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Page 3
His eyes were a little troubled, as they searched hers. But they
grew light again as they read in her serene glance that she did not
misunderstand him.
"Red," said she--and her hand slipped into his--"I like best to come into
your house, just as it is. Take me in--that's all I ask--and trust me to
make my own home there--and in your heart. That's all I want."
"You're in my heart," said her husband, "so close and warm there's not
much room for anything else."
"Then don't worry about the house. It will be a dear delight to fill the
empty rooms; I've a genius for that sort of thing. Wait and see. And
meanwhile"--she smiled up into his nearing face--"say good-bye to your
bride. She's quite ready to go--and give place to your wife."
So Redfield Pepper Burns kissed his bride, with the ardour of farewell.
But the next minute, safe in the shelter of the deep-hooded top, he had
welcomed his wife with his heart of hearts upon his lips, and a few
low-spoken words in her ear which would make the fiftieth-from-the-office
mile-stone a place to remember for them both.
Then he drove on, silently, for a while, as if the little roadside
ceremony had left behind it thoughts too deep for expression. And, quite
unconsciously, his hand upon the throttle was giving the Imp more and
more power, so that the car flew past the succeeding mile-stones at such
short intervals that before the pair knew it they were within sight of
the city on the farther side of which lay the suburban village which was
their home.
"I might stop at the hospital and see how things are," said Burns as they
entered the city's outskirts. "But it would be precisely my luck to find
something to detain me, and I think I owe it to you to take you home
before I begin on anything else."
"Stop, if you want to, Red," said Ellen. "I expected you would."
"But I don't want to. I might have to send some one else to drive you out
to the house, and that would break me up. I want to see you walk in at
the door, and know that you belong there. Then, if you like, and not till
then, I'll be content to go on duty at the old job."
So he took her home. As they approached the village the ninth April
shower of the afternoon came blustering up, accompanied by a burst of
wind and considerable thunder and lightning, so that when they caught
sight of the low-lying old brick house, well back from the street, which
was Red Pepper Burns's combined home and office, after the fashion of the
village doctor, it was through a wall of rain.
But the house was not the only thing they saw. In the street before
the house stood a row of vehicles. One electric runabout, hooded and
luxurious; two "buggies," of the village type, drawn by single horses
standing dejectedly with drooping ears and tails; one farmer's wagon,
filled with boxes and barrels, its horses hitched to Burns's post by a
rope: this was the assemblage.
Red Pepper drew one long, low whistle of dismay, then he burst into a
laugh. "Confound that blundering angel, Cynthia," he ejaculated. "She's
let it out that we're coming. And Amy Mathewson--my office nurse--not due
till to-morrow, to protect us! I was prepared, in a way, to pitch into
work, but, by George, I didn't expect to see that familiar sight to-day!
Hang it all!"
"Never mind." Ellen was laughing, too. "Remember you've left the bride
behind. Your wife will soon be used to it."
"We'll run in by the Chesters' driveway, and sneak in at the back door,"
and Burns suited the action to the word by turning in at the gateway of
his next door neighbour. "I rather wonder Win or Martha didn't go over
and drive away my too-eager clientele."
"Possibly they thought it would look more like home to you with an office
full of patients."
"It certainly will, though I could dispense with them to-night without
much sorrow. But--where am I going to put you? You can get to my room,
but you won't want to stay there. The part of the house that will be
the living part for you is either empty or cluttered up with wedding
presents. By all that's crazy, Ellen, I'm just waking up to the fact
that there isn't any place to put you, when there are patients in the
house--which there ever-lastingly are--except the dining-room and
kitchen! Lord Harry! what am I going to do? And what will you think
of me? Dolt that I am!"
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