Part 10 (1/2)
”I'm sorry I spoke as I did about the old lady,” he said, after a moment's reflection. ”I was thinking of the way in which she left you out of her invitation to breakfast.”
”And yourself, incidentally,” she smiled.
”Miss Courtenay, I'm--I'm a confounded a.s.s for not thinking of your breakfast. It's not too late. We are both hungry. Won't you come with me and have a bit of something to eat? We'll try that farmhouse ourselves. Come, let us hurry or the crowd will get in ahead of us. Ham and eggs and coffee! they always have that sort of breakfast in farmhouses, I'm told. Come.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Seated side by side...two miserable partner in the fiasco]
She sprang up cheerfully, and followed him across the meadow to the farmhouse. The Van Truder party was entering the door, smoke pouring forth suggestively from a chimney in the rear of the house. The sudden desire for ham and eggs was overcoming, in a way, the pangs of outraged love; there was solace in the new thought.
That breakfast was one never to be forgotten by four persons; two others remembered it to their last days on account of its amazing excellence. A dozen persons were crowded into the little dining-room; no one went forth upon his travels with an empty stomach. No such profitable harvest had ever been reaped by the farmer. Dauntless and Anne ate off of a sewing-table in the corner. Mrs. Van Truder deliberately refused to hear Mr. Windoms.h.i.+re's timorous suggestion that they ”make room” for them at the select table. Silent anathemas accompanied every mouthful of food that went down the despot's throat, but she did not know it. Fortunately the lovers were healthy and hungry.
They fared forth after that memorable breakfast with lighter hearts, though still misplaced by an unrelenting fate.
All the way to Omegon Anne sat in the seat with the seething Dauntless, each nursing a pride that had received almost insupportable injuries during the morning hours. Windoms.h.i.+re and Eleanor, under the espionage of the ”oldest friend of the family,” moped and sighed with a frankness that could not have escaped more discerning eyes. Mrs. Van Truder, having established herself as the much needed chaperon, sat back complacently and gave her charges every opportunity to hold private and no doubt sacred communication in the double seat just across the aisle.
Eleanor pleaded fatigue, and forthwith closed her wistful eyes.
Windoms.h.i.+re, with fine consideration, sank into a rapt study of the flitting farm lands. Having got but little sleep among the coals, he finally dropped off into a peaceful cat nap.
Omegon was reached before Eleanor had the courage to awaken him. She did so then only because it was impossible for her to crawl over his knees without losing her dignity; they were planted st.u.r.dily against the seat in front. She fled like a scared child to Joe's side, her mind made up to cling to him now, no matter what manner of opposition prevailed.
”I'll go with you, Joe,” she whispered fiercely. ”I don't care what any one says or thinks. Your cousin WILL meet us with the carriage, won't he?” she concluded piteously. Windoms.h.i.+re also had taken the bull by the horns and was helping Miss Courtenay from the train with an a.s.siduity that brought down the wrath of obstructing pa.s.sengers upon his devoted head.
”He said he would,” replied Dauntless, his spirits in the clouds. ”We must get away from these people, Nell. I'll go crazy in another minute.
There's Derby waiting for instructions. Dear old Darb--he's a brick. My cousin Jim is a deacon or something in the village church, dear, and he has promised to let us in. I suppose he has a key. He and his wife will be the only witnesses. By George, nothing can stop us now, dear, if you have the nerve to--Where the d.i.c.kens is Jim? Confound him, I don't see him on the platform.”
He looked about the station platform--first anxiously, then impatiently, then--with consternation! His cousin was nowhere in sight.
Cold with apprehensiveness, he dashed over to a citizen who wore a star upon his coat, almost dragging Eleanor after him.
”Is Jim Carpenter here? Have you seen him? Do you know him?” he demanded.
”He was here, mister. 'Bout two hours ago, I reckon. I guess you must be the fellow he was to meet--”
”Yes, yes,--where is he now?”
”I don't know, mister. His wife's got pneumonia, an' he told me to tell you he couldn't wait. He took the doctor right out to--”
”Good Lord!” exploded Joe. The citizen jumped a few inches into the air. ”He's gone?”
”Yep. But he told me to tell you to go over to the Somerset an' wait till you hear from him.”
”Wait--till--I hear--from--him?” groaned Dauntless, wild-eyed but faint. He and Eleanor looked at each other in despair.
”Go--to--the--hotel?” she murmured, her heart in her boots. ”I never can do that,” she continued. Her voice was full of tears.
Mrs. Van Truder bore down upon them like an angry vulture. They saw her coming, but neither had the strength of purpose to move.
Before they really knew how it happened, she was leading Eleanor to the hotel 'bus and he was limply following, lugging both bags with a faithfulness that seemed pathetic. Two minutes later they were in the 'bus, touching knees with the equally dazed and discomfited English people.
Back on the platform the elongated medical gentleman, Mr. Hooker, was talking loudly, wrathfully to the station agent. His voice rang in their ears long after the 'bus rolled away on its ”trip” to the big summer hotel.