Part 13 (1/2)
Then the day for the election came nearer and nearer by what seemed fleeting hours. The whole city was thoroughly aroused and fighting hard under one banner or the other. As the last week drew to a close and left only the few days of the following week for a round-up of the forces before the Wednesday election, the men all became absorbed to the point of oblivion to everything save the speculation as to how the race would go. But it was not in the nature of David Kildare to be held against the grindstone of serious endeavor too long at a time, and in the midst of the turmoil he proceeded to plot for a brief and exciting relaxation for himself and his strenuous friends, and he chose Sat.u.r.day for the accomplishment thereof.
The morning dawned in a fluff of gray fog that hung low down over the avenue, though the sun showed signs of soon piercing the gloom. The clash and clatter of the city was fast approaching a noonday roar but still Phoebe slept in the room which adjoined that of Caroline Darrah Brown.
Caroline cautiously opened the door and stole in gently to the side of the bed, then paused and looked down with delight. Phoebe, asleep, was a thing calculated to bring delight to any beholder. The brilliant, casual, insouciant, worldly Phoebe had gone out on a dream-hunt and a delicious curled-up flower lay in her place, with turned lashes dipping against soft tinted cheeks. Her head rested on one bare white arm and one hand curled under her daintily molded chin. Caroline caught her breath--this was a pathetic Phoebe when one thought of the most times Phoebe, cool, self-reliant--perforce!
”The darling,” she whispered to herself as she slipped to her knees by the low bed, ”I can't bear to wake her, but I'm afraid not to; it's an hour late already. Dear!” She slipped her arm under the glossy head and pressed a little kiss on the dimple over the northeast corner of the warm lips.
Phoebe's gray eyes smiled themselves open for a fraction of a second, then she nestled to Caroline's shoulder and calmly drifted off again in pursuit of the dream.
”Dearie,” Caroline begged, ”it's after ten!”
Phoebe sighed, nestled closer and drifted again. Caroline settled herself against the pillows and pressed her cheek against the thick black braid that curled across the sleeper's bare shoulder. She was incapable of another combat with the sleep-G.o.d and decided to wait. Besides, the awake Phoebe was busy--and elusive--not given to bestowing or receiving aught save the most fleeting caresses. So for a few moments Caroline Darrah's arms held her hungrily.
”Be-autiful,” came in a sleepy voice from against her arm, ”is the water cold?”
”Awful this morning,” answered Caroline tightening her arms. ”Just a little hot, Phoebe, please! I'll tell Annette.”
”No,” answered Phoebe, as with a whirl of the covers she sat up and took her knees into her embrace. ”No, sweetie, in I go! The colder the better after I'm in. How grand and Burne-Jonesy you look in that linen pinafore--indulging in the life domestic? I think I catch a whiff of your culinary atmosphere--and, oh, I--am so--hungry.”
”Tempie has a dear little plump bird for you and some waffles and an omelet. Let me have Annette bring them to you here! Please, Phoebe, please!”
”Caroline Darrah Brown,” said Phoebe in a tragic voice, ”do you know I gained a pound and a quarter last week and that makes me three and a half pounds past the danger-mark? Two raw eggs and an orange is all I can have this morning. I'm going to cry, I think!”
”No,” answered Caroline Darrah positively, ”you are going to eat that bird and the omelet. You may subst.i.tute dry toast for the waffle if Tempie will let you. She's angry, and I'm in trouble. She won't use that recipe I got from your Mammy Kitty to make the cake I promised David Kildare for tea. She says she and her family have been making Buchanan cake ever since there was any cake and she is not going to begin now making Donelson mixtures. I think I hurt her feelings. What must I do?”
”Let her alone, she has the right of it and the cake is sure to be just as good,” laughed Phoebe.
”But I promised him it should be just like the one you gave us the other afternoon, only with the icing and nuts thicker than the cake,” answered Caroline in real distress. ”He says that Mr. Sevier likes it that way, too,” she added ingenuously.
”Caroline Darrah, you spoil those men to the most outrageous extent. It's like David to want his icing and nuts thicker than the cake; he always does--and gets it, but it isn't good for him.” As Phoebe spoke she smiled at Caroline Darrah indulgently.
”I can't help it, Phoebe,” she answered with the rose wave mounting under her eyes. ”I'm stupid--I don't know how to manage them. I'm just--fond of them.”
For a second Phoebe regarded her from under veiled eyes, then said guardedly, ”Doesn't that give them rather the advantage to start with--if you let them find it out?”
”Yes,” answered Caroline as she pressed her cheek against Phoebe's arm, ”I know it does but I can't help it. I have to trust to them to understand.”
For a moment Phoebe was silent and across her mind there flashed David's description of a man who sat into the gray dawn fighting his battle--his own and hers--a man who wouldn't run!
”Perhaps that's the best way after all, dearie,” she said as she prepared to slip out of bed. ”Only it takes the exceptional woman to get results from your method. It ought to work with David; others don't seem to!”
”Phoebe, Phoebe--why--why?” and Caroline caught and held Phoebe for a few seconds. ”Don't you care at all?”
”Yes, child--a lot! Having admitted which I will betake myself to the plunge--leaving you to finish the cake for the precious thing.” In a second Phoebe smiled back from the door:
”Just one little waffle, tell Tempie,” she said. ”And I'm due to make a lightning toilet if I get to that Woman's Guild meeting at eleven-thirty.
Call the office for me and tell them not to send Freckles until one-thirty to-day. And, dearie, please call Polly and tell her to be sure and go to that meeting of the Daughters of the Colonies so she can tell me what happens. Tell her to get it all straight--names and all and I will phone her. And not to let them office or committee me just because I'm not there! You are a dear!”
Caroline smiled happily as she went back to the mixing of the confection of affection to be administered to David with his tea as by request, and she laughed as she heard Phoebe's mighty splash.
And a half-hour later, during the discussion of the plump bird and the one crisp waffle, David Kildare whirled in, beaming with joy over his plans. In fact he failed to manage anything in the way of a formal greeting.