Part 74 (2/2)

”I can sit on the window seat and watch for you, Derry, and there will be smoke coming out of the chimney on cold days, and a fire roaring on the hearth when you open the door--”

They decided that there ought to be eight rooms--, and they named them.

The Log-Fire Room; The Room of Little Feasts; the Place of Pots and Pans--

”That's the first floor,” said Jean.

”Yes.”

The upper floor was harder--The Royal Suite; The Friendly Boom, for the dream maid of all work; The Spare Chamber--

”My grandmother had a spare chamber,” Jean explained, ”and I always liked the sound of it, as if she kept her hospitality pressed down and running over--”

Derry, who had written it all by the light of the moon, held his pencil poised. ”There is one more,” he said, ”the little room towards the West--”

Jean hesitated for the breadth of a second. ”Well, we may need another,”

she said, and left it nameless.

The door opened and a man came out. If he saw them, they meant nothing to him--a pair of lovers by the wayside; there were many such.

He paced back and forth on the gravel walk. They could hear the crunch of it under his feet. They saw the s.h.i.+ning tip of his cigar--smelt its fragrance--.

Again the door opened, to frame a woman. She called and her voice was young.

”Dearest, it is late. Are you coming in?”

His young voice answered. His far-flung cigar-end trailed across the darkness, his eager steps gave quick response--the door was shut--.

”Oh, Derry, I'd call you like that---”

”And I should come.”

The light went out on the lower floor, and presently in a room above a window was illumined.

THE SIXTH DAY

A dream house must have dream furniture. There are old shops in Alexandria, where, less often than in earlier years, one may find treasures, bow-legged chairs and gate-legged tables, yellowed letters written by famous pens, steel engravings which have hung in historic halls, pewter and plate, l.u.s.ter and Sevres, Wedgwood and Willow, Chippendale and Hepplewhite, Adams and Empire, everything linked with some distinguished name, everything with a story, real or invented. One may buy an ancestor for a song, or at least the portrait of one, and silver with armorial bearings, and no one will know if you do not tell them that your heirlooms have come from a shop.

And Alexandria, as all the world knows, is reached from Was.h.i.+ngton by motor and trolley, train or ferry.

It was by ferry that the lovers preferred to go in the glory of this May morning, feeling the breeze fresh in their faces as with a motley crowd they stood on the lower deck and looked towards the old town.

Thus they came to the wharves, flanked by ancient warehouses in a straggly row along the water line. The windows of these ancient edifices had looked down on Revolutionary heroes, the old brick walls had echoed to the sound of fife and drum--the old streets had once been thronged by men in blue and buff. Since those days the quaint little city had basked in the pride of her traditions. She had tolerated nothing modern until within this very year she had waked to find that her red-coat enemy was now her friend, that the roads which George Was.h.i.+ngton had travelled were being trod once more by marching men; that in the church where he had wors.h.i.+pped prayers were being said once more for men in battle.

And into the shops, with their storied antiques, drifted now men in olive-drab and men in blue, and men in forester's green, who laughed at the flint locks and powder horns, saluted the Father of his Country whenever they pa.s.sed his picture, gazed with reverence on ancient swords and uniforms, d.i.c.kered for such small articles as might be bought out of their limited allowances, and paid in the end, cheerfully, prices which would have been scorned by any discriminating buyer.

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