Part 28 (1/2)
Although they had been under the hospitable roof for more than twenty-four hours it was the first occasion on which the three had been together for more than a few minutes at a time.
On the previous evening in an upstairs room had been enacted a little scene which would live forever in the memories of them all; but Doctor Craig, perceiving with trained eyes the signs of growing fatigue in his frail friend after the unwonted strain of the day and its necessarily emotional climax, had gently but firmly insisted on withdrawing at an early hour. Georgiana had remained with her father, herself content to have the strange and wonderful day end in the old, simple, and natural way in which her days had ended for so long. She had felt, as she performed her customary daughterly offices for the beloved invalid, that she had quite enough to take with her to her own pillow to insure its being the happiest upon which she had ever laid her head.
They had seen little of Doctor Craig on the following day; but he had taken dinner with them that night, and as he had brought them back to the library fire he had given stringent directions to the boy Thomas that he be disturbed only for the most important summons. And hardly had the trio taken their places in the pleasant room before Jefferson Craig made his statement that there was something still unsettled in their affairs.
As he spoke he was looking down at Georgiana. It would have been strange if he could have kept his eyes away from her to-night. Like a flower in suns.h.i.+ne had she bloomed under the warm influence of the joy which had come to her when she least expected it. She was again wearing the little gray silk frock, but now its nunlike simplicity was gone--and happily gone--for a bunch of glowing pink Killarney roses at her belt, placed there by Doctor Craig's hands, lighted the plain costume into one of a charm which could no longer be called demure.
”Something still to settle?” It was Father Davy who replied, for Georgiana had no answer for that suggestion. One glance at Doctor Craig's face, as he said the words, had told her what was coming.
”The most important thing of all. Everything else is in order. You, dear sir, have agreed to come and live with us. We are convinced that it's not a sacrifice, except for the leaving of certain old friends. You have a zest still for seeing and hearing the things you have been denied; it's to be our keen pleasure to make your days go by on wings. You're going to have plenty of room here for the bookcases and the books, all the furnis.h.i.+ngs you care to keep--in short, you're to live the old life with a fine new one as well. Altogether, everything is in train for the great change, except”--he crossed the hearthrug at a stride, and laid a son's hand upon the thin shoulder of Father Davy--”except the date of it,” he finished, smiling down into the uplifted face.
”But that,” replied Georgiana's father without hesitation, ”is not for me to settle. It is for you two.”
Craig looked across at Georgiana and for a minute studied her down-bent profile as she sat gazing into the flames; then came round to her, plucking a pillow from a big leather couch by the way, to drop it at her feet and throw himself down upon it. So placed he could look straight into her face. ”You'll have to take an interest in the ceiling now if you succeed in avoiding me,” he said, with a low laugh.
”I don't want to avoid you,” answered Georgiana, and let her eyes meet his fairly for an instant. She could not yet do this in a quite casual way.
He crossed his arms upon her knee, sitting in a boyish att.i.tude and looking not unlike a big boy for the moment, for all the lines of care were gone from his face in the soft firelight, and happiness had laid its rosy mantle over his shoulders as over hers. He began to speak rather quickly:
”For the life of me, I can't think of a reason why you should go back and spend a winter in the same old grind, waiting till spring and--making me wait till spring. Why should anybody wait till spring?
I've let you talk about all the work you were going to do this winter at home, but that was just because I didn't want to make you feel as if you were caught in a trap. I had an idea that for a few hours, anyhow, it might seem enough of a change to come down here and promise to marry a perfect stranger of a surgeon instead of the 'literary light' you knew.
I thought we'd let it go at that for those few hours. But now--it doesn't seem to me possible to go back to bachelorhood again, even with such a prospect before me in the spring. Not after having tasted--this.
Georgiana, why must I?”
Her face was the colour of her roses. There was no getting away from the challenge of those eyes that watched her so steadily--not even by following his suggestion and gazing persistently ceilingward. Craig glanced at Father Davy, to find that his soft blue eyes showed no sign of shock, and that his face was perfectly placid as he looked and listened.
The younger man went on, coming straight to the point: ”Georgiana, marry me before you go back! You've promised to stay a week. Let's have a wedding here, next Wednesday. Then we'll leave Father Davy here comfortably with Mrs. MacFayden, and run up to see about getting things packed and s.h.i.+pped. I'll take that much of a vacation now. Then, in April, we'll go abroad for a real honeymoon and take Father Davy with us. I'd propose that now, but the seas are stormy in December and January and we mustn't risk it for him. But, let's not wait! Why should we? Now, honestly, why should we?”
The girl turned her face, with a strange little look of appeal, toward her father, to meet such a look of entire comprehension as stirred her to the depths. Suddenly, obeying an impulse she did not understand, she drew herself gently away from Craig, rose and went to the figure in the big chair opposite. She sat down on the arm and, bending, dropped her face upon the fatherly shoulder, hiding it there. Craig sat perfectly still, watching the pair, as Father Davy put up a thin, white hand and patted the dark head. Then the two men smiled at each other.
After a while Craig got up and quietly left the room.
By and by Father Davy whispered: ”What is it, dear? You're not ready?
You shall not be hurried. Or is it----”
She spoke into his ear. ”I want to go back home--and earn--and earn--enough to----”
”Can you earn it, daughter? Can you ever get enough ahead to provide what you would like? And meanwhile--he wants you very much, my dear. I think I know more of his heart than you do, in way. Last winter we had certain talks that showed me a little of that. Would it be such a blow to pride to do as he asks? Unless--in other ways you are not ready. If your love for him isn't quite mature enough yet----”
”Oh, it isn't that; it's mature enough. It--it hasn't grown, in spite of me, all this year like--a--tumbleweed”--her voice was a little breathless--”not to have got its growth----”
”Its first growth,” amended her father, with a meaning smile.
She nodded. ”But--if you could know how I want--time to make the most of--what mother left me. I could do so much if I just had time. If I used it now I should have to use it up so fast! There'll be fifty dollars left when we get back. I could almost make that do, if--no, of course I couldn't. But I could earn more. O Father Davy, is it wrong of me to be so proud?”
”Not wrong, my girl, but very natural, I suppose. Yet to me--well, dear, I hardly know how to say what I feel. I confess I should like to see you married to this man. Life is--so short----”
They sat together in silence for a time; then Georgiana slipped back into the seat where she had been.