Part 23 (2/2)

Drusilla began: ”Court was in session. However, I shall be glad to have you remain.” The boy, who had remained quiet, now spoke.

”Oh, bully, mother; grandmother's playing again. I want to stay.”

But his mother put out a detaining hand as he attempted to enter the attic.

”No--we can't stay now--” She spoke directly again to Drusilla. ”We'll come again--when you are more--yourself.”

In a moment she was gone down the stairs, leaving after her a soft fragrance. The boy obediently followed her. In the hall below she encountered the maid. She whispered a few hurried words before taking her departure.

The maid went up immediately into the attic.

Drusilla was again talking eloquently while Suzanna and Maizie stood listening spellbound.

”I think,” said the maid, breaking in quietly but firmly, ”that you little girls had better go home now. Mrs. Bartlett is tired and I want her to lie down.”

She approached the queen. ”Come, Mrs. Bartlett,” she said, ”you must rest now.” She raised her hand as though to remove the crown of faded leaves.

”What means this sacrilege?” cried the queen, stepping backward.

”She likes to wear her crown when she's a queen,” said Suzanna, much distressed.

”But she can't lie down in her crown, you know, little girl, it will hurt her.”

”Well, that's true, Drusilla,” Suzanna conceded. ”Will you put your head down and I'll take the crown off very carefully and we'll put it away for another day.”

The queen obediently lowered her silver head to Suzanna. Suzanna very carefully removed the wreath and hung it on its old nail.

”I _am_ tired,” said the old lady, now in a voice that trembled a little. ”But you'll come again soon, won't you?” she asked, appealing to Suzanna.

”Yes, just as soon as I can,” said Suzanna. ”Come, Maizie. Good-bye, Drusilla, and thank you very much for helping me.”

Drusilla brightened. ”That's nice, to know that I can still help someone,” she said.

CHAPTER XIII

MRS. GRAHAM WOODS BARTLETT

The great house stood on a hilltop quite two miles from the station, and cut into the immense iron door standing guard to the grounds was the name ”Bartlett Villa.”

Here for a small part of the year the Graham Woods Bartletts lived. The family consisted of mother, father, and son, named for his father. In the city another house as large and more palatial received the family when they tired of the country home.

Mr. Graham Woods Bartlett held large interests in the Ma.s.sey Steel Mills. That he might be on the ground part of the time he had built Bartlett Villa. In his heart he loved the small town. It was like a retreat to him to come back to its quiet after feverish hours spent in the crowded city. Here he seemed to recall in part a few of his vanished dreams--those dreams so bright, so well-nigh impossible of fulfillment, which as a young man fresh from college he had cherished. While young, he met and loved the girl he married. That she had visions he perfectly believed. That her visions were unworthy no power then could have made him believe. She came from an impecunious family whose lineage was older and greater than his. How she could have thought the high-browed, sensitive-faced young man the one who could fulfill her grasping desires is not to be fathomed. She had believed so, and he did bring to pa.s.s all her aspirations. That in doing so he killed his finest ideals mattered not.

Young Graham, too, was always glad when the time came for a stay at Bartlett Villa in Anchorville. He loved the big upstanding elms; loved the many gardens, and the flaunting flowers. He loved the two people who belonged properly in the environs of Bartlett Villa--old Nancy, who had been his mother's nurse and his own, and David, the gardener, with his little daughter Daphne.

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