Carolina Lee Part 41

"I do not understand how you accomplished it, little cousin. It is a marvellous achievement for any one!"

"I did not accomplish it of myself," said Carolina, gravely. "I never in the world could have done it if--"

"If what?"

"I hear that it annoys you even to hear the words," said Carolina.

"Nevertheless, I must tell you that the whole of Guildford is a demonstration of Christian Science."

A deep silence fell, and the eyes of the two men met. Judge Lee's fell before the corroboration he met in Mr. Howard's. A sudden softening took place in his heart.

"I begin to believe that there is something in this thing, after all,"

he said, slowly.

A babel of voices broke in upon their conversation just here, as the guests trooped down from their rooms, exclaiming with admiration on every hand. Sherman and Addie were particularly delighted, but they looked at Carolina wonderingly, as if uncertain whether this were the same sister they had known before.

Carolina bloomed like a rose under all the admiration her work received, but she was too busy to drink it all in. She had, for one thing, the children to amuse. Emmeline Yancey, a serious-browed child with grave eyes, was her right hand, and to Emmeline and Bob Fitzhugh she confided her plans. Hardly had the children learned of the delights in store for them, when the guests began to arrive.

Then, such a rus.h.i.+ng to and fro! Such a calling for servants! Such hurried dressing! Such a gathering up of children, and a general hastening of duties which should have been performed before!

Introductions to the few who had not met before seemed like a meeting of old friends, so warm was the welcome and so well known the existing friends.h.i.+ps.

Carriage after carriage rolled up the drive and deposited Fitzhughs, La Granges, Manigaults, Pringles, and Yanceys, until Guildford resembled the palmiest days of its predecessors.

Peachie and Sir Hubert Wemyss and Noel and Kate were receiving sub rosa congratulations, and beaming faces were everywhere. Moultrie's eyes followed Carolina wherever she was, and none noticed it more jealously than a slim, blue-eyed boy who would not mingle with the other children, even when Emmeline begged him to. He only shook his head, and continued to watch his divinity.

Then old Israel, who had been a rascally boy in the days of Carolina's grandfather, flung open the doors and the guests trooped out to the dining-room.

Every one stood and exclaimed with delight at the sight which met their eyes. The majestic dinner-table of Guildford, which would seat forty, stood in the centre of the room, flanked by side-tables groaning under the glorious old Lee silver and gla.s.s and china, such as no contemporaneous eye had seen, but so often had those gathered here heard its beauty described that it seemed a familiar sight.

The children had a table to themselves, and this was set across one end of the room. Emmeline was to be the mother and Bob Fitzhugh the father, and actually carve the turkey.

"He'll spill the gravy and drop the turkey on the floor, Carolina,"

cried his mother.

"Let him," said Carolina. "Who cares? But this turkey will be so good that he will stay on the platter, as I shall bid him, and Bob shall carve him, and Emmeline shall serve the plum pudding!"

Shrieks of joy went up from the children at this daring announcement, and all the parents were made radiant by their babies' happiness.

The table was long and low, with chairs to match, and the children saw with jealous delight that it was copied exactly from the big table, even to the bowls of flowers and pyramids of fruit. They even had their tiny champagne gla.s.ses, in which 'Polyte, who was their butler, poured foaming ginger ale, so that they could join in the toasts which Judge Fanshaw Lee proposed. They wriggled with an ecstasy they never had felt before, and never, never did they have such a time as at Cousin Carolina's Thanksgiving dinner at Guildford.

The climax came to their awe when, at the end of everything, Mr. Howard arose, gla.s.s in hand, and announced--what everybody knew--the engagement of his daughter Kate and Noel St. Quentin, and gave them his blessing, and everybody cried and laughed and drank their health. The children's round eyes almost popped out of their heads. To be present at a real betrothal! It was more exciting to the little Southerners than a negro baptism.

Bob Fitzhugh's face was seen to grow very red, and then suddenly he pushed back his chair and strode to where Carolina sat, and said, in a st.u.r.dy voice:

"Cousin Carolina, why can't we announce our engagement? You know you promised to marry me."

He stood crimson but dauntless under the shrieks of laughter which followed his speech. Carolina's face was very rosy also, and she was seen to steal a mischievous glance at Moultrie La Grange, which somehow set his heart to beating with hope.

She put her arm around Bob and kissed him on the forehead before them all.

"Bob, dear, it is too soon," she whispered, consolingly. "You know I said if you wanted me in ten years and I was still unmarried--"

"Oh, but Cousin Carol!" cried the boy, "you are so beautiful that unless you promise to wait for me you are sure to be snapped up. Father said so."

An added wave of colour flew to Carolina's face, and she hid her face in the boy's shoulder, when, to her surprise, she heard the voice of Col.

Wayne Yancey saying:

"Bob, my boy, if she should promise you, you'd have to fight me, and fight me to the death."

Bob looked at him, and stiffened.

"Are you after her, too?" he cried, angrily.

"I've been after her longer than you have. And I'm not the only one."

Bob turned despairingly to his father.

"How many does that make?" he roared.

The laughter of the grown people pa.s.sed unheeded.

"Never mind, son," said his father. "Colonel Yancey's name completes the list. There isn't another bachelor or widower left in South Carolina. It's just the way the girls used to treat me, son, but afterward I met your mother and she made everything all right."

The boy flew to his father's side, and hid his head.

"Girls are all alike, son. You'll have to bear it. We all have to.

Turn around here and ask your Uncle De Courcey why he is a bachelor.

Ask your mother how many boys she flirted with before I came along. Be a man. Look there at Emmeline and Gladys and--"

Bob burst away with a roar of pain.

"Emmeline is about right for Teddy!" he exclaimed, in wrath. "I want a grown woman. I don't want anybody but Miss Carolina Lee. Moultrie knows how it is, don't you, Moultrie? When you've once loved a girl like Carolina, how would you like it to be told to take up with anybody else?"

"I just wouldn't do it, that's all!" said Moultrie, looking squarely at Carolina.

"Bob," said Carolina, severely, "you are embarra.s.sing Mr. La Grange and me dreadfully. Won't you please go back to your place and make me feel that I can depend upon you to protect me instead of exposing me to laughter like this?"

The boy's eagle glance flew from one convulsed face to another. Then he showed his blood. He came to Carolina's side, and put his arms around her neck and kissed her cheek, whispering:

"I'll never speak of it again. They can laugh if they want to, but some day you'll remember that I behaved when you asked me to."

He went back to his seat and Carolina looked at Emmeline, and both little ladies rose from the heads of their tables and led the way to the drawing-room.

But Carolina was uneasy. She could not forget the look that Moultrie La Grange shot at her, when Bob said, "After you have once loved a girl like Carolina, how would you like to be told to take up with anybody else?"

She knew the time was approaching when he would ask his question over again, and she was not prepared yet to give an answer. She was sure he was on the right track, but she was not sure that he would persevere.

The chill of autumn always manifests itself in November days in South Carolina after the sun goes down, and when the guests repaired to the library, they found a great log fire, the size of which they had never seen before. For weeks Carolina's servants had scoured the woods for a backlog of sufficient girth to please their mistress, but it was 'Polyte who finally secured the prize.