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Page 97
"My dear, if there's anything in the world I can lend you, will you let
me do it? I have a few quite pretty things with me, and I'd love to give
them to you."
Lifting a flushed, smiling face Charlotte answered: "That's dear of you,
but I think I have enough--of the things that really matter. I've only
this one travelling dress, but as we shall go straight to New York I can
soon have the frock or two I need. It's so fortunate I brought a trunk at
all. When I came away I was so uncertain just what would happen next, or
how long I might want to stop on the way back, that I put in all the
white things I had there."
"And beautiful white things they are, too, if that is a sample," said
Martha, noting with feminine interest a dainty garment in Charlotte's
hands. "You're lucky to have them."
"My mother left stores and stores of such things, and I've been making
them into modern ones ever since. They are my one luxury," and Charlotte
laid the delicate article of embroidered linen and lace in its place with
a loving little pat, as if she were touching the mother to whom it had
belonged. "Otherwise I'm pretty shabby. Yet, I can't seem to mind much."
"You don't look shabby. You look much trimmer and prettier in that suit
and hat than I in mine, though mine were new this fall. If you knew how
I envy you that look you would be quite satisfied with your old clothes,"
said Martha, generously. "And as for the husband you are getting--well--I
suppose you know you're in the greatest sort of good fortune. All the way
down here I've been watching him--Jim says I haven't done anything
else--and I certainly never saw a man who seemed so always to know how
and when to do the right thing. If ever there was a gentleman, born and
bred, Dr. Leaver is certainly that one. And he's a man, too--a splendid
one."
"I'm so glad you recognize that," said Charlotte, a joyous ring in her
voice.
Ten o'clock, the hour set for the marriage, came on flying feet. Before
Charlotte could fairly realize it she was walking down the street of the
small Southern village to the little old church which Mrs. Rodney
Rutherford Chase had attended as a girl. The old rector who met them
there had been a life-long friend of the Chase family. Then, in a sort
of strange dream, Charlotte found herself standing by John Leaver's side,
listening to the familiar yet quite new and strange words of the marriage
service. She heard his voice, gravely repeating the solemn vows, her own,
following them with the vows which correspond, then the old rector's deep
tones announcing that they two were one in the sight of God and man.
She felt her husband's kiss upon her lips, and, turning, lifted her
tear-wet, shining eyes to his. At that moment they two might have been
alone in the world for all their consciousness of any other presence.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE COUNTRY SURGEON
Redfield Pepper Burns and Mrs. Burns returned from their stay in Germany
just three months later than they had intended. The opportunities for
extended study and observation had proved so tempting to the surgeon who
had taken only a fortnight's vacation in several years that he had
decided to make the most of them. The pair had been kept fully informed
of the progress of events, had wept tears of gentle grief over the news
of Granny's sudden passing, and had smiled with satisfaction over that
which shortly followed it--the news of the marriage which had immediately
taken place.
Charlotte had written to her friend a brief description, which--Ellen
reading it aloud to her husband--had called forth his sparkling-eyed
comment:
"It's rather refreshing to find a woman who doesn't make clothes the most
important part of the ceremony, isn't it? No doubt at all but Jack's
found the right woman, eh?"
"No doubt in the world," and Ellen's eyes silently went over the few
paragraphs again, reading between the lines, as a woman will, and as
Charlotte had known she would.
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