CHAPTER XIV
LIBBIE IS ROMANTIC
The girls, marshaled by Bobby, made a tour of the windows, andthough Betty was fascinated by the views of the city spread outbefore her and bought post cards to send to the Pineville friends andthose she knew in Glenside and Laurel Grove, her mind was runningcontinuously on young Mrs. Hale's announcement.
"She couldn't be the old bookstore man's wife," she speculated, hereyes fixed on the Potomac while Bobby cheerfully tangled up historyand geography in a valiant effort to instruct her guests. "LockwoodHale was an old man, Bob said. He didn't say he had a son, but Iwonder----Oh, Bobby, the Jesuit fathers didn't sail down the Potomac,did they?"
"Well, it was some river," retorted Bobby. "Anyway, Miss, you didn'tseem to be listening to a word I said. What were you thinking aboutin such a brown study?"
Betty made a little face, but she had no intention of revealing herthoughts. She wanted to find out about the bookshop quietly, and ifpossible get the address. Always providing that Mrs. Hale was relatedto the man who had shown such an interest in Bob Henderson'salmshouse record.
"Of course Hale is an ordinary enough name," she mused. "And yetthere is just a chance that it may be the same."
The girls were planning to take the next car down, and yet when itcame up they lingered diplomatically to catch a glimpse of thebridegroom. "John" proved to be a good-looking young man, notextraordinary in any way, but with a likeable open face and squareyoung shoulders that Libbie, who startled them all by turningpoetical late that night, declared were "built for manly burdens."
Louise, Esther and Bobby were the last to squeeze into the car,Libbie, the prudent, having ducked earlier. As Betty turned to followthem, the gate closed.
"Car full!" said the operator.
"Oh, Betty!" Bobby's wail came to her as the car began to disappear."We'll wait for you," came the parting message before it dropped fromsight.
Mrs. Hale laughed musically.
"Now you know something of how I felt," she said merrily. "May Ipresent my husband? John, those five girls have been so nice to me.And now you'll go round with us, won't you?"
But Betty knew better than that.
"I'm going to write some of my post cards," she said. "But I wouldlove to ask you a question before you go. Do you know a man inWashington who keeps a bookshop? His name is Lockwood Hale."
Mr. and Mrs. Hale exchanged glances.
"Know him?" repeated the young man. "Why, I should think we did!He's my great-uncle."
"I'm very anxious to see him to ask about a friend of mine,"explained Betty. "Mr. Hale thought he might be able to tell himsomething of his parents who died when he was a baby. As soon as Iheard your name I hoped you could tell me where to find the bookstore."
"Yes, uncle is a wizard on old family records," admitted the nephew."Sometimes I think that is why he hates to part with a book. He keepsa secondhand bookshop, you know, and he's positively insulting tocustomers who try to buy any of the books. The old boy is reallyqueer in his head, but there's nothing to be afraid of. He wouldn'thurt a flea, would he, Elinor?"
Mrs. Hale said doubtfully, no, she supposed not.
"Elinor didn't have a very good impression of him," laughed herhusband. "We're on our wedding trip, you know,"--he blushedslightly--"and mother made us promise we'd stop in to see the old man.He hasn't seen me since I wore knickerbockers, and we had a great timemaking him understand who we were. Then he said that he hoped weliked Washington, and went back to his reading."
"And the shop is so dirty!" shuddered the bride. "I don't think sheought to go to such a place alone, John."
"I won't," promised Betty hastily. "If you'll let me have theaddress, I'll be ever so grateful and it may be a great help to myfriend."
Young Mr. Hale wrote down the street and number on the back of thebrand-new visiting card his wife pulled from her brand-new purse, andBetty thanked them warmly and turned to her card writing, leavingthem free to enjoy each other and the view to their hearts' content.She had directed post cards to a dozen friends before the elevatorreturned, and this time both she and the bridal couple made sure thatthey were among the first to step in.
Betty felt of the little slip in her purse several times during theafternoon, inwardly glowing with satisfaction. If she could find BobHenderson in Washington through the old bookseller, or learnsomething definite of the lad, she would find it easier to wait forword from her uncle.
After luncheon, which was calculated to please healthy appetites offive girls to a nicety, they went into several of the large shopswith Mrs. Littell, and then, because it had begun to rain and did notpromise pleasant weather for driving, they went to a moving pictureshow.
"Had a full day?" asked Mr. Littell at dinner that night. "Libbie,what did you see?"
Libbie's answer provoked a gust of laughter. She was so essentiallya matter-of-fact little personage in appearance and manner that whenshe opened her red mouth and announced, "A bride and groom!" theeffect was startling.
That started Bobby, and she told the story of the lost John, told itas her father would have, for neither Bobby nor Mr. Littell were atall inclined toward sentimentality.
"Well, Betty," Mr. Littell beckoned to her afterward when they wereall in the pleasant living-room across the hall, "think you're goingto like Washington, even if it is overrun with brides and grooms?"
"It's lovely," Betty assured him fervently. "We've had the mostperfect day. And, Mr. Littell, what do you think--I've found outsomething important already."
She had told him about Bob that morning, and he was interested atonce when she narrated what the bride and groom had told her of oldLockwood Hale.
"Why, I know where his shop is. Everybody in Washington does," saidMr. Littell when she had finished. "He has lots of rare books mixedin with worthless trash. Funny I didn't take in you meant that Halewhen you spoke of him. I suppose you'll want to go there to-morrowCarter will take you in the car, and you'd better have one of thegirls go with you. Bobby is all right--she may be scatter-brained butshe doesn't talk."
For some reason none of the girls was sleepy that night, and aftergoing upstairs they all assembled in Bobby and Betty's room to talk.Libbie could not keep her mind off the bride.
"I wonder how I'd look in a lace veil," she said, seizing the flutedmuslin bedspread and draping it over her head. "It must be lovely tobe a bride!"
"You've been reading too many silly books," scolded Bobby. "Anyway,Libbie, you're too fat to look nice in a veil. Better get thin beforeyou're old enough to be married, or else you'll have to wear atraveling suit."
Libbie eyed her scornfully and continued to parade up and down inher draperies.
"Betty would look pretty in a veil," said Louise suddenly. "Come on,girls, let's stage a wedding. Libbie won't sleep all night if shedoesn't have some romantic outlet. I'll be the father."
She seized a pillow and stuffed it in the front of her dressing gownso that it made a very respectable corpulency.
"I'll be the mother!" Esther began to pin up her hair, a dignity towhich she secretly aspired.
"I'm your bridesmaid, Libbie," announced Betty, catching up thebride's train and beginning to hum the wedding march under her breath.
"If you _will_ be silly idiots, I'm the minister," said Bobby,mounting the bed and leaning over the foot rail as if it were a pulpit.
The bride stopped short, nearly tripping up the devoted bridesmaid.
"I don't think you should make fun of ministers," she said, lookingdisapprovingly at her cousin. "It's almost wicked."
"I'd like to know how it's any more wicked than to pretend awedding," retorted Bobby wrathfully. "Weddings are very solemn,sacred, serious affairs. Mother always cries when she goes to one."
Betty began to laugh. She laughed so hard that she had to sit downon the floor, and the more the two girls glared at each other, theharder she laughed.
"I don't see what's so funny," resented Bobby, beginning to snicker,too. "For goodness sak
e, don't have hysterics, Betty. Mother willhear you and come rapping on the door in a minute."
"I just thought of something." The convulsed Betty made a heroiceffort to control her laughter and failed completely. "Oh, girls,"she cried, wiping her eyes, "here you are bickering about the brideand the minister, and not one of us thought of the bridegroom. Weleft him out!"
Louise and Bobby rolled over on the bed and had their laugh out.Libbie collapsed on the floor, and Esther leaned against the bureau,laughing till she cried.
"They say the bridegroom isn't important at a wedding, but I neverheard of ignoring him altogether," gasped Bobby, and then they wereoff again.
They made so much noise that Mrs. Littell tapped on the door to askwhy they were not in bed, and when Bobby told her the joke, she hadto sit down and laugh, too.
"I'll send you up some sponge cake and milk if you'll promise to goright to sleep after that," she told them, kissing each one goodnight all over again. "Libbie shall at least have the wedding cake,if she can't have a wedding."