CHAPTER XIV
It was a dismal rainy afternoon, and the work of the day having beenfinished early the girls were ensconced in their little sitting-roomreveling in a well-earned rest. By the way of unusual dissipation ateakettle was hissing on the table, while the freshly filled sugar bowland bits of lemon told of preparations for the cup that cheers.Stretched out at full length on the floor lay Hester in her favoriteattitude. At her feet sprawled Peter Snooks, chewing frantically at apiece of rubber tire which was at once his solace and despair, defyingas it did his most strenuous efforts to tear it to bits. Julie, who haddonned a neglige and shaken the pins out of her curly hair, was buriedin a book, yet with one ear alert lest her father in the adjoining roomshould stir and want something. Bridget, remarkable to relate, had takenan afternoon out.
Presently Julie dropped her book and curling herself into the depths ofthe chair was dozing off when Hester said abruptly, "There's a strangercoming!"
Julie started up and gazed about as if expecting some one to loom upbefore her.
"There is," reiterated Hester.
"Is what?" sleepily.
"A stranger coming."
"How do you know?"
"My nose itches," announced the younger Dale, rubbing the tip of thatsaucy feature.
"Nonsense! That's an old granny's reason."
"Can't help it if it is. There is only one alternative and that is tokiss a fool. You would not exactly class yourself in that category,would you?" turning on her elbow to look at her sister. "Of course ifyou insist--" and Hester leaned toward her.
Julie gave her a push. "You idiot! go kiss yourself in a mirror." Butthe doorbell rang.
Julie bounced from her chair and fled down the hall. Hester stifled herdesire to laugh and opened the door on a tall, well-built man who staredas he beheld her.
"Why--this is Mr. Renshawe, is it not?" the girl said with perfectcomposure though inwardly amazed at seeing him. "Won't you come in?"
"How do you do--thanks--I--that is--" he stammered helplessly.
"You wish to see my sister, of course," ushering him in. "We did notmeet the other night at Mrs. Lennox's, did we? but you see I heard aboutyou afterward. I'll go and call my sister."
"Oh! no, don't, please, I beg of you. I must apologize for thisimpertinent intrusion--I've made some abominable mistake!" In the handin which he was nervously twisting his hat, Hester caught a glimpse ofone of their business cards and in a flash the whole purport of hisvisit was made clear to her.
"I do not think it is a mistake," she said naturally. "I imagine youhave come to see us on business, have you not? Won't you sit down, Mr.Renshawe?"
"Oh, may I? Thanks. Do you do business?" he gasped incredulously,glancing from the piquant girl about the pretty room where no suggestionof anything like work was visible.
"Yes," replied Hester, "all kinds of fancy cooking. Possibly you've seenour cards," she suggested in a desire to help him out.
He produced the one in his hand with the air of a guilty culprit. "Yes,I have," he confessed. "It was given me this afternoon by the manager ofHeath & Co. He knows I give a good many bachelor parties in my chambersand recommended these things. But Miss Dale," he protested, "I had noidea it was you and your sister--it never occurred to me."
"Why should it?" asked Hester, "but it is, just the same, and we shallbe very glad to fill your order." She went to a desk and brought forth apad and pencil in a business-like manner.
He sat watching her with a puzzled, utterly perplexed expression drawinghis eye-brows together. Suddenly as she returned to her chair oppositehim he cried,
"By Jove! I know now, exactly--that's just who you are!" looking intoher face with evident relief.
Hester wanted to laugh and say "Is it?" to this ambiguous remark buthaving assumed her formal business manner she maintained a discreetsilence and waited for him to explain.
"You are little Miss Driscoe's cousin!" he announced.
"Are you the Radnor man who has been visiting at the Blake'splantation?" cried Hester impulsively, forgetting in her excitement thathe was to be kept on a strictly business footing.
"I shouldn't wonder," was his smiling reply. "I've been there severaltimes this past winter; in fact I came up from there only last week."
"Oh! did you? Long ago Nannie wrote us that there had been a Radnor manat her birthday party but she quite forgot to mention his name. Oh! Iwish Julie had known this the other night! She would have loved a chanceto ask you all about the Driscoes. Isn't Nannie the dearest littlething?"
"If I hadn't been a duffer, Miss Dale, I might have placed your sisterimmediately when I met her, for I have had the minutest descriptions ofyou both, I assure you. There was something very baffling about her thatnight, as if I must have known her or at least seen her beforesomewhere, but--"
"But you did not expect to see us in society, perhaps?"
He glanced at her as if the better to understand if her tone werecynical, but her bland little smile told him nothing and before he couldmake any reply she said:
"I am afraid we have strayed too far from important things, Mr.Renshawe. It is shocking of me to encroach upon your time. Is thereanything we can do for you in a business way?" She told Julie afterwardshe was quite proud of this little speech, for she had been consumedwith a desire to ask him a thousand questions about the Driscoes.
Renshawe interpreted it to mean that the chat was at an end and hefeared that in some clumsy way he had offended her, but she steered himinto a discussion of the order he had come to leave with such a calmmatter-of-fact air that he found himself consulting her about salads andcakes with an ease he would not have believed possible when he enteredthe room. He had never been brought into business relations with a younggirl of her position and he admired exceedingly her manner. The orderhaving been arranged quite to his satisfaction he dismissed the subjectand made up his mind to have his say in spite of the cue Hester hadgiven him. So as he rose to leave he said:
"I hope you will forgive me, Miss Dale, if I tell you I feel quite as ifI knew you and your sister and I am immensely glad to meet you. You seethe Blakes took me frequently to Wavertree Hall and Miss Nannie spoke ofyou so often; she--"
"Dear little Nan," the girl said musingly, "how I should love to seeher!"
The man looked as if he would like to echo that sentiment, but he onlysaid as he moved toward the door:
"Will you be very kind, Miss Dale, and let Mrs. Lennox bring me sometime to see you and your sister? I have so many messages from Virginia,for Miss Nannie was confident I should meet you and you see she wasright."
"Indeed you may come," said Hester frankly, "we--we do not receive manyvisitors, but I know Julie will be glad to see you--I shall too,"genuinely, and not as if politeness prompted this after-thought.
"Thank you. For the next few weeks I am owned body and soul," smiling,"by Jules Gremond who is stopping with me. Perhaps you know of him, MissDale? He's made considerable of a stir since he came out of Africa. Anold chum of mine whom I think you might enjoy meeting--perhaps afterawhile you will allow me to arrange it."
Hester always says she acted like a fool at this juncture and stammeredout some unintelligible reply, and that he immediately departed, shethinks without any special consciousness of her idiocy--or at least shehopes so, for she frankly confesses she was in no state of mind to know.However that may be, the door had no sooner closed after him than thedignified junior Dale, caterer, became metamorphosed into an excitedyoung girl who flew down the hall to the room where her sister had takenrefuge.
"Come back to the sitting-room where we can talk without waking Daddy,quick!" she cried, pulling Julie down the hall. "Now what do yousuppose?" when they had reached the little room.
"Some one has left an extra fine order," seeing several pieces of paperclutched nervously in Hester's hand.
"Don't be so everlastingly material!" pinning the papers with a viciousstab to the back of the chair. "It has nothing to do with work,whatever--that is not e
xactly. Oh! do guess who has been here--and who_is_ here?"
"Hester, are you hiding some one to surprise me?" looking eagerly about."I know it is a man--I heard him. It can't be Dr. Ware; it wasn't hisstep. It's--it's--oh! Hester Dale, is it cousin Driscoe?"
"You're getting hot," cried Hester encouragingly, reveling in hersister's excited curiosity.
"Tell me this minute," demanded Julie, shaking her. "What other manwould be coming here?"
"Well, there _are_ others," laughed Hester, teasingly. "Mr. Renshawe,for instance."
"No!"
"Honor bright! And who do you suppose he is?" mysteriously.
"Don't be so tantalizing! What on earth do I know about him?"wrathfully.
"Well, you ought to. He hung around you the whole evening at Mrs.Lennox's, you know he did. I simply wasn't in it. I don't believe heeven knew I was there!"
"You idiot! I had no personal talk with him whatever. As for you, youflirted shockingly with Mr. Landor. I was astonished at you!" severely.
"I _was_ nice to him, wasn't I?" admitted Hester, "but that was all forJessie Davis' benefit."
"So I thought, you depraved wretch! Will you kindly tell me what allthis has to do with your present excitement?"
Hester sat on the edge of her chair and delivered her next speech initalics.
"Mr. Renshawe is the man who went to Nannie's party and got the ring inher birthday cake!"
"Not really!"
"And he came here not knowing who we really were, because the manager atHeath's gave him one of our cards and recommended us as caterers. Youought to have seen him, Julie! He was embarrassed almost to death and Ifelt flustered myself, to say the least, but we managed to get throughthe business part nicely and then at the end he just floored me!"
"Hester!" Words other than ejaculations seemed to have failed Julie.
The younger girl came over and stood in front of her to get the fulleffect of her next speech, the most important piece of news, which shehad had hard work to keep until the last.
"Jules Gremond is in this country, staying with Mr. Renshawe now," shesaid.
Julie was rendered wholly inarticulate, but the color spread in acrimson wave over her face and she made a grab at her sister, pullingher down beside her.
"You are guying me!" she cried when she could speak.
"It is the solemn truth; 'cross my heart, hope to die,'" maintainedHester dramatically. "Moreover the things Mr. Renshawe has ordered arefor a tea he is giving for Monsieur Gremond to-morrow and the Fatesdecree that we shall tickle the palate of the distinguished Africanexplorer with sandwiches and things! Oh! Julie, what a funny world!"
"How do you know he is distinguished?" asked Julie, clasping her handsbehind her head that her nervous fingers might not betray her.
"Because I do. Mr. Renshawe as much as said so. I wouldn't have believedhe had it in him, would you?"
"I don't know; we really hardly knew him well enough to judge."
"Umph! I don't know about that. What do you suppose he is doing here,Julie? Do you think he'll look us up?" hesitatingly.
"Of course not," with more asperity than the innocent questions seemedto justify. "He will never dream of our being in Radnor. You know we hadbeen some weeks at the hotel in Los Angeles when he came, and for all heknew we might have been going to spend the rest of our days there.Probably he has ceased to remember that we exist--a man would find his_affaires du coeur_ rather clumsy baggage in the wilds of Africa!"
"If he carried them all, yes. One or two might be consoling," suggestedHester airily.
"Oh! bother Jules Gremond! I don't want to think of him! He belongs to alife that is past!"
"Well, it is queer, anyway," insisted Hester, "and I want to scream withlaughter when I think of a divinity like you--didn't he call you adivinity, Julie?--coming down from your pedestal to cater for his serenehighness, the one and only Jules Gremond!"
There was something so inimitable about Hester's manner coupled with thegraphic picture she drew that Julie went off into a paroxysm of laughterthat ended in hysterical sobbing which Hester put an end to by shakingher vigorously.
"You are so funny," said Julie faintly, wiping her eyes. "You are almostas funny as the situation!" and then she buried her face in Hester's armand laughed again.
"Shut up!" said Hester with more force than elegance for she was gettingfrightened at Julie's unusual behavior. "Stop this minute or you'll goall to pieces and besides, I've an awful confession to make!"
"Oh! not anything more," protested Julie, leaning back exhausted. "Mydear, don't! Another shock will certainly be the death of me!"piteously.
"Well I'll die if I don't get it off my conscience, so there you are!"cried Hester, thumping down in Julie's lap and beginning to finger thehair that strayed in little curls about her temples.
"Go on," resignedly from Julie.
"Playing with your hair? I know you love to have me do it so you neednot put on such a martyred air."
"Go on with your confession, you goose!"
"Well, I told Mr. Renshawe he might come to call on us. You see he askedif we would let Mrs. Lennox bring him and he was so nice I couldn'trefuse."
An amused smile crept into Julie's eyes. "I thought we had nothing incommon with men whatever--that they did not fit into the present schemeof things--that we had no use for them in the life we live! _Wasn't_ itsome such explosive theory you expounded to me ages ago?" she askedteasingly.
"It is true, you know it is," pulling Julie's curls to emphasize herwords, "but I did it for Nannie's sake. I know he is just dying to comehere and talk about her."
"You mean you are just dying to have him! So am I, for the matter ofthat. Won't it be nice to hear all about them?"
"Do you know something?" said Hester who had a trick of beginning aspeech with a question, "I believe he is in love with her!"
"What gave you that idea, you precocious infant?"
"Oh! nothing special, only the way he looked when her name was mentionedand his wanting to come here to talk about her--there is no otherpossible reason why he should want to come--and he got the ring in hercake you know. Wouldn't it be romantic if she married him?"
"Hester Dale! The way you allow your imagination to run riot issomething perfectly fearful! You put one and one together and make athousand things! I never saw such a girl!"
"You are not cross, are you, Julie? You don't think I did wrong to sayhe might come?"
"Of course not, you baby, I think you did perfectly right. Now go andmake me a cup of tea if the kettle has not boiled dry. We need a braceafter all this excitement."
Hester busied herself with the tea things and Julie sat staring at her,wrapt in thought. If Hester was conscious of this preoccupation she gaveno sign, but hummed a gay tune and talked to Peter Snooks, who came andsat pressed close to her knees in true dog fashion.
"Do you know, Peter Snooks," she said speculatively, "we have one veryimportant feature in common--our noses." At this he thrust his up in herlap. "Yes," she continued, patting him, "we have. Yours denotes yourstate of health--mine the arrival of a stranger within our gates. Acertain proud and haughty person jeers at mine but you know how it is,don't you, old man?"
The dog pawed her lap by way of showing that he understood perfectly andwith his big eloquent eyes fixed on the sugar bowl, thrust out histongue suggestively.
"What! is that sensitive too! Oh! you scalawag!" and she tossed him alump of sugar.
This conversation had stolen in through Julie's reverie and she pulledup her chair and leaned over to her sister as she took her cup of tea.
"I dare say I did jeer at that saucy nose of yours," she began, "but intoken of my future awe and respect I am going to kiss it now," suitingthe action to the words. "It may be a precaution against its owner'skissing me as an alternative in the next emergency! Peter Snooks, I callupon you to witness that I hereto set my seal," with another kiss,"having at this moment solemnly declared that I consider the aforesaidfeature infallible.
"