Part 32 (1/2)
Mrs. Jenkins paused in the sudsing of a garment.
”Let me see!” she said, surveying the object with reminiscent scrutiny.
”Oh, yes, I remember now. I found it on the floor the day she was here, afore the waist was ready for her. I thought she had dropped it, and so I pinned it in the sleeve of her dress, and was goin to tell Gus to give it to her, but he didn't take the waist hum, and then so much happened, it went clean out of my mind.”
”I'll go right over to her house with it now,” said Amarilly.
Lily Rose, adorned in the filmy, white waist, entered the kitchen.
”See, Amarilly,” she said delightedly. ”It's a beautiful fit!”
But Amarilly had something on her mind of more moment even than Lily Rose's wedding garments.
”I am glad it fits,” she said hurriedly, scarcely vouchsafing a glance toward Lily Rose as she caught up her hat, and hastened as fast as the street-cars would take her to Colette. Orders had been given for the admittance of Amarilly at any hour and to any room her young patroness might chance to be occupying. This morning she was in her boudoir.
”Oh, Miss King!” cried Amarilly, her face aglow. ”I guess I have found it!”
Colette's heart began to flutter and the wavering beat became a steady throb when Amarilly handed her the long lost article.
”Oh, Amarilly, you darling! Yes, yes, this is it! And it evidently has not been touched. Where did you find it? Who had it?” Amarilly related the story of its discovery.
”Then, but for your generosity, Amarilly, this would have been in the waist for years, so I am going to reward you. You shall make Lily Rose a wedding present of the waist, and when you are married, I shall give you a real, white wedding gown of white satin with a bridal train!”
”Oh, Miss King! I must get married then, even if I have to do it in a leap year!”
”Of course you will marry. I shall pick out the bridegroom myself. I feel like doing almost anything for you, Amarilly.”
”Do you, truly?” asked Amarilly. ”Then I wish you would--”
”Tell me, dear!” urged Colette. ”I'll do anything for you to-day.”
”Be nice to Mr. St. John!” whispered the little peacemaker.
”Amarilly! I will, indeed--nicer than you can imagine, or he either. And tell me, is Lily Rose still happy--very happy?”
”Yes,” replied Amarilly. ”So happy, and so scared-like, and she's going to dress at our house and could you come early and fix on the veil? We don't just know how it goes.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Be nice to Mr. St. John!” whispered the little peacemaker.]
”Of course I will. And now will you take a little note to St. John for me on your way home?”
”Yes, Miss King. And are you going to tell him it is found?”
”No, Amarilly; not until to-morrow night, so don't say anything about it to him.”
The rector looked up with a welcoming smile when Amarilly was shown into his study.
”I came with a note from her,” she said with a glad little intonation in her voice.
John took it eagerly. His face fell at the first few words which told him not to call for her to-morrow night on the way to the wedding, but it brightened amazingly when he read the reason--the adjusting of Lily Rose's bridal veil; it fairly radiated joy when he read: