CHAPTER VIII
"To-night!" Rebecca Mary swung around to look at her. It was almostmidnight, time to go nowhere but to bed, but Granny was not dressed forbed. What on earth did she mean?
"I promised Mrs. Swenson I'd come and see Otillie's things," Grannyspoke almost fretfully. "I know what time it is, Rebecca Mary, but if wedon't go before old Peter Simmons comes we'll never leave. He'll want usto stay at home until he can go with us, and he can never go. He'salways too busy."
Rebecca Mary's eyes opened wider. She didn't understand why Grannyshould want to leave for Seven Pines in almost the middle of the nightif old Peter Simmons was coming home. Rebecca Mary did not know oldPeter Simmons, she did not know very much about him except that he wasthe head of a big manufacturing plant and that he was to have a goldenwedding on the twenty-second of July. Granny had always spoken as if sheadored her husband. It seemed strange for her to leave for Seven Pinesif he was coming home.
"Just put a few things in a suit case," ordered Granny. "We shan't beaway more than a couple of days."
Rebecca Mary only stared harder. There was an expression on Granny'sface which she did not understand.
"We'll go to Seven Pines to-night for several reasons," went on Grannyimpatiently. "First because I want to go to Seven Pines before my goldenwedding for a special reason, and I promised to take you and Joan there,and because Otillie Swenson wants us to see her wedding things. If wedon't go before old Peter Simmons comes we won't go at all, as I said.When he is in Waloo he wants me to be in Waloo. I can gad as much and asfar as I please when he's away but when he is in town I must be home. Iknow very well the way he'll stamp in here and say: 'Hello, Kitty! Howare you?' and kiss me and go to bed and sleep like a log until seven inthe morning and then he'll eat his breakfast and go to the factory and Ishan't see him until dinner time. I might as well be at Seven Pines. Andthen--I suppose you'll think I'm crazy, Rebecca Mary, but I never wassaner in my life. You would understand perfectly if you had been marriedto old Peter Simmons for almost fifty years." The twinkle died out ofher eyes as she spoke of those fifty years, and she borrowed a frownfrom Rebecca Mary.
Rebecca Mary caught her breath and wondered if there could be anytrouble between Granny and old Peter Simmons. Granny had always talkedso proudly of her husband and what he had done to help win the war,quite as proudly as she talked of young Peter.
"Oh!" was all she could say, but Granny seemed dissatisfied with thatstartled exclamation.
"Read that!" She thrust the crumpled telegram into Rebecca Mary's hand.
"'Will be home on the 11.55 what do you want for the jubilee?'"
Even after she had read the telegram and mechanically divided it intotwo sentences, Rebecca Mary did not seem able to understand.
Granny took the message from her and read it aloud with an indignantsnort.
"You see?" She looked at Rebecca Mary as if she defied her to say thatthe situation was not spread out before her as clearly as the greenvegetables at the grocer's. "'What do you want for the jubilee?'" sheread scornfully. "If that isn't just like old Peter Simmons! For almostfifty years, Rebecca Mary, I've told that man what I wanted foranniversary and birthday and Christmas presents. I've even had to tellhim when the anniversaries and the birthdays were. Never once has oldPeter Simmons remembered them for himself. He has never brought me apresent without first asking me what I wanted. He can't even rememberwhether I like white meat or dark when we have chicken for dinner. Heasks me every single time just as if it were the first time. And I'mtired of doing his thinking for him. He knows very well what I want.We've talked of it often enough. But I feel in my bones that if I seehim to-night and he asks me what I want for my golden wedding I'll saysomething that will make trouble. And I don't want any trouble that willinterfere with my golden wedding. I've earned that, and I'm going tohave it. I'm not going to take any chance of an argument to-night. Andthe safest way to avoid an argument is to run away from it. We'll go Outto Seven Pines and look at Otillie Swenson's wedding clothes and then Imay feel different. Put on your hat, Rebecca Mary. I know Peter does alot of this only to tease me, but I don't feel like being teased now.Isn't there something else you should take with you?" she asked, and shelooked vaguely around the room when at last Rebecca Mary was hatted andpacked.
Rebecca Mary stopped feeling anxious and giggled. It did seem so absurdfor her to run away with Granny from old Mr. Simmons' frantic question.She could visualize just how frantic old Mr. Simmons was, and she feltsorry for him. At the same time she didn't blame Granny. It wasirritating to be asked continually what you wanted a person to give you.Rebecca Mary's mother was something like old Peter Simmons. For weeksbefore Christmas she wrote and asked Rebecca Mary what she wanted whenall the time she knew that Rebecca Mary would have to take what sheneeded.
"Isn't there something else you should take?" Granny asked helplessly asRebecca Mary put her in her motor coat and straightened her hat.
"There's Joan?" suggested Rebecca Mary, trying to keep her face frombreaking into the little holes Joan liked.
"Of course." Granny pulled herself away before Rebecca Mary could buttonher coat. "We can't leave Joan until we find her father. You call her,while I explain to Pierson."
Joan was an interrogation point when she was wakened and told that shewas to go to Seven Pines at once. She caught the picture of her fatherand mother from the table but Rebecca Mary was glad to see that she leftthe potato masher where it was.
"I don't care as much for it as I did," Joan confessed, a little ashamedof her fickleness. "But I just have to take the picture and the clock,too."
"Aren't you ready?" called Granny. "It's half past now." And as if toprove that she was right Grandfather clock in the hall boomed the halfhour. It sounded very solemn, and Joan slipped her free hand intoRebecca Mary's hand. "It is fortunate you have learned to drive the car,Rebecca Mary," Granny said as they went down the stairs. "Karl left thismorning, you know, and the new man isn't to come until to-morrow. We'lltake the small car, the five passenger. You can drive it, can't you?"she stopped on the last step to ask.
"I hope so." That was as much as Rebecca Mary could promise for it wasone thing to drive a car over a smooth boulevard in broad daylight andwith a helping hand at her elbow, and a vastly different thing to drivea car over an unknown country road in the moonlight and without ahelping hand. Rebecca Mary was really scared to pieces, but Granny wasso confident that Rebecca Mary didn't like to confess how scared shewas.
She looked to see that there were gasoline and water for Richard hadtold her never to take out a car without seeing that it had plenty offood and drink. "You'll save yourself a lot of trouble in the end," hehad promised, and, goodness knows, Rebecca Mary didn't want any trouble.
"You're taking a lot of time," fretted Granny from the tonneau where shesat with Joan. "And we haven't a minute to waste. It's a quarter totwelve now. If old Peter Simmons finds us in this garage we'll never seeOtillie Swenson's wedding things."
"I'm ready now." Rebecca Mary wiped her hands on a piece of waste andslipped in behind the wheel.
They had to stop at the house for Pierson was waving a small basket.
"I put up a few sandwiches for you, Mrs. Simmons." She was breathlessfrom the haste she had made. "You'll be hungry before you get to SevenPines."
"That's very thoughtful of you, Pierson," commended Granny as Piersonput the basket on the seat beside Rebecca Mary. "Now, remember, you arenot to tell Mr. Simmons when we went. Just say that I am on a motor tripwith a couple of young friends. And don't tell him we are at SevenPines. If he doesn't know where I am he can't keep asking me irritatingquestions. Now, my dear, straight ahead until you come to the end of theboulevard. Yes, Joan, it is very wrong to run away from home in themiddle of the night and you are never to do it until you are sixty-eightyears old and not then unless your husband will annoy you by asking whatyou want for a golden wedding present."
"I won't, Granny." Joan promised solemnly, although she knew that
shewould never live to be sixty-eight. Why, it would take years and yearsand years. But it was enough to make a little girl feel solemn to bewakened in the middle of the night and told to get up and run away froma question. No wonder Joan shivered. "And I know why you are runningaway," she went on eagerly. "It isn't from any question, is it? It's tofind the young heart you are always talking about. I'm going to look formy father. Why are you going, Miss Wyman?" she leaned forward to ask.
Alone on the front seat Rebecca Mary laughed. "I reckon I'll find apayment on my memory insurance," she said, and over her shoulder shetold Granny of the policy which Cousin Susan had persuaded her to takeout and which was to be payable at any time during her old age. AndGranny, who had reached her old age, thought that it was a mostwonderful and business-like arrangement.
"Your Cousin Susan is exactly right. Young people begin all theirthoughts with 'I shall,' but old people think 'I did' or 'I had.'"
"I'm young then," Joan announced with much satisfaction, "for I alwaysthink I shall."
"So do I!" Rebecca Mary was quite astonished to find that she did. "Howfar is it to Seven Pines, Mrs. Simmons?"
"Sixty-three miles from our front steps. Listen--is that the train? Ireckon we are safe now." And she leaned back with a sigh of relief.
"Sixty-three miles!" gasped Rebecca Mary, who never had driven one mileby herself. But there is always a first time, and she remembered thatshe would have to drive only a mile at a time, and anyway it would beGranny who would be responsible for what would happen.
They did not talk much after the first few miles. Joan fell asleep andeven Granny dozed although she really couldn't sleep for Rebecca Maryhad to ask her every few minutes the way to Seven Pines. Long beforethey reached the end of the boulevard Rebecca Mary forgot to befrightened or nervous. She found it rather thrilling to run away fromold Mr. Simmons' question in the moonlight. They seemed to have theworld to themselves for they met no one. Rebecca Mary thought she shouldlike to go on for ever and ever.
She would never forget this ride, and she chuckled to herself. When shewas as old as Granny she would remember how they had fled from old Mr.Simmons' irritating question. And thinking of old Mr. Simmons, whom shehad never seen, made her remember young Mr. Simmons, whom she admired somuch. What would he think when he came to-morrow, no, to-day, and foundher gone? And Mr. Cabot? She had promised to drive out to the CountryClub with Richard that very afternoon after banking hours. Richard wasgoing to teach her to play golf. She was sorry that Granny had not givenher time to write a little note, to write two little notes.
But she would not be away long. Granny had said only a few days. And shecould telephone to Richard and to Peter from Seven Pines the very firstthing, before she even looked at Otillie Swenson's wedding things. Shehoped Peter and Richard would miss her for she knew that she would missthem. A month ago she had known neither of them. And now----
Young Peter Simmons was the most fascinating man. She flushed as herthoughts strayed back to young Peter, and she wondered if the day everwould come when he would ask his wife what she wanted for a birthday oran anniversary present. She knew that Richard Cabot would never ask. Hewould never have to ask for he would make a note of the date in hismemorandum book and would be ready with his gift on the proper day.Young Peter and Richard were as different as a vanilla ice and a cherrypie. She liked them both. She couldn't think which she did like thebest. Peter had fascinated her ever since she had seen him eating freshtomato sandwiches with such gusto at the Waloo, and Richard did give hersuch a comfortable, well cared for, warm feeling. It was like beingwrapped in a down comforter on a winter night to be with Richard. Hello,here they were at another cross road. Should she turn to the right orthe left or keep straight ahead? She would have to ask Granny.
But when she turned she saw that Granny was fast asleep beside Joan.Joan's sleek little head was on Granny's shoulder and Granny's gray headwas resting on Joan's black hair. They looked so comfortable cuddledclose together that Rebecca Mary had not the heart to disturb them. Andanyway what difference did it make when they reached Seven Pines?
"She'll be awake in a few minutes," she thought lazily. "And in themeantime I'll stretch myself and take a sandwich."
She slipped from her seat to draw a rug over the two sleepers and thenstretched herself luxuriously before she took the place beside the wheelwhere she would have more room to stretch while she ate her sandwich.
"Chicken salad," she murmured approvingly when she opened a package.
What a strange world it was, she thought as she lounged back in Mrs.Peter Simmons' car and ate Mrs. Peter Simmons' chicken salad sandwiches.A month ago and she would have hooted at the person who would havesuggested that she ever would do either. She never would have had thechance to do either she acknowledged if it had not been for Joan theyoung Countess Ernach de Befort, she laughed. Joan was a dear if she wassometimes a nuisance. How cross and horrid she had been when Joan hadannounced that she had been loaned to her. Why, if it had not been forJoan she would be fast asleep this minute in her old walnut bed in hershabby little room in Mifflin. She would never in the world be eatingchicken salad sandwiches in Mrs. Peter Simmons' car, with Mrs. Simmonsand Joan asleep in the tonneau. She was sleepy herself, and she yawned.But she could not go to sleep. She was on guard and--and what happenswhen sentries go to sleep at their post?