The party did not attempt to cover the full length of the camp, for the sun was getting very hot and Kenneth was anxious to get them back to his troop in time for dinner. This, her first meal at an officer’s mess and in a tent, was one of the most novel and delightful Hester hadever known. Kenneth counted it the second time they had broken bread together and was blissfully happy. When it was over, in a fit of excessive magnanimity he hunted up Charley Bemis who he knew would like to see Hester again and brought him up to his tent, where the Colonel and the girls were resting. A little later they all strolled together over to the troopers’ quarters, young Bemis being anxious to show them the troop mascot, a stunning bull-terrier. Down here, too, were the horses, picketed back of the tents, while working among them were several troopers, one of whom Hester especially noticed tall and very blonde, his skin tanned to a deep brown. He wore the regulation campaign outfit, but his shirt was sleeveless. About his neck was knotted a yellow handkerchief, his soft hat was pushed well back with an upward turn to the front and he was busily engaged grooming his horse.
“That man,” said Kenneth, seeing that Hester observed him, “is the president of our coaching club at home and drives the best horses in Radnor. It’s great the way he, and in fact all the fellows have buckled down to work. He’s a chum of mine and I’d like immensely to have him meet you; I think you would enjoy him, too, but I won’t call him over. It would embarrass him to death to be caught like that.”
Hester looked at the trooper in admiration.
“Let’s get out of the way before he discovers us,” she said tactfully, “though I’d like to march straight over there and tell him how proud I am of him.”
Nannie, who had ideas of her own, rode off with her father when they started home. A mile or two on, the Colonel stopped and waited for them to overtake them, when he said, if Hester and Landor would excuse them he and Nannie would stop at the house in front of which they had halted and make a call. So the girl and man rode on alone through the beautiful woods which led to—was it happiness or only Wavertree Hall?
“Have you enjoyed it?” he asked when they had gone a little way.
“Oh! so much.”
“Even if you had to politely put up with me?”
“Well, there were others, you see. Mr. Bemis, and all those charming officers at dinner. Now I think of it, you never took us to the Virginia camp. Is Captain Loomis away?” looking up at him as if the whereabouts of that individual was the thing which most concerned her.
He laid his hand for a moment over hers. “It’s no use,” he said, “you can’t put me off with Loomis or any other man.”
The intense subdued manner in which he saidit deepened the color in her cheeks, but her dimples played mischievously.
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked.
“Hester,” he replied, “do you remember a night in April when you and I talked together and you were kind and said things that would inspire a man to do anything? It was the first time you had ever been serious with me and you thought it was the first time I knew of the serious side of you, but that was not true. You turned my life into a new, better channel from the moment I first set eyes on you, dear. And I loved you so that night on the coach that I didn’t know how I was ever going to get through without telling you, but I didn’t want to take advantage of your goodness and I knew you cared nothing for me, though I was determined you should some day.” His voice rang out in the masterful way she had so often berated to Julie. “I am telling you this now because my opportunities of seeing you are so few and soon they may end altogether. Oh! Hester,” he cried, finding it impossible to restrain himself any longer, “couldn’t you learn to love me a little before I go away?”
She had listened with eyes gazing straight ahead of her. As he finished she turned and looked at him fearlessly.
“Are you quite sure I have not learned already?” she said. And then as he was about to speak, “No, no, do not answer me. I cannot answer the question myself. Sometimes I like you and sometimes I want to run away from you and sometimes—sometimes—”
He held his breath and waited.
But she did not finish it.
“We should never get on,” she said argumentatively, “we quarrel all the time. At least you do—I’ve an angelic disposition,” complacently.
“I quarrel with you? How could I!” endeavoring to fall in with her mood. “It is you who say shocking things to me, you bad thing; and sometimes, ah! sometimes, dear, you do hurt.”
She touched him impulsively. “It is only teasing. I never mean to hurt—I wouldn’t do it intentionally for the world.” How penitent and sweet her voice was!
“Then won’t you be kind to me, please, and love me a little bit?”
“A little bit? Would that satisfy you?”
“No,” honestly, “it would not. Oh! my dear, I will be very patient if only you will try.”
“I don’t have to,” she said.
“No,” despairingly, “you don’t have to.’
“Because—because—I do.”
The ambiguity of this might have been mystifying toany but a drowning man ready to clutch at a straw. Kenneth was raised to a seventh heaven of bliss and promptly kissed her; at which she blushed furiously and pushed him away.
“You must not believe everything I say,” she protested.
“But I do and I want to and I shall,” exultantly. “Oh, my dear, my dear, will you say it all over again?”
“Certainly not,” with pretended severity. And then with a light happy laugh, “Do you remember how I snubbed you on the street corner the day you met me at Dr. Ware’s?”
“Do I? Well, I should say I did! But you were even worse at Jack’s. You plunged me into the depths of despair, from which I never should have arisen if you hadn’t been so charming at Mrs. Lennox’s musicale. That night I began to take notice again, as it were.”
“Notice of Jessie Davis? I heard you were in love with her.”
“As if I had eyes for any one but you! I used to fairly haunt dear old Jack’s place in the hope of running across you, but you always managed to elude me.”
“I used to think at first,” she said seriously, “that you were just curious about us, because we were poor and earned our own living and werenot like the girls in your set, and I resented it. That made me nasty to you, though I liked you all the time. Then, well,—do you know what I believe made me care for you? If you laugh,” earnestly, “I’ll never forgive you. It was because you took such care of me at the wedding and never offered me a bit of cake! You suspected we had made it, didn’t you? And I thought any man who had tact enough for that would be my undoing and I should not wonder,” with a swift look from under her long lashes, “if it were true, but you will never tell a soul I told you, will you?” beseechingly. “It’s a secret—the undoing, you know.”
“Darling,” he said, “I knew more about you and your work than you thought and that is why it was like wrenching my heart out to come away. I wanted to stay there where I could work for you and wait and hope that I might make your life easier. Then when you talked to me that night I knew that whether you ever loved me or not you would want me to go.”
“Yes,” she said.
“And now if you only loved me enough to marry me I might at least leave you my name and the protection of my father, whose home would gladly open to you and Julie if he knew.Couldn’tyou do it, dear heart?”
“I—I don’t know,” she said so low that hecould scarcely hear her. “I do love you, but it is all so new and strange that I cannot realize what it means or even if it means as much as it should to the man I marry. I want to be honest—and you offer me so much that I don’t know what to say. I don’t love you as I love Julie, and perhaps after that you will not want me to love you at all.”
“Yes, dear, I shall. If you care for me in any sort of way I am thankful and love is a thing that grows and grows. Some day I believe you will love me as much as you do Julie, but in a different way. There is room in your heart, dear, for both of us if you will only let me in.”
“That is just the way Julie puts it,” she answered. “She is going to marry Dr. Ware.”
“She is? Jove! what an ideal match!”
“That’s what I think. I would not have believed that I could contemplate sharing Julie and be as happy about it as I am. The night she told me I danced for joy! She needs a man to take care of her, and I love him with all my heart; it changes nothing inwardly and everything outwardly. I am going to live with them but I shall not mind being dependent on them for awhile. At first I thought I couldn’t, but they have made me promise. Dr. Ware is so dear. He says what is his, is Julie’s, and what’s Julie’s is mine, and,” laughing, “there is no gettingaround that, is there? Julie and I have always gone shares. Besides, I’m going to study to be a trained nurse when Julie is married. I couldn’t just sit down and be idle the rest of my days.”
“Thank God your work is over!”
“Not my work but that work. No one will ever know how hard it was; there was so little profit in most of the things we made that we could not afford to hire the necessary assistance and had to take the brunt of everything ourselves. We should have kept on until we ‘died in our tracks,’ to quote Bridget, if it had been necessary, but I thank God, too, that we are not obliged to. It taught us a great many things, the poverty and hardship and all,” she continued, feeling his interest, “and we shall be able to understand life and help people a great deal better because of it. Julie and I have had so many talks together both with Dr. Ware here and since he went North about all the things we mean to do. We look forward to a very busy life.”
“I am supremely glad that things have come out this way, dear,” he said, “only,” wistfully, “all these plans make me feel as if you had little need of me. Won’t you please,” gazing pleadingly in her eyes which shone steadfastly into his, “won’t you please see if you can’t make a place somewhere for me?”
Far off through the woods came the note of a bugle. Hester drew in her breath.
“Perhaps,” she said softly as they turned in the avenue, “I do need you and want you, too. Will you wait and see?”
There was no announcement of Julie’s engagement except to the household of Wavertree Hall. Her marriage was likely to take place early in the summer, for Dr. Ware was to attend a medical convention in California and wanted to take her with him. In the event of his doing this, Hester and Bridget would join them later, for Mrs. Driscoe wanted to be off, as was her custom, to the Springs and Hester shrank from going into a scene of gayety. There seemed to be no reason why this plan should not be carried out, for Julie had entirely recovered and except for the shadow of sadness left by her father’s death, was quite herself again. She knew it would be their beloved Daddy’s wish that she should shape herself to the events of her life in just the way she would have done had he been actually among them, and many and many a time her new happiness was glorified by the thought that he knew and was rejoicing too.
When Hester came and told her of that ride through the woods with Kenneth, her cup was filled to overflowing. For Julie understood hersister better than the girl understood herself and she knew the love she now bore Kenneth would “grow and grow,” as he had said, until it became a powerful factor in her life.
So finally Julie’s wedding day was fixed and the day before, Dr. Ware with the Lennoxes and, as a joyful surprise above all things, Jack, arrived on the scene. The Doctor told her that this was the Driscoes’ idea—to bring them down and surprise her, as Cousin Nancy’s guests. As Mrs. Driscoe said to Mrs. Lennox, who laughingly protested against such an invasion:
“Virginia is the heart of the country, my dear Mrs. Lennox, and we are the heart of Virginia—welcome to Wavertree Hall.” She was heard to remark afterward to the Colonel that that charming individual looked like a thorough-bred Virginian.
As for Jack, a more ecstatic boy never trod on earth. The girls laughed and cried over him. So did Bridget, who gave him such a hearty smack that he nearly hugged the head off her.
There were other arrivals also, that day at Dunn Loring, for Mr. Landor had come down to have a look at Kenneth, and Sidney Renshawe was once more at the Blakes’ plantation.
The latter called at Wavertree Hall that afternoon and Mrs. Driscoe was in such a good humor over the charming, aristocratic Mrs. Lennoxand the little excitement of guests which delighted her hospitable soul that she actually shook hands with him and asked him to join their party that afternoon—they were going over to camp to see Mr. Landor. That bit of cordiality was enough for Renshawe. Enough, too, for dear little Nannie, who had witnessed this meeting with mingled fear and delight.
They arrived at camp just before parade and at Kenneth’s tent was an elderly man who proved to be his father. In the general introductions which followed, Kenneth’s pleasure was very great in this meeting of Hester and his father. She began talking to him at once in her bright, vivacious way, and what was really remarkable,—for he never had the faintest idea what to say to girls and seldom encountered them, he talked to her quite at his ease. But then, this wily young woman touched now and then on Kenneth—just enough to start him on the subject nearest his heart. It was very near her heart, too. But when had the stern, impassive Caleb Landor talked so freely of his son before?
As they sat under the “fly” which made a shelter in front of the tent, the girls observed down the line the colors standing in front of the Captain’s quarters and it thrilled them with the pride of patriotism to see all the men and officersin going to and fro lift their hats and pass bare-headed before the flag.
The routine of camp was very interesting to Dr. Ware who had lived through it, to the girls who had all their lives heard of it, and to Jack, who still hoped to be a part of it in spite of his years. So it was a very talkative if somewhat weary party that returned to Wavertree Hall.
Late that evening there came tearing up the avenue a mounted orderly. He brought a note for Miss Hester Dale which required an immediate answer. She opened it quickly. At the end she leaned against the pillar as if for support. Then she called Julie out from the garden where she and Dr. Ware were strolling and said unsteadily:
“Read that, Julie dear. I want you to know before I send my answer.”
Julie read:
“Sweetheart, my orders have come. Since you left I have heard officially. I am to be transferred and leave for Tampa to-morrow afternoon to join the Rough Riders, who embark in a few days for Santiago. Do you think, dear—could you, would you marry me before I go? Would that dear little Julie let you and me go with her and the Doctor to-morrow and make our lives one in the sight of God? Oh, say yes, say yes! But not unless you are sure, dear. I had rather wait a dozen years than have you give yourself to me under protest. Whatever you say, dear, I shall believe is for the best. But, oh! if you could—KENNETH.”
Julie took her sister in her arms.
“Hester, darling, have you decided?”
“Yes, Julie.”
“You and Kenneth will come to-morrow with Philip and me?”
“Yes, Julie.”
“Oh! Hester, my blessed, blessed girlie, it is the most beautiful thing in the world!”
There was very little sleep for the girls that night. They sat for a long while in the window-seat up in their room where the scent of the honeysuckle came drifting in, talking softly of the past and laying plans whereby their happiness should go out into the world like a strong search-light to illumine dark places.
“It is not always those commonly called the poor who are most in need, Hester. It is the refined, sensitive people who have seen better days, who suffer most. And we have learned, too, dear, how super-sensitive adversity makes one. I am glad we know these things, aren’t you, even though the learning of them nearly tore our hearts out? It has broadened and developed us and is going to make us helpful women in the world.”
“And oh! Julie dear,” replied Hester, “isn’t it beautiful to think how we shall be able, both of us, through our—our husbands,” stumbling over the word, “to do things for people. Littlethings and big things to lighten people’s burdens and give them courage, just as so many times courage was given to us.”
“Yes, darling. God is putting the power in our hands—it is for us to use it wisely.”
Presently Hester said, “I am glad we won our own place in Radnor before going back there again under different circumstances. It makes me feel that we amounted to something and that if it ever happened that misfortune of that sort came again we should be able to keep our heads above water, to turn our fingers to account. Look at them, Julie,” holding up her hands for inspection, “they are not the same things at all.”
“No dear, they have lost their porcelain transparency which used to be such a pride and delight but I like them better as they are. They are strong, capable hands, now, for all their daintiness which you never can lose. I have been thinking lately, that one’s hand can be as indicative of character as one’s face. I hope yours and mine will not belie us.”
“We did not much think when we came out of the flat that day that we should never go back there, did we, old girl? I can’t realize it yet. It seems as if all those pots and kettles and pans and bottles would swoop down and whisk us off to ‘The Hustle’ when we get back to Radnor. Oh! my dear, wedid‘hustle’! The name didnot belie that place! Down here in this drowsy Virginia I sometimes wonder if it was really we who worked like that.”
“I know,” Julie said, “I know, too, that we should have worked right on there to the best of our ability all our lives if it had been so ordered, but I am thankful, thankful that our energies can act in another way. We shall have a great deal to do, dear, and the wisdom of an older experience than ours to help us do it and all the time Daddy watching over his little girls.”
And so at last they lay down to rest, these two little comrades whose heads and hearts were full of joyous anticipation of a broader field of action, a glorious life campaign.
Nothing could exceed the simplicity of the wedding that lovely June morning. Flanked on either side by Dr. Ware and Kenneth, the girls walked down the avenue to the gate and across the road with those nearest and dearest in attendance, to the little chapel where for generations the Fairleighs had worshiped and where the previous autumn their father had put in a memorial window to their mother. The gardens and the woods for miles around had been stripped of flowers to decorate the chancel, which took on a thousand lights as the mellow sunshine poured in through the stained glass windows.
Little Nannie stood up with them—she and Sidney Renshawe, and the dear old Colonel during the ceremony was forced more than once to take off his glasses and wipe them carefully. The girls were without ornament save that each carried a great bunch of white roses gathered in the garden at Wavertree Hall. Julie wore a certain white mulle gown that the Doctor loved while Hester, to please Kenneth, the simple muslin frock in which she had picked blackberries.
“A bride in a frock just out of the wash-tub!” cried Cousin Nancy aghast. She had never dreamed of such a total disregard of the conventionalities. But when she found Mrs. Lennox was on Hester’s side she demurred no longer.
Mr. Landor sat with the Lennoxes and many a strange sensation took hold of him as he gazed first at Kenneth and then at Hester and back again at his stalwart son.
Bridget occupied a front seat in a state of perfect beatitude. She was the first to receive a kiss from the brides when the ceremony was over. Jack was there, of course, immensely relieved at this satisfactory arrangement whereby all three of his friends were happily married. And Peter Snooks was there, solemn and dignified, decorated with a gorgeous red, white and blue bow but indignant at this touch of femininityand resentful that he was not allowed to go up and stand with the bridal party. George Washington and the other servants were in the rear of the chapel.
After the ceremony they all trooped back again to Wavertree Hall where, on the lawn under a cluster of superb oak trees, where the stars and stripes were waving, a lunch was spread for their refreshment.
Cousin Nancy, aided by Mrs. Lennox, was the presiding genius of the feast, while Mr. Lennox, also, came to the front with jests and stories to relieve the solemnity of the past half hour.
Kenneth, radiantly happy and looking handsomer than ever in his uniform, was here, there and everywhere, but with always his first thought for Hester. She was unusually quiet—subdued by happiness and the thought of the parting so near at hand. It was Julie that day whose laugh was the merriest, but then Julie knew something which Hester did not.
In accordance with a tradition of Wavertree Hall Mrs. Driscoe had brewed a punch, a mild but delicious concoction famous at all the Fairleigh weddings.
Mr. Lennox proposed the health of the brides and then the bridegrooms. Dr. Ware toasted the mistress of Wavertree Hall. And so it went around from one to the other, until, havingcheered the President, the army, the navy and the flag, Dr. Ware excited the wildest enthusiasm by bowing low to Mrs. Driscoe and saying:
“We lived through other days in Virginia, you and I, Mrs. Driscoe. Three cheers now for a reunited country!”
How they did shout! There was not a dry eye among them. Then Jack’s thin voice called out:
“Won’t somebody please cheer for the boys that want to be soldiers and can’t?” At which they all laughed and cheered again.
There were other people who had a secret that day besides Julie. Indeed they were all in it except Hester—in fact they knew much more about it than Julie herself, who only knew half. It had been arranged that Hester and Kenneth should drive with Julie and the Doctor to the station; then, as Hester supposed, she and Kenneth were to have an hour together before he took his departure. He had told her that he had left everything at camp ready to send on, so that it would not be necessary for him to return there.
She was a little surprised when they took such an affectionate farewell of her as well as Julie and before she got into the carriage Mr. Landor had asked her to step aside a moment with him.
THE WEDDING BREAKFASTTHE WEDDING BREAKFAST
“I shall be gone when you return,” he said, speaking with some difficulty, “and it is proper you should know that I approve of Kenneth’s marriage. He talked at some length about you last night and it’s a good thing—a good thing. I never had a daughter—”
Hester kissed him. Caleb Landor had not been kissed for thirty years.
“Kenneth belongs to us both,” the girl said simply, “and we are both giving him up but it must be the hardest for you, because you have had him the longest.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” gruffly, to hide his emotion, “we can’t go into that. I want you to take this,” slipping something in her hand. “I hear your sister requested there should be no wedding gifts for her. Mrs. Lennox tells me that she asked those who wished to remember her to turn the money instead into the Red Cross Fund. No doubt you feel as she does. I understand you are much alike. If you will keep that paper and use it for the sick and wounded later—for we are bound to have them—as a gift from yourself, I shall be much obliged to you. No, don’t thank me, say nothing about it. And remember that my house is open to you whenever you care to come.” It is doubtful if Caleb Landor had ever made so long a speech in his life.
She did thank him, choking back her tears.Then she thrust the paper in her pocket and later when she had a chance to examine it she found a check of a thousand dollars, made payable to her, Hester Dale Landor!
All the way to the station she roused herself and chatted gayly to make Julie’s last moments with her a bright remembrance. Julie was so excited she could scarcely contain herself and in order to sit still was fairly rigid in her seat.
When they reached the station the train was not yet in sight but on a side track stood a car.
“What is that?” asked Julie curiously, as they left the carriage.
“That is yours,” quietly answered Dr. Ware, watching the effect of his words.
“Mine? Whatareyou talking about?”
“Come and see,” cried the Doctor who felt like a boy of twenty.
She ran down the platform, stood still and trembled from head to foot.
“Hester,” she gasped, turning with the old habit to her sister, “Hester, it is ‘The Hustle!’”
“What!”
“It is, it is!”
Bridget with Peter Snooks in her arms was waving out the car window.
“Oh, Philip!” Julie cried. And without another wordhe took her in his arms and carried her in the car.
“If the days to come here,” he whispered as he put her down, “are as happy as the old ones, little wife, I shall be satisfied.”
Hester and Kenneth, who had not known whether or not to follow were called peremptorily in and all exclaimed over by Bridget, who having been appointed by the Doctor a reception committee of one, felt this the proudest and happiest moment of her life.
“Now tell us all about it,” said Julie, “but first I am going to make Hester as ‘comfy as comfy can be.’ You poor little thing, you are not going to lose Kenneth to-day. You are both coming South with us. We are going to do escort duty to the distinguished young officer, Lieutenant Landor.”
“What!” exclaimed the bewildered Hester.
“We are all going down in ‘The Hustle’ together, Hester,” explained Dr. Ware, while she was made to sit down, Kenneth tucking a cushion under her feet and Julie perching on the arm of her chair. “Julie did not know about ‘The Hustle’—that was my surprise for her—but she did know that we meant to go West by the way of Tampa—we settled that last night after you heard from Kenneth—and have you and him go along with us so that we could all see the last ofhim. Kenneth and the people at Wavertree Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into my secret so he could send his things aboard. Bridget packed your trunks while you were at luncheon and got them off without your knowing it and here we all are, as snug as possible, with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in order.”
“Kenneth,” said Hester with brimming eyes but in the old bantering tone which always made them laugh, “how dare you have secrets from your wife? How dare you! It’s a perfectly scandalous beginning!”
“Please, you were not my wife then, and I won’t any more,” he said penitently. “Will you forgive me, please?”
“I don’t understand how you did it,” said Julie to her husband, who leaned over the back of the chair on the arm of which she was perching, his head on a level with hers.
“It was not difficult, dear. I had been on the track of ‘The Hustle’ for some time. I always intended to capture you all sometime and take you off for a vacation in her. That was one of my dreams, but I never mentioned it to certain little girls I knew for fear it would never come true. Early this spring I learned that the car had been relegated to a car shed on a Western road—it was not considered modern enough foruse. So I ordered it on to Radnor, had it overhauled and thought it would be an ideal place for a honeymoon, eh, little wife?”
“Oh! yes,” she said shyly.
“And Hester,” slipping his hand down over the chair and resting it on her shoulder, “it is your honeymoon, too, dear. I am so glad. And ‘The Hustle’ is yours as much as it is Julie’s. Will you always remember that? Kenneth, old man,” with a change of tone, “will you come with me and see that everything is aboard? I hear the train, which means that we shall be picked up and taken on in a few minutes.”
Left to themselves, the girls, half-dazed by these astonishing events, wandered slowly about the dear old familiar car, which had suffered scarcely an alteration. Julie felt it was Dr. Ware’s exquisite forethought which had kept the interior so nearly as they had left it. There was the piano at which she had so often played and sang for Daddy and the great leather chair drawn up close in which he had spent many a restful hour listening to her. Over the piano in its old place hung a portrait of her mother and at one end of the car, looking down benignly, hung their favorite picture of their father—the Major in full uniform with that spirited look of action which so distinguished him. Over thepicture were crossed two swords, his and the Doctor’s; over these higher up was draped Old Glory hanging in splendid folds.
“Miss Nannie and Mr. Renshawe and Jack, they come over this mornin’ an’ fixed the flag an’ all the flowers you see around everywheres. Jack said to tell you he done the swords. Didn’t he get ’em up fine? They had a great time over here all unbeknownst to yez,” explained Bridget.
The girls stood hand in hand before the picture. “Oh! Daddy,” they whispered, “dear Daddy, help us to be worthy of all this!”
They made the run to Tampa in two days. The transports were being loaded with ammunition, provisions and all the paraphernalia of war as they arrived and Kenneth went on board with the last detachment of Rough Riders.
Hester bore up like the brave little soldier she was. There was never a tear, though she clung at the last to Kenneth as if she could not let him go. That was for but a moment. The next she stood erect and smiling on the rear platform of “The Hustle” waving him off. The picture Kenneth carried away with him cheered all the hours of all the days to come. He had only to close his eyes to see a slender girlish figure with head thrown back and radiant, unflinching eyes smiling and smiling into his very heart. And all through the desperate fight before San Juan when the bullets hissed and all was deafening, blinding chaos, rang her last words, “Fight for your country and me—be as brave an officer as Daddy.”
At the hotel at San Francisco, when our party reached there, was found an accumulation ofmail forwarded from Radnor for the Doctor. A letter from his sister was read and handed to Julie with a smile.
“My Dear Philip,” it began:—“Your letter telling me of your engagement and probable speedy marriage to Julie Dale was no surprise to me. I had always known you were in love with her or you would never have been so idiotically approving of all the crazy things she did. I will say, though, that if you intended to marry you might have done worse. I understand from Mrs. Davis and Jessie, whom I saw last week in London (they have just been presented at Court) that the girls were recognized pretty generally by our set before they went away. Mrs. Lennox must have done some campaigning! However, people quickly forget things, and all that vulgar cooking may be regarded merely as the freakishness of two headstrong girls. I hope you will remember that she is headstrong and keep a tight rein over her. As your wife, of course her position in Radnor will be unimpeachable.
“Now that you are to have a housekeeper I shall avail myself of invitations from English friends and remain here into the winter when I shall probably join Lord and Lady Wynne in a trip into Egypt. I may decide to make England my home. I prefer it to the States and should not under any circumstances think of returning while that tiresome war is going on.
“The housekeeping keys are in my top bureau drawer, left hand end. Tell Julie I am most particular that the linen, especially that not in constant use, should be frequently aired, and the blankets must go down on the line in the yard once a week. There are other things which a flighty young person should know and which I shall write her at length later. I hope that dog is not to be allowed the freedom of the house. I shudder to think of it!
“Affectionately,
Mary.”
Julie laughed gayly when she had finished.
“Poor Miss Ware!” she said, “she still regards us as monsters of iniquity. Am I a headstrong young thing?”
“Of course,” quizzically. “Don’t you feel the tight rein I hold over you?” taking her face in his hands.
For answer she kissed him, to the embarrassment of Bridget who had knocked unheard and entered the room at that moment.
Julie devoted herself to Hester these days and succeeded in keeping her busy and diverted. Hester’s great wish had been to follow Kenneth to Cuba, but she allowed herself to be convinced both by him and the others that it would be an unwise thing to do. She knew no Spanish and nothing of nursing beyond the limited experience she had gained in caring for her father, and it was the season of yellow fever, to which, her vitality having been greatly exhausted by the strain of the previous winter, she would be dangerously susceptible. But the old wish to become a Red Cross nurse was more than ever strong within her and this desire they all encouraged and approved, feeling that if Kenneth were to be long in the field Hester’s happiness would lie in being near him and administering to the sick and wounded men. So she plunged into Spanish with an excellent teacher in San Francisco while Dr. Ware brought her books on nursing, gave herpractical talks on surgery and promised to get her into a training school for nurses as soon as they returned to Radnor at the end of July.
The newspapers were her solace and despair—they said so little and so much! With heads together she and Julie devoured them, reading every word. The newsboys’ cry, “Extra, Extra!” filled her with apprehension. She had had but one letter from Kenneth, written as they were about to land with General Shafter at Baiquiri. Before there was time to hear again, the papers blazed with the news of the desperate attack on San Juan, and the Rough Riders became the heroes of the nation.
Hester, scanning the paper with wide eyes, searched for the list of dead and wounded. With beating heart her finger went down the line and stopped.
“Landor, Kenneth, Second Lieutenant, Troop—, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, wounded in the thigh.”
She lived through the next ten days of suspense like a person in a dream. Her impulse had been to start immediately for Cuba, and Mr. Landor wrote that he was going down and would take her with them. But Dr. Ware, the far-seeing, advised them both to wait. News would soon come direct from Kenneth and it was probable thathe would be sent home on sick leave before they could get down to him. Seeing the wisdom of this, Mr. Landor wired Dr. Ware that he should wait. And Hester waited. Julie never left her. She buoyed her up night and day with the belief that Kenneth would not die.
The papers in their later and more detailed accounts of the attack and capture of San Juan, spoke in high praise of the daring bravery of Lieutenant Landor who had incited his men to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by his unflinching spirit, which carried everything before him. Later in the official report from General Shafter, Kenneth Landor, wounded before San Juan, was given honorable mention.
Then one day came to Hester a letter in an unknown hand. It was written from the field hospital and told Mrs. Landor that her husband was recovering; that the operation upon his thigh had been successful; that Mr. Landor’s cable to send the Lieutenant home had been received and that already at headquarters arrangements were being made to get the wounded who could be moved aboard a transport off by the end of the week. That Landor himself knew nothing of all this, for he was too weak to be consulted, but he, the surgeon, assured her there was no cause for alarm and he hoped when Mr. Landor was safely home again she would get him welland return him speedily—the troop could not afford to spare for long so gallant an officer.
Hester read this precious document until it was worn to shreds. And Julie and her husband took her back to Radnor as soon as the paper informed them that the transport had started.
Dr. Ware and Hester went together to the dock to meet him. Mr. Landor was too unnerved to leave the house and Julie remained with him, helping him through the tedious hours that intervened between the time when a clerk had telephoned from the office to the house that the transport was sighted down the harbor and the moment when the carriage stopped at the door.
They brought him into his father’s house on a stretcher, Hester walking by his side, her hand in his. Weak and wan he was, but smiling, turning from one to the other with a hungry devouring gaze that made his father choke and leave the room.
What a home-coming that was! Very still, lest the invalid be excited, but very impressive, and always to be remembered by those who witnessed it; for hearts spoke through eyes what tongues dared not utter and a suppressed sense of exaltation mingled in their love.
It is a very beautiful thing to have a hero in one’s family. So at least thought the Dale girls,even though it was a very refractory hero, who sometimes mutinied and always disavowed any claim to distinction whatever.
Under Dr. Ware’s guidance, Hester and Bridget took care of him. He was home on a two-months’ sick leave and hoped at the end of that time to rejoin his troop wherever they then might be; but Dr. Ware, though he said nothing, thought it extremely improbable that Kenneth would be sufficiently recovered to go into the field before October. By that time the war might be over. Who could tell?
Mr. Landor sat for hours at a time in the sick room listening quietly while Hester, close to the bed, read the papers to her soldier husband, who never took his eyes off her. And the father did much thinking at that time. His stern repellent nature was softening under the warmth of Hester’s sunny presence and more than once she had looked up suddenly to find him gazing at them with misty eyes.
Jack came, too, satisfied to be permitted merely to gaze at his hero. Now and then, as a mark of high favor, Peter Snooks was allowed to lie on Kenneth’s bed. The little rascal seemed to appreciate the privilege and kept very still, sometimes licking Kenneth’s hand, as much as to say he knew how to behave in a sick room—had he not spent hours at a time with Major Dale?
Julie was in and out many times a day, doing a thousand little things for the comfort and happiness of the invalid. She and Hester were near neighbors, for the Landor mansion was but two doors down from Dr. Ware’s on the water side of Crana Street.
And here in Radnor where they had fought and won so great a victory, “those Dale girls” began a new life.