XII. THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY
by Henry Van Dyke
"Eastridge, June 3, 1907.
"To Gerrit Wendell, The Universe Club, New York:
"Do you remember promise? Come now, if possible. Much needed.
Cyrus Talbert."
This was the telegram that Peter handed me as I came out of the
coat-room at the Universe and stood under the lofty gilded ceiling of
the great hall, trying to find myself at home again in the democratic
simplicity of the United States. For two years I had been travelling in
the effete, luxurious Orient as a peace correspondent for a famous
newspaper; sleeping under canvas in Syria, in mud houses in Persia, in
paper cottages in Japan; riding on camel-hump through Arabia, on
horseback through Afghanistan, in palankeen through China, and faring
on such food as it pleased Providence to send. The necessity of putting
my next book through the press (The Setting Splendors of the East) had
recalled me to the land of the free and the home of the brave. Two
hours after I had landed from the steamship, thirty seconds after I had
entered the club, there was Peter, in his green coat and brass buttons,
standing in the vast, cool hall among the immense columns of
verd-antique, with my telegram on a silver tray, which he presented to
me with a discreet expression of welcome in his well-trained face, as
if he hesitated to inquire where I had been, but ventured to hope that
I had enjoyed my holiday and that there was no bad news in my despatch.
The perfection of the whole thing brought me back with a mild surprise
to my inheritance as an American, and made me dimly conscious of the
point to which New York has carried republicanism and the simple life.
But the telegram--read hastily in the hall, and considered at leisure
while I took a late breakfast at my favorite table in the long,
stately, oak-panelled dining-room, high above the diminished roar of
Fifth Avenue--the telegram carried me out to Eastridge, that
self-complacent overgrown village among the New York hills, where
people still lived in villas with rubber-plants in the front windows,
and had dinner in the middle of the day, and attended church sociables,
and listened to Fourth-of-July orations. It was there that I had gone,
green from college, to take the assistant-editorship of that flapping
sheet The Eastridge Banner; and there I had found Cyrus Talbert
beginning his work in the plated-ware factory--the cleanest, warmest,
biggest heart of a man that I have known yet, with a good-nature that
covered the bed-rock of his conscience like an apple orchard on a
limestone ridge. In the give-and-take of every day he was easy-going,
kindly, a lover of laughter; but when you struck down to a question of
right and wrong, or, rather, when he conceived that he heard the divine
voice of duty, he became absolutely immovable--firm, you would call it
if you agreed with him, obstinate if you differed.
After all, a conscience like that is a good thing to have at the bottom
of a friendship. I could be friends with a man of almost any religion,
but hardly with a man of none. Certainly the intimacy that sprang up
between Talbert and me was fruitful in all the good things that cheer
life's journey from day to day, and deep enough to stand the strain of
life's earthquakes and tornadoes. There was a love-affair that might
have split us apart; but it only put the rivets into our friendship.
For both of us in that affair--yes, all three of us, thank God--played
a straight game. There was a time of loss and sorrow for me when he
proved himself more true and helpful than any brother that I ever knew.
I was best man at his wedding; and because he married a girl that
understood, his house became more like a home to me than any other
place that my wandering life has found.
I saw its amazing architectural proportions erupt into the pride of
Eastridge. I saw Cyrus himself, with all his scroll-saw tastes and
mansard-roof opinions, by virtue of sheer honesty and thorough-going
human decency, develop into the unassuming "first citizen" of the town,
trusted even by those who laughed at him, and honored most by his
opponents. I saw his aggravating family of charming children grow
around him--masterful Maria, aesthetic Charles Edward, pretty Peggy,
fairy-tale Alice, and boisterous Billy--each at heart lovable and
fairly good; but, taken in combination, bewildering and perplexing to
the last degree.
Cyrus had a late-Victorian theory in regard to the education of
children, that individuality should not be crushed--give them what they
want--follow the line of juvenile insistence--all the opportunities and
no fetters. This late-Victorian theory had resulted in the production
of a collection of early-Rooseveltian personalities around him, whose
simultaneous interaction sometimes made his good old head swim. As a
matter of fact, the whole family, including Talbert's preposterous
old-maid sister Elizabeth (the biggest child of the lot), absolutely
depended on the good sense of Cyrus and his wife, and would have been
helpless without them. But, as a matter of education, each child had a
secret illusion of superiority to the parental standard, and not only
made wild dashes at originality and independent action, but at the same
time cherished a perfect mania for regulating and running all the
others. Independence was a sacred tradition in the Talbert family; but
interference was a fixed nervous habit, and complication was a chronic
social state. The blessed mother understood them all, because she loved
them all. Cyrus loved them all, but the only one he thought he
understood was Peggy, and her he usually misunderstood, because she was
so much like him. But he was fair to them all--dangerously fair--except
when his subcutaneous conscience reproached him with not doing his
duty; then he would cut the knot of family interference with some
tremendous stroke of paternal decision unalterable as a law of the
Medes and Persians.
All this was rolling through my memory as I breakfasted at the Universe
and considered the telegram from Eastridge.
"Do you remember promise?" Of course I remembered. Was it likely that
either of us would forget a thing like that? We were in the dingy
little room that he called his "den"; it was just after the birth of
his third child. I had told my plan of letting the staff of The Banner
fall into other hands and going out into the world to study the nations
when they were not excited by war, and write about people who were not
disguised in soldier-clothes. "That's a big plan," he said, "and you'll
go far, and be long away at times." I admitted that it was likely.
"Well," he continued, laying down his pipe, "if you ever are in trouble
and can't get back here, send word, and I'll come." I told him that
there was little I could do for him or his (except to give superfluous
advice), but if they ever needed me a word would bring me to them. Then
I laid down my pipe, and we stood up in front of the fire and shook
hands. That was all the promise there was; but it brought him down to
Panama to get me, five years later, when I was knocked out with the
fever; and it would take me back to Eastridge now by the first train.
But what wasteful brevity in that phrase, "much needed"! What did that
mean? (Why will a man try to put a forty-word meaning into a ten-word
telegram?) Sickness? Business troubles? One of those independent,
interfering children in a scrape? One thing I was blessedly sure of: it
did not mean any difficulty between Cyrus and his wife; they were of
the tribe who marry for love and love for life. But the need must be
something serious and urgent, else he never would have sent for me.
With a family like his almost anything might happen. Perhaps Aunt
Elizabeth--I never could feel any confidence in a red-haired female who
habitually dressed in pink. Or perhaps Charles Edward--if that young
man's artistic ability had been equal to his sense of it there would
have been less danger in taking him into the factory. Or probably
Maria, with her great head for business--oh, Maria, I grant you, is
like what the French critic said of the prophet Habakkuk, "capable de
tout."
But why puzzle any longer over that preposterous telegram? If my friend
Talbert was in any kind of trouble under the sun, there was just one
thing that I wanted--to get to him as quickly as possible. Find when
the first train started and arrived--send a lucid despatch--no
expensive parsimony in telegraphing:
'"To Cyrus Talbert, Eastridge, Massachusetts:
"I arrived this morning on the Dilatoria and found your telegram here.
Expect me on the noon train due at Eastridge five forty-three this
afternoon. I hope all will go well. Count on me always. Gerrit Wendell."
It was a relief to find him on the railway platform when the train
rolled in, his broad shoulders as square as ever, his big head showing
only a shade more of gray, a shade less of red, in its strawberry roan,
his face shining with the welcome which he expressed, as usual, in
humorous disguise.
"Here you are," he cried, "browner and thinner than ever! Give me that
bag. How did you leave my friend the Shah of Persia?"
"Better," I said, stepping into the open carriage, "since he got on the
water-wagon--uses nothing but Eastridge silver-plated ice-pitchers now."
"And my dear friend the Empress of China?" he asked, as he got in
beside me.
"She has recovered her digestion," I answered, "due entirely to the
abandonment of chop-sticks and the adoption of Eastridge knives and
forks. But now it's my turn to ask a question. How are YOU?"
"Well," said he. "And the whole family is well, and we've all grown
tremendously, but we haven't changed a bit, and the best thing that has
happened to us for three years is seeing you again."
"And the factory?" I asked. "How does the business of metallic humbug
thrive?"
"All right," he answered. "There's a little slackening in
chafing-dishes just now, but ice-cream knives are going off like hot
cakes. The factory is on a solid basis; hard times won't hurt us."
"Well, then," said I, a little perplexed, "what in Heaven's name did
you mean by sending that--"
"Hold on," said Talbert, gripping my knee and looking grave for a
moment, "just you wait. I need you badly enough or else the telegram
never would have gone to you. I'll tell you about it after supper. Till
then, never mind--or, rather, no matter; for it's nothing material,
after all, but there's a lot in it for the mind."
I knew then that he was in one of his fundamental moods, imperviously
jolly on the surface, inflexibly Puritan underneath, and that the only
thing to do was to let the subject rest until he chose to take it up in
earnest. So we drove along, chaffing and laughing, until we came to the
dear, old, ugly house. The whole family were waiting on the veranda to
bid me welcome home. Mrs. Talbert took my hands with a look that said
it all. Her face had not grown a shade older, to me, since I first knew
her; and her eyes--the moment you look into them you feel that she
understands. Alice seemed to think that she had become too grown-up to
be kissed, even by the friend of the family; and I thought so, too. But
pretty Peggy was of a different mind. There is something about the way
that girl kisses an old gentleman that almost makes him wish himself
young again.
At supper we had the usual tokens of festivity: broiled chickens and
pop-overs and cool, sliced tomatoes and ice-cream with real
strawberries in it (how good and clean it tasted after Ispahan and
Bagdad!) and the usual family arguing and joking (how natural and
wholesome it sounded after Vienna and Paris!). I thought Maria looked
rather strenuous and severe, as if something important were on her
mind, and Billy and Alice, at moments, had a conscious air. But Charles
Edward and Lorraine were distinctly radiant, and Peggy was demurely
jolly. She sounded like her father played on a mandolin.
After supper Talbert took me to the summer-house at the foot of the
garden to smoke. Our first cigars were about half burned out when he
began to unbosom himself.
"I've been a fool," he said, "an idiot, and, what is more, an unnatural
and neglectful father, cruel to my children when I meant to be kind, a
shirker of my duty, and a bringer of trouble on those that I love best."
"As for example?" I asked.
"Well, it is Peggy!" he broke out. "You know, I like her best of them
all, next to Ada; can't help it. She is nearer to me, somehow. The
finest, most unselfish little girl! But I've been just selfish enough
to let her get into trouble, and be talked about, and have her heart
broken, and now they've put her into a position where she's absolutely
helpless, a pawn in their fool game, and the Lord only knows what's to
come of it all unless he makes me man enough to do my duty."
From this, of course, I had to have the whole story, and I must say it
seemed to me most extraordinary--a flagrant case of idiotic
interference. Peggy had been sent away to one of those curious
institutions that they call a "coeducational college," chiefly because
Maria had said that she ought to understand the duties of modern
womanhood; she had gone, without the slightest craving for "the higher
education," but naturally with the idea of having a "good time"; and
apparently she had it, for she came home engaged to a handsome, amatory
boy, one of her fellow "students," named Goward. At this point Aunt
Elizabeth, with her red hair and pink frock, had interfered and lured
off the Goward, who behaved in a manner which appeared to me to reduce
him to a negligible quantity. But the family evidently did not think
so, for they all promptly began to interfere, Maria and Charles Edward
and Alice and even Billy, each one with an independent plan, either to
lure the Goward back or to eliminate him. Alice had the most original
idea, which was to marry Peggy to Dr. Denbigh; but this clashed with
Maria's idea, which was to entangle the doctor with Aunt Elizabeth in
order that the Goward might be recaptured. It was all extremely
complicated and unnecessary (from my point of view), and of course it
transpired and circulated through the gossip of the town, and poor
Peggy was much afflicted and ashamed. Now the engagement was off; Aunt
Elizabeth had gone into business with a clairvoyant woman in New York;
Goward was in the hospital with a broken arm, and Peggy was booked to
go to Europe on Saturday with Charles Edward and Lorraine.
"Quite right," I exclaimed at this point in the story. "Everything has
turned out just as it should, like a romance in an old-fashioned
ladies' magazine."
"Not at all," broke out Talbert; "you don't know the whole of it, Maria
has told me" (oh, my prophetic soul, Maria!) "that Charley and his wife
have asked a friend of theirs, a man named Dane, ten years older than
Peggy, a professor in that blank coeducational college, to go with
them, and that she is sure they mean to make her marry him."
"What Dane is that?" I interrupted. "Is his first name Stillman--nephew
of my old friend Harvey Dane, the publisher? Because, if that's so, I
know him; about twenty-eight years old; good family, good head, good
manners, good principles; just the right age and the right kind for
Peggy--a very fine fellow indeed."
"That makes no difference," continued Cyrus, fiercely. "I don't care
whose nephew he is, nor how old he is, nor what his manners are. My
point is that Peggy positively shall not be pushed, or inveigled, or
dragooned, or personally conducted into marrying anybody at all! Billy
and Alice were wandering around Charley's garden last Friday night, and
they report that Professor Dane was there with Peggy. Alice says that
she looked pale and drooping, 'like the Bride of Lammermoor.' There has
been enough of this meddling with my little Peggy, I say, and I'm to
blame for it. I don't know whether her heart is broken or not. I don't
know whether she still cares for that fellow Goward or not. I don't
know what she wants to do--but whatever it is she shall do it, I swear.
She sha'n't be cajoled off to Europe with Charles Edward and Lorraine
to be flung at the head of the first professor who turns up. I'll do my
duty by my little girl. She shall stay at home and be free. There has
been too much interference in this family, and I'm damned if I stand
any more; I'll interfere myself now."
It was not the unusual violence of the language in the last sentence
that convinced me. I had often seen religious men affected in that way
after an over-indulgence in patience and mild behavior. It was that
ominous word, "my duty," which made me sure that Talbert had settled
down on the bed-rock of his conscience and was not to be moved. Why,
then, had he sent for me, I asked, since he had made up his mind?
"Well," said he, "in the first place, I hadn't quite made it up when I
sent the telegram. And in the second place, now that you have helped me
to see absolutely what is right to do, I want you to speak to my wife
about it. She doesn't agree with me, wants Peggy to go to Europe,
thinks there cannot be any risk in it. You know how she has always
adored Charles Edward. Will you talk to her?"
"I will," said I, after a moment of reflection, "on one condition. You
may forbid Peggy's journey, to-morrow morning if you like. Break it off
peremptorily, if you think it's your duty. But don't give up her
state-room on the ship. And if you can be convinced between now and
Saturday that the danger of interference with her young affections is
removed, and that she really needs and wants to go, you let her go!
Will you?"
"I will," said he. And with that we threw away the remainder of our
second cigars, and I went up to the side porch to talk with Mrs.
Talbert. What we said I leave you to imagine. I have always thought her
the truest and tenderest woman in the world, but I never knew till that
night just how clear-headed and brave she was. She agreed with me that
Peggy's affair, up to now more or less foolish, though distressing, had
now reached a dangerous stage, a breaking-point. The child was
overwrought. A wrong touch now might wreck her altogether. But the
right touch? Or, rather, no touch at all, but just an open door before
her? Ah, that was another matter. My plan was a daring one; it made her
tremble a little, but perhaps it was the best one; at all events, she
could see no other. Then she stood up and gave me both hands again. "I
will trust you, my friend," said she. "I know that you love us and our
children. You shall do what you think best and I will be satisfied.
Good-night."
The difficulty with the situation, as I looked it over carefully while
indulging in a third cigar in my bedroom, was that the time was
desperately short. It was now one o'clock on Tuesday morning. About
nine Cyrus would perform his sacred duty of crushing his darling Peggy
by telling her that she must stay in Eastridge. At ten o'clock on
Saturday the Chromatic would sail with Charles Edward and Lorraine and
Stillman Dane. Yet there were two things that I was sure of: one was
that Peggy ought to go with them, and the other was that it would be
good for her to--but on second thought I prefer to keep the other thing
for the end of my story. My mind was fixed, positively and finally,
that the habit of interference in the Talbert family must be broken up.
I never could understand what it is that makes people so crazy to
interfere, especially in match-making. It is a lunacy. It is presuming,
irreverent, immoral, intolerable. So I worked out my little plan and
went to sleep.
Peggy took her father's decree (which was administered to her privately
after breakfast on Tuesday) most loyally. Of course, he could not give
her his real reasons, and so she could not answer them. But when she
appeared at dinner it was clear, in spite of a slight rosy hue about
her eyes, that she had decided to accept the sudden change in the
situation like a well-bred angel--which, in fact, she is.
I had run down to Whitman in the morning train to make a call on young
Goward, and found him rather an amiable boy, under the guard of an
adoring mother, who thought him a genius and was convinced that he had
been entrapped by designing young women. I agreed with her so heartily
that she left me alone with him for a half-hour. His broken arm was
doing well; his amatoriness was evidently much reduced by hospital
diet; he was in a repentant frame of mind and assured me that he knew
he had been an ass as well as a brute (synonymes, dear boy), and that
he was now going West to do some honest work in the world before he
thought any more about girls. I commended his manly decision. He was
rather rueful over the notion that he might have hurt Miss Talbert by
his bad conduct. I begged him not to distress himself, his first duty
now was to get well. I asked him if he would do me the favor, with the
doctor's permission, of taking the fresh air with his mother on the
terrace of the hospital about half-past five that afternoon. He looked
puzzled, but promised that he would do it; and so we parted.
After dinner I requested Peggy to make me happy by going for a little
drive in the runabout with me. She came down looking as fresh as a wild
rose, in a soft, white dress with some kind of light greenery about it,
and a pale green sash around her waist, and her pretty, sunset hair
uncovered. If there is any pleasanter avocation for an old fellow than
driving in an open buggy with a girl like that, I don't know it. She
talked charmingly: about my travels; about her college friends; about
Eastridge; and at last about her disappointment in not going to Europe.
By this time we were nearing the Whitman hospital.
"I suppose you have heard," said she, looking down at her bare hands
and blushing; "perhaps they have told you why I wanted especially to go
away."
"Yes, my dear child," I answered, "they have told me a lot of nonsense,
and I am heartily glad that it is all over. Are you?"
"More glad than I can tell you," she answered, frankly, looking into my
face.
"See," said I, "there is the hospital. I believe there is a boy in
there that knows you--name of Goward."
"Yes," she said, rather faintly, looking down again, but not changing
color.
"Peggy," I asked, "do you still--think now, and answer truly--do you
still HATE him?"
She waited a moment, and then lifted her clear blue eyes to mine. "No,
Uncle Gerrit, I don't hate him half as much as I hate myself. Really, I
don't hate him at all. I'm sorry for him."
"So am I, my dear," said I, stretching my interest in the negligible
youth a little. "But he is getting well, and he is going West as soon
as possible. Look, is that the boy yonder, sitting on the terrace with
a fat lady, probably his mother? Do you feel that you could bow to him,
just to oblige me?"
She flashed a look at me. "I'll do it for that reason, and for another,
too," she said. And then she nodded her red head, in the prettiest way,
and threw in an honest smile and a wave of her hand for good measure. I
was proud of her. The boy stood up and took off his hat. I could see
him blush a hundred feet away. Then his mother evidently asked him a
question, and he turned to answer her, and so EXIT Mr. Goward.
The end of our drive was even pleasanter than the beginning. Peggy was
much interested in a casual remark expressing my pleasure in hearing
that she had recently met the nephew of one of my very old friends,
Stillman Dane.
"Oh," she cried, "do you know HIM? Isn't that lovely?"
I admitted that he was a very good person to know, though I had only
seen a little of him, about six years ago. But his uncle, the one who
lately died and left a snug fortune to his favorite nephew, was one of
my old bachelor cronies, in fact, a member of the firm that published
my books. If the young man resembled his uncle he was all right. Did
Peggy like him?
"Why, yes," she answered. "He was a professor at our college, and all
the girls thought him a perfect dandy!"
"Dandy!" I exclaimed. "There was no sign of an excessive devotion to
dress when I knew him. It's a great pity!"
"Oh!" she cried, laughing, "I don't mean THAT. It is only a word we
girls use; it means the same as when you say, 'A VERY FINE FELLOW
INDEED."'
From that point we played the Stillman Dane tune, with variations,
until we reached home, very late indeed for supper. The domestic
convulsion caused by the formal announcement of Talbert's sudden
decision had passed, leaving visible traces. Maria was flushed, but
triumphant; Alice and Billy had an air of conscience-stricken
importance; Charles Edward and Lorraine were sarcastically submissive;
Cyrus was resolutely jovial; the only really tranquil one was Mrs.
Talbert. Everything had been arranged. The whole family were to go down
to New York on Thursday to stop at a hotel, and see the travellers off
on Saturday morning--all except Peggy, who was to remain at home and
keep house.
"That suits me exactly," said I, "for business calls me to town
to-morrow, but I would like to come back here on Thursday and keep
house with Peggy, if she will let me."
She thanked me with a little smile, and so it was settled. Cyrus wanted
to know, when we were sitting in the arbor that night, if I did not
think he had done right. "Wonderfully," I said. He also wanted to know
if he might not give up that extra state-room and save a couple of
hundred dollars. I told him that he must stick to his bargain--I was
still in the game--and then I narrated the afternoon incident at the
hospital. "Good little Peggy!" he cried. "That clears up one of my
troubles. But the great objection to this European business still
holds. She shall not be driven." I agreed with him--not a single step!
The business that called me to New York was Stillman Dane. A most
intelligent and quick-minded young gentleman--not at all a beauty
man--not even noticeably academic. He was about the middle height, but
very well set up, and evidently in good health of body and mind; a
clean-cut and energetic fellow, who had been matured by doing his work
and had himself well in hand. There was a look in his warm, brown eyes
that spoke of a heart unsullied and capable of the strongest and purest
affection; and at the same time certain lines about his chin and his
mouth, mobile but not loose lipped, promised that he would be able to
take care of himself and of the girl that he loved. His appearance and
his manner were all that I had hoped--even more, for they were not only
pleasant but thoroughly satisfactory.
He was courteous enough to conceal his slight surprise at my visit, but
not skilful enough to disguise his interest in hearing that I had just
come from the Talberts. I told him of the agreement with Cyrus Talbert,
the subsequent conversation with Mrs. Talbert, Peggy's drive with me to
Whitman, and her views upon dandies and other cognate subjects.
Then I explained to him quite clearly what I should conceive my duty to
be if I were in his place. He assented warmly to my view. I added that
if there were any difficulties in his mind I should advise him to lay
the case before my dear friend the Reverend George Alexanderson, of the
Irving Place Church, who was an extraordinarily sensible and human
clergyman, and to whom I would give him a personal letter stating the
facts. Upon this we shook hands heartily, and I went back to Peggy on
Thursday morning.
The house was delightfully quiet, and she was perfection as a hostess.
I never passed a pleasanter afternoon. But the evening was interrupted
by the arrival of Stillman Dane, who said that he had run up to say
good-bye. That seemed quite polite and proper, so I begged them to
excuse me, while I went into the den to write some letters. They were
long letters.
The next morning Peggy was evidently flustered, but divinely radiant.
She said that Mr. Dane had asked her to go driving with him--would that
be all right? I told her that I was sure it was perfectly right, but if
they went far they would find me gone when they returned, for I had
changed my mind and was going down to New York to see the voyagers off.
At this Peggy looked at me with tears sparkling in the edge of her
smile. Then she put her arms around my neck. "Good-bye," she whispered,
"good-bye! YOU'RE A DANDY TOO! Give mother my love--and THAT--and
THAT--and THAT!"
"Well, my dear," I answered, "I rather prefer to keep THOSE for myself.
But I'll give her your message. And mind this--don't you do anything
unless you really want to do it with all your heart. God bless you!
Promise?"
"I promise, WITH ALL MY HEART," said she, and then her soft arms were
unloosed from my neck and she ran up-stairs. That was the last word I
heard from Peggy Talbert.
On Saturday morning all the rest of us were on the deck of the
Chromatic by half-past nine. The usual farewell performance was in
progress. Charles Edward was expressing some irritation and anxiety
over the lateness of Stillman Dane, when that young man quietly emerged
from the music-room, with Peggy beside him in the demurest little
travelling suit with an immense breast-plate of white violets. Tom
Price was the first to recover his voice.
"Peggy!" he cried; "Peggy, by all that's holy!"
"Excuse me," I said, "Mr. and Mrs. Stillman Dane! And I must firmly
request every one except Mr. and Mrs. Talbert, senior, to come with me
at once to see the second steward about the seats in the dining-saloon."
We got a good place at the end of the pier to watch the big boat swing
out into the river. She went very slowly at first, then with
astonishing quickness. Charles Edward and Lorraine were standing on the
hurricane-deck, Peggy close beside them. Dane had given her his
walking-stick, and she had tied her handkerchief to the handle. She was
standing up on a chair, with one of his hands to steady her. Her hat
had slipped back on her head. The last thing that we could distinguish
on the ship was that brave little girl, her red hair like an aureole,
waving her flag of victory and peace. "And now," said Maria, as we
turned away, "I have a lovely plan. We are all going together to our
hotel to have lunch, and after that to the matinee at--"
I knew it was rude to interrupt, but I could not help it.
"Pardon me, dear Maria," I said, "but you have not got it quite right.
You and Tom are going to escort Alice and Billy to Eastridge, with such
diversions by the way as seem to you appropriate. Your father and
mother are going to lunch with me at Delmonico's--but we don't want the
whole family."
