
She said, too, that as long as it was in the country
and she needn't think of the conventions and could
have things just as she pleased, she wanted it to be
a white wedding — everybody in the bridal party
to wear white. She said the old Colonel wouldn't
look natural to her in anything else that time of year,
and all the others would appear to better advantage.
Every one said afterward what a beautiful picture
it made. Rob and Malcolm and Keith and Ranald
and Alex are all handsome young fellows anyhow,
and they looked bigger and handsomer than ever in
their immaculate white suits. Malcolm was best
man and I was maid of honour. Kitty and Joyce
and Katie Mallard were the bridesmaids. We girls
carried armfuls of the starry asters and the men
wore them as boutonnieres.
■-W ftP* 9 *
f"^
..-"*"--=' ' ■
"'SHE LOOKED TO ME JUST LIKE ONE OF HER OWN
LILIES.' "
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" 315
As for Lloyd, when she came out of her room,
her dress trailing behind her like a soft, pure-white
cloud, so light and airy it seemed as if it must have
been woven on some fairy loom, and with a great
cluster of lilies-of-the-valley in her hands, she looked
to me just like one of her own lilies. Poor old
Mom Beck, who had dressed her, stood behind her
with the tears streaming down her black face, say-
ing, " Honey, you sho'ly nevah will look moah like
a blessed angel when you git through the pearly
gates than you do this minute ! "
From the look on Rob's face as he met her at
the white starry-crowned altar, I am sure he felt
that he had already gone through " the pearly
gates." It was all so sweet and solemn, and as we
listened to the words, " Whom God hath joined to-
gether," I think we all felt that heaven's own bene-
diction rested on them, and would follow them all
their way to the " Land o' the Leal."
How the people of the Valley poured in at The
Locusts afterward to wish them joy! Old and
young, rich and poor, white and black, for of course
all the old servants of both families had to come in
to pay their respects. I am sure that no more heart-
felt good wishes were uttered than their " God bless
you, Miss Lloyd, honey/' or " I wish you joy,
316 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
Mistah Rob," as the faithful black hands that had
served them from babyhood grasped theirs with
loyal good-will. They seem to count this year that
joins the two old families and estates as a sort of
year of jubilee.
It isn't often that a wedding has everybody's
approval as this one has. Lloyd has always been
as much of a favourite at Oaklea as Rob is at The
Locusts. The Judge is radiantly happy and Mrs.
Moore has been as sweet and considerate about
everything as if Lloyd were really her own daugh-
ter. She wants Lloyd to take the place as mistress
of the house just as she did when she went there
a bride. She and Rob's father didn't take a wed-
ding journey, but went straight home to> Oaklea to
spend their honeymoon, and she was so pleased
when she found that Lloyd and Rob wanted to do
the same. She and the Judge waited just long
enough to' welcome them home to-night, and then
took the train for Alabama to visit some of her
people. They have long been wanting to make the
trip, and so chose this time.
All the details of the supper were carried out just
as they were at Eugenia's wedding, excepting the
charms. Lloyd vowed she had lost faith in them
since Mammy Easter's fortune had failed to come
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" 317
true. By rights Joyce should have been married
before either Allison or herself because she caught
Eugenia's bouquet. But because the girls still be-
lieved in them she did throw her bouquet from the
top of the steps just before she left, and Kitty caught
it.
It is only a step over to Oaklea, so she went away
in her bridal gown and veil. I'll never forget the
picture she made as she stood there in the moon-
light, waiting for the carriage to drive up for them,
or the adoring look in Rob's eyes as he turned to
lead her down the steps. Somehow it makes the
tears come crowding up in such a mist I can hardly
see to write.
And now I have come to the last page of this
volume of my Good-times book. Dear Lloyd, dear
little sister who was the beginning of all my good
times, I am glad that heaven has sent you this happy
day for me to chronicle! What a beautiful Road
of the Loving Heart your girlhood has left in the
memory of all your friends ! What a spirit of joy
you have been in this old home, and what an aching
void you have left behind you ! No matter what the
years may hold in store, you will be a blessing
wherever you go, for you have learned to keep tryst
with all that life demands of you. And because you
318 LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
were true to your Hildegarde promise and wove
only according to the silver yardstick, I can close
this record in the same words that end the old story
we have both loved so long : " So with her father's
blessing light upon her, she rode away beside the
prince; and ever after all her life was crowned with
happiness as it had been written for her in the
stars! "
THE ENR
Selections from
The Page Company's
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THE BLUE BONNET SERIES
Each large 12vno, cloth decorative, illustrated,
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By Caroline E. Jacobs.
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BLUE BONNET'S RANCH PARTY
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BLUE BONNET IN BOSTON
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BLUE BONNET KEEPS HOUSE
By Caroline E. Jacobs and Lela Horn Richards.
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BLUE BONNET — DEBUTANTE
By Lela Horn Richards. '
An interesting picture of the unfolding of life for
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By Lela Horn Richards.
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THE PAGE COMPANY'S
ONLY HENRIETTA
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Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated $1.90
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"Only Henrietta"
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Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated ..... $1.90
" One of the most noteworthy stories for girls issued
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THE YOUNG KNIGHT
By I. M. B. of K.
Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated $1.75
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Cloth decorative, 12mo, illustrated $1.75
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A— 2
BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
THE MARJORY-JOE SERIES
By Alice E. Allejt
Each one volume, cloth decorative, 12mo, illus-
trated, per volume ... $1.50
JOE, THE CIRCUS BOY AND ROSEMARY
These are two of Miss Allen's earliest and most suc-
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THE MARTIE TWINS: Continuing the Ad-
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A sequel to " Joe, the Circus Boy," and " The Martie
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MARJORY AT THE WILLOWS
Continuing the story of Marjory, the Circus Girl.
" Miss Allen does not write impossible stories, but
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This new addition to the popular MARJORY-JOE
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A— 3
THE PAGB COMPANY 'S ■ ,
THE YOUNG PIONEER SERIES
By Harrison Adams
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THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO; Ob,
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THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE YELLOW'
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BOOKS FOR YOUlSu PEOPLE
THE FRIENDLY TERRACE SERIES
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trated, per volume 91.?$
THE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE
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A— 5
THE PAGE COMPANY'S
FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES
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Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated,
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OF AMERICA
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.4—6
BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES (Con.)
By Edwin Wildman
FAMOUS LEADERS OF INDUSTRY.— First
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". . . Is a book that should be read by every boy in the
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Y/ith a complete index.
By Charles Lee Lewis
Professor, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis
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A— 7
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A LITTLE SHEPHERD OF PROVENCE
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PEPIN: A Tale of Twelfth Night
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A— 8
BOORS FOB YOUNG PEOPLE
THE HADLEY HALL SERIES
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ALMA AT HADLEY HALL
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THE DOCTOR'S LITTLE GIRL
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SWEET NANCY; The Further Adventures or
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A—
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A LITTLE CANDY BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL
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as delightful to read as they are instructive." — Nash-
ville Tennessean and American.
A LITTLE COOK-BOOK FOR A LITTLE GIRL
By Gasoline French Benton.
This book explains how to cook so simply that no one
can fail to understand every word, even a complete
novice.
A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING BOOK FOR A
LITTLE GIRL
By Caroline French Benton.
A little girl, home from school on Saturday mornings,
finds out how to make helpful use of her spare time, ar"\
also how to take proper pride and pleasure in good
housework.
A LITTLE SEWING BOOK FOR A LITTLE
GIRL
By Louise Frances Cornell.
" It is comprehensive and practical, and yet revealingly
instructive. It takes a little girl who lives alone with
her mother, and shows how her mother taught her the
art of sewing in its various branches. The illustrations
aid materially." — Wilmington Every Evening.
A LITTLE PRESERVING BOOK FOR A
LITTLE GIRL
By Amy L. Waterman.
In simple, clear wording, Mrs. Waterman explains
every step of the process of preserving or "canning"
fruits and vegetables.
A LITTLE GARDENING BOOK FOR A LITTLE
GIRL
By Peter Martin.
This little volume is an excellent guide for the young
rnrdener. In addition to truck gardening, the book gives
valuable information on flowers, the planning of t&e
garden, selection of varieties, etc.
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