CHAPTER IX.--JIMMY.
"Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just 'phoned over that her hated R. F. D.Woodsmall is bringing you a letter from your father. She says she couldonly make out it was from him, but could not decipher anything else. Shehas an idea he is on his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed onthe train somewhere in Kansas. Isn't she too funny? She makes some ofthe neighbors furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.After all, it is perfectly harmless. She really is as kind a little soulas there is in the county. Her life has been so narrow. If she couldhave been a real worker in a big city she might have grown into a veryremarkable person. What a detective she would have made!"
Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly came in bearing a tray oflunch for her tired friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered some time that day ifBud Woodsmall's automobile behaved.
"Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one of the crowd to be up anddoing after last night?"
"I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and get a good rest. The boystook a late train into town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. AuntMary said she came down early this morning and 'phoned over to AuntClay's coachman to come for her immediately, and off she went withoutsaying 'boo to a goose.' I wish you could have heard Aunt Mary'sdescription of her!
"'Yo' Aunt Clay's comp'ny sho ain't no wet weather beauty. Her ha'r wasso flat her haid looked jes' like a buckeye; and her dress 'min' me of alas' year's crow's nes'. She was so shamefaced like she resem'led thatole peacock when Shep done pull out his tail.'"
Judy laughed. "Oh, I do love Aunt Mary! But, Molly, won't it be fine tosee mamma and papa? Do you suppose they are really on their way?"
"It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty sad to have themtake off my Judy. I am mighty afraid that is what they are going to do.Go back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter as soon as Budputs in his appearance. I am going to have a hard game of tennis withJimmy Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers. Weren't thosegirls spunky last night? An experience like that will make you knowpeople better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor Green hasstruck up quite an acquaintance with Miss Ormsby. It seems they havemany mutual friends, both of them having summered many times at'Sconset.'"
Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight tremor of lip and adeepening of color that the sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing wouldhave made her let Molly know that she had betrayed herself in the least.
"Molly was perfectly unconscious of what she was doing last night,"thought Judy, "but all the same she was making poor Professor Green liveup to his name with jealousy. I don't know but it might make Molly openher childlike old eyes if the patient professor should kick up his staidheels and jump the fence and go grazing in another paddock for a while."And then aloud she said, "All right, honey, I'll take forty winks andthen get up and come down to the tennis court."
Mr. Kean's letter arrived in due time and, sure enough, Mrs. Woodsmall'ssurmises were correct. He was on the way to Kentucky with Mrs. Kean, andexpected to be in Louisville the next day at a hotel, and would motorout to Chatsworth in the afternoon.
"Your father and mother must not think of stopping at a hotel, Judy,"declared Mrs. Brown. "We have an abundance of room. Miss Rogers and MissOrmsby are going in town after supper to-night with Ernest and ProfessorGreen. Mr. Lufton expects to go back to Lexington to-morrow, andProfessor Green is only waiting for some mail and will take hisdeparture, too. We shall be forlorn, indeed, when all of them go. I'llmake Kent look up what train Mr. Kean will come in on and he will meetit and send them both right out here."
"Oh, Mrs. Brown, you are so good. I would love for mamma and papa to behere and to know all of you and have you know them. They are aswonderful in their way as you are in yours, and your meeting would be agrand combination."
Molly rather dreaded the coming of evening. She had promised Jimmy totake a walk with him by moonlight, and she had a terrible feeling thathe might bring up the subject of "lemons" again. She was not preparedfor the question that she felt almost sure he was going to ask her.
"I am nothing but a kid, after all," moaned Molly to herself. "ProfessorGreen was right in calling me 'dear child.' Mother was married when shewas my age, but somehow I can't seem to grow up. Jimmy is so nice, and Ido like him so much, but as for spending the rest of my life withhim--oh, I just simply can't contemplate it. Why, why doesn't he see howit is without having to talk it over? I wish none of them would ever getsentimental over me." And then she blushed and told herself that she wasa big story teller and sentimentality from some one who should benameless would not be so trying, after all.
Supper was over, Professor Green and Ernest had gone gaily off, drivingMiss Rogers and Miss Ormsby to Louisville, Judy and Kent were making along-talked-of duty call on Aunt Clay, "just to show Miss Hunt there isno hard feeling," laughed Judy. And now it was time to take the promisedwalk with Jimmy Lufton.
"You look a little tired, Miss Molly. Maybe you would rather not go. Youmust not let me bore you," said Jimmy, a little wistfully.
"Oh, no, I'm all right. I fancy it will take all of us a few days to getover last night. I have wanted to tell you how fine you were and what itmeant to all of us to have you so cheerful and tactful. The boys can'tsay enough in your praise. We had to have some safety valve, and if wehad not been laughing we might have been crying."
"Oh, I'm a cheerful idiot, all right, all right. I have such a shortupper lip and such an eternal grin on me that no one ever seems to thinkI have any feelings. I get no more sympathy than a fat man. I wish Icould make people understand that I am as serious as the next, butsomehow me Irish grandmither comes popping out in me and I have to jokeif I am to die the next minute."
"I think your disposition is most enviable," said Molly kindly, "and, asfor the dash of Irish, I always think that is what makes our mother socharming. It was almost a fad with our professor of English at collegeto find the Irish mother or grandmother for almost all of the greatpoets or essayists." Molly could not quite trust herself to sayProfessor Green's name, the picture of the seemingly ecstatic Edwindriving off with Miss Ormsby was too fresh in her mind, and she couldnot help smiling at herself for her formal "our professor of English."
Their footsteps led them into the garden and then through the appleorchard down by the little stream, and on to the beech woods.
"I wonder why we are coming this way," thought Molly, trying to keep hermind off another walk she had taken over that same ground not so longago.
"Let's sit down here," said Jimmy, stopping under the great beech treewhere Molly and Edwin had sat on that memorable day when he had spokenof his vision of the white-haired Molly, and then had stopped himself sosuddenly with a joke about his own possible baldness.
"Oh, not right here," said Molly hurriedly. "I know a nice rock a littlefarther on."
"Molly, Miss Molly, Miss Brown!----Oh, Molly, darling, there is no use ingoing any farther because I know you know that I have brought you outhere to tell you that I----"
"Jimmy, please don't say anything more. It 'most kills me to hurt you."
"Is there no hope for me? I'll wait a week, oh, I don't mean a week,I'll wait forever if there is a chance for me. I know this is a lowquestion to ask you, but is there any one else?"
Honest Molly hung her head. "Not exactly."
That "not exactly" was enough for Jimmy. He smiled a wan little smilethat would have put his Irish grandmother to shame.
"Well, don't you mind, Miss Molly. I wouldn't have you feel blue aboutme for a million. You never did lead me on one little bit, and I wasalmost sure when I came to Kentucky that there would be nothing doingfor yours truly; but somehow men are made so they have to make sureabout such things. You and I have too much sense of the ridiculous to doany spiel about the brother and sister business, but I'll tell you onething, I am your friend forever, and you must know that, and understandthat as long as I live I'll hold myself in readine
ss to do yourbidding."
"Oh, Jimmy, you are so good and generous," holding out her hand to him,"I am your friend forever, and I hope we shall always see a lot of eachother."
Jimmy took her hand and for a moment bowed his curly black head over it.Molly put her other hand on his head, feeling somehow that it was likecomforting Kent.
"You are sure, Molly?"
"Yes, Jimmy."
"Well, le's go home. I know you are tired.
"'If no one ever marries me I sha'n't mind very much; I shall buy a squirrel in a cage, And a little rabbit-hutch,'"
sang the irrepressible.
When Judy got back to Chatsworth she found Molly weeping her soul out onthe pillow, and she had noticed as they passed the office porch that foronce Jimmy Lufton was whistling in the minor.