|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 40
Up to this moment she had been thinking that it could not be possible
for any one to have a happier Christmas than she was having. A dozen
times she had smoothed the soft fur of her boa with a caressing hand,
and slipped back her glove to delight her eyes with the sight of her
bloodstone ring, while her thoughts ran on ahead to the house-party
towards which they were speeding. But the old lady's words had opened up
a vista that set her to day-dreaming.
If by the road or by the hill or by the far seaway "he" should really
come, some day, then of course the Christmases they would spend together
would be happier than this. Jack had always said that she would have her
"innings" when she was a grandmother. All her life Mary had been
dreaming romances about other people, now in a vague sweet way those
dreams began to centre around herself.
It was almost dark when they left the train. Phil was at the station to
meet them with a sleigh and a team of spirited black horses.
"Oh, sleighbells!" sighed Joyce, ecstatically, as she climbed into the
back seat beside Betty. "I haven't been behind any since I left
Plainsville. I wish we had forty miles to go. Nothing makes me feel so
larky as the sound of sleighbells."
Phil glanced back over his shoulder. "It is a bare mile and a half to
the house, but I told Eugenia I'd bring you home the roundabout way to
make the drive longer, if you all were not cold. What do you say?"
"The long way by all means!" cried Joyce and Betty in the same breath.
Phil laughed. "The ayes have it. Even Mary's eyes, although she doesn't
say anything," he added, seeing the beaming smile that crossed her face
at the prospect of a longer drive. "They are shining like two stars," he
went on mischievously, amused to see the colour flame up into her
cheeks, and noticing how becoming it was. Then his mettlesome horses
claimed his attention for awhile.
Later, as he looked back from time to time, in conversation with the
older girls, his glance rested on Mary, sitting beside him as contented
and happy as a kitten in those becoming furs, and he thought with
satisfaction that the little Vicar was growing up to be a very pretty
girl after all. Her eyes were positively starry under her long, curling
lashes.
That Eugenia regarded their coming as a great event, they felt from the
moment the sleigh drew up to the house. From every window streamed a
welcoming light, and the front door, flung open at their approach,
showed that the wide reception hall had been transformed into a bower of
Christmas greens. Eugenia, radiant in her most becoming dinner gown of
holly red, came running down the steps to meet them.
Ever since she had been established as mistress of this beautiful
country place, she had longed for them to visit her. Guests she had in
plenty, for young Doctor Tremont and his wife were noted for their
lavish hospitality, but the welcome accorded her new friends and
neighbours was nothing to the one reserved for these old friends of her
girlhood. She wanted them to see for themselves that she had made no
mistake in her weaving, and that marriage had indeed brought her the
"diamond leaf" that Abdallah found only in Paradise.
"Patricia had just dropped asleep," she told them as she led the way up
stairs. Not that it was the proper time, but she was always doing
unexpected things. That very day she had surprised them with four new
words which they had not dreamed she could say. Eliot had orders to
bring her in the moment that she awakened, so they could soon see the
most remarkable child in the world. Yes, Eliot was still with her, good
old Eliot. She intended to keep her always. Not as a maid, however. She
had earned the position of guardian angel to Patricia by all her years
of devoted service, and she played her part to perfection.
While the girls opened their suit-cases and changed their dresses to
costumes more suitable for evening, Eugenia stood in the door between
the two rooms, turning first one way and then the other to answer the
questions rapidly propounded. Mary, thankful that her white pongee had
not wrinkled, divided her attention between the donning of that, and the
information that Eugenia was imparting.
She had named the baby for Stuart's great-aunt Patricia, who for so many
years had been like a mother to the boys and Elsie. She felt that she
owed the dear, prim old lady that much as a sort of reparation for all
she had suffered at the hands of the boys whom she had loved so dearly
in spite of her inability to understand them. Father Tremont had been so
touched and pleased when she proposed it. No, he could not be with them
this Christmas. He had taken Elsie to the south of France. She was not
very strong. Yes, Phil approved of her choice of names, but he said just
as soon as she was old enough he intended to buy her a monkey and name
it Dago, so that there would be one Patricia who was not afraid of such
a pet.[1]
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|