Part 14 (1/2)
”As if I could be anything else!” laughed the bride.
”All right, then,” said Kate. ”What I want is this: that these days shall always come back to you in memory as nearly perfect as possible.
Now if my being here helps ever so little, I like to stay, and I'll be glad to cook and wash dishes, while you fix your house to suit you.
But if you'd rather be alone, I'll go back to Walden and be satisfied and happy with the fine treat this has been. I can look everyone in the face now, talk about the wedding, and feel all right.”
Nancy Ellen said slowly: ”I shan't spare you until barely time to reach your school Monday morning. And I'm not keeping you to work for me, either! We'll do everything together, and then we'll plan how to make the house pretty, and go see Robert in his office, and go shopping. I'll never forgive you if you go.”
”Why, Nancy Ellen--!” said Kate, then fled to the kitchen too happy to speak further.
None of them ever forgot that week. It was such a happy time that all of them dreaded its end; but when it came they parted cheerfully, and each went back to work, the better for the happy reunion. Kate did not return to Walden until Monday; then she found Mrs. Holt in an evil temper. Kate could not understand it. She had no means of knowing that for a week George had nagged his mother unceasingly because Kate was gone on his return, and would not be back until after time for him to go again. The only way for him to see her during the week he had planned to come out openly as her lover, was to try to find her at her home, or at her sister's. He did not feel that it would help him to go where he never had been asked. His only recourse was to miss a few days of school and do extra work to make it up; but he detested nothing in life as he detested work, so the world's happy week had been to them one of constant sparring and unhappiness, for which Mrs. Holt blamed Kate. Her son had returned expecting to court Kate Bates strenuously; his disappointment was not lightened by his mother's constant nagging.
Monday forenoon she went to market, and came in gasping.
”Land sakes!” she cried as she panted down the hall. ”I've got a good one on that impident huzzy now!”
”You better keep your mouth shut, and not gossip about her,” he said.
”Everyone likes her!”
”No, they don't, for I hate her worse 'n snakes! If it wa'n't for her money I'd fix her so's 'at she'd never marry you in kingdom come.”
George Holt clenched his big fist.
”Just you try it!” he threatened. ”Just you try that!”
”You'll live to see the day you'd thank me if I did. She ain't been home. Mind you, she ain't been HOME! She never seen her sister married at all! Tilly Nepple has a sister, living near the Bates, who worked in the kitchen. She's visitin' at Tilly's now. Miss High-and-Mighty never seen her sister married at all! An' it looked mighty queer, her comin' here a week ahead of time, in the fall. Looks like she'd done somepin she don't DARE go home. No wonder she tears every sc.r.a.p of mail she gets to ribbons an' burns it. I told you she had a secret! If ever you'd listen to me.”
”Why, you're crazy!” he exclaimed. ”I did listen to you. What you told me was that I should go after her with all my might. So I did it.
Now you come with this. Shut it up! Don't let her get wind of it for the world!”
”And Tilly Nepple's sister says old Land King Bates never give his daughter a cent, an' he never gives none of his girls a cent. It's up to the men they marry to take keer of them. The old skin-flint! What you want to do is to go long to your schoolin', if you reely are going to make somepin of yourself at last, an' let that big strap of a girl be, do--”
”Now, stop!” shouted George Holt. ”Scenting another scandal, are you?
Don't you dare mar Kate Bates' standing, or her reputation in this town, or we'll have a time like we never had before. If old Bates doesn't give his girls anything when they marry, they'll get more when he dies. And so far as money is concerned, this has gone PAST money with me. I'm going to marry Kate Bates, as soon as ever I can, and I've got to the place where I'd marry her if she hadn't a cent. If I can't take care of her, she can take care of me. I am crazy about her, an' I'm going to have her; so you keep still, an' do all you can to help me, or you'll regret it.”
”It's you that will regret it!” she said.
”Stop your nagging, I tell you, or I'll come at you in a way you won't like,” he cried.
”You do that every day you're here,” said Mrs. Holt, starting to the kitchen to begin dinner.
Kate appeared in half an hour, fresh and rosy, also prepared; for one of her little pupils had said: ”Tilly Nepple's sister say you wasn't at your sister's wedding at all. Did you cry 'cause you couldn't go?”
Instantly Kate comprehended what must be town gossip, so she gave the child a happy solution of the question bothering her, and went to her boarding house forewarned. She greeted both Mrs. Holt and her son cordially, then sat down to dinner, in the best of spirits. The instant her chance came, Mrs. Holt said: ”Now tell us all about the lovely wedding.”
”But I wasn't managing the wedding,” said Kate cheerfully. ”I was on the infare job. Mother and Nancy Ellen put the wedding through. You know our house isn't very large, and close relatives fill it to bursting. I've seen the same kind of wedding about every eighteen months all my life. I had a NEW job this time, and one I liked better.”
She turned to George: ”Of course your mother told you that Dr. Gray came after me. He came to ask me as an especial favour to go to his new house in Hartley, and do what I could to arrange it, and to have a supper ready. I was glad. I'd seen six weddings that I can remember, all exactly alike--there's nothing to them; but brus.h.i.+ng those new carpets, unwrapping nice furniture and placing it, was.h.i.+ng pretty new dishes, untying the loveliest gifts and arranging them--THAT was something new in a Bates wedding. Oh, but I had a splendid time!”