Lily Pearl and The Mistress of Rosedale Part 44

"Cheer up, my dear friend, there is sunshine enough for us all if we will only secure it, and we will attempt to woo a little of it when all together once more"; and then went out to join her husband who was impatiently waiting.

"A true little country miss to take such a walk," he remarked as they rolled on towards the farm.

"She is used to it," interposed the coachman with true "Yankee" freedom; "she has gone over this road lots of times when she wasn't the young lady she is to-day! You are her father I suppose?"

Lillian laughed. "I have not introduced you, Frank. This is my husband, and I suppose you learned that Lily was my daughter when I was here before."

"Yes ma'am; and I'm glad! But I needn't 'a' been told that for one would know it to look at you."

"But a little more doubt about the father?" and Colonel Hamilton brought his hand down firmly on the shoulder of the Yankee questioner, while a merry peal of laughter rang out on the summer air.

"Wal--no; but there's the house--and the wheat is ripe enough this minute to harvest!"

"_I_ will go to the door," said Lillian as they came to a halt at the gate; "Mrs. Hopkins, without doubt, is very busy with her dinner, and we will not disturb her by waiting for a reception." She stepped down while speaking and walked briskly towards the house. Before reaching it, however, the door flew open and Lily darted into the outstretched arms of her mother.

"I am so glad!" she exclaimed. "Come--Willie is sick and it may be you can help him!"

"But, my dear, just wait for one moment; your father wants to see you!"

In her excitement she had not thought of the carriage, or the reasons for the unexpected visit, or anything but that the companion of many years had been lying insensible on the bed where the departed one had bid them both farewell so long ago! But the words startled her, and she raised her head from its sweet rest on the dear shoulder to discover a tall military officer standing before them. All the dreams of her maturer years, winged as they had been with glowing aspirations of "what might be." She had so longed to be something besides "little Phebe," to have wings and fly away up among the clouds; to be a bird on the highest tree on the summit of the mountain; and now what was she?

"My daughter! My Lily!" and as he looked at the wondering face his arms were outstretched for the sweet love his great heart was longing for.

Without a word the fairy form sprang into them and a pair of clinging arms were placed about his neck. Long and silent was the embrace for the heart was content.

"Darling, can you love your father? I am not as good-looking as the one you so much resemble, but will I do?"

The large eyes gleamed, and looking intently at him, said: "I think you will!"

He caught her again in his arms and covered her beaming face with kisses.

"There, darling; now let us go to Willie, for I confess that my warmed heart is reaching out for him also."

"O thank you! You will love him I know!" and she preceded her parents into the house. Mrs. Hopkins came forward to greet her visitors with traces of tears still on her cheeks.

"He is better now, and the doctor says it is only overexertion in the hot sun and perhaps a little worry with it," and she led the way to his room.

"I am so glad," Lily was saying with her arms about his neck as they entered. "We will not go out again until it is cooler!"

"But--" He saw Mrs. Hamilton and reached out his hand.

"Here is my husband, Willie, who has learned your worth before seeing you."

"A dull scholar I should be certainly if I had not."

"And you find me only a poor cripple who is obliged to creep through the dust just like any other worm!" He tried to smile but it proved a failure.

"No, my boy; not through the 'dust' just now, but into my heart, where, thank G.o.d, there is plenty of room for you!"

The physician, who had stepped out as they entered now returned, and walking up to the bed said, kindly: "You are all right now, Willie, but you must be a little careful of yourself for a few days and keep in the shade." And then he went away.

"You will stay to dinner?" pleaded Mrs. Hopkins; "I have nothing very nice to give you."

"Shall we, darling?" This to his daughter.

The beautiful eyes added their plea, and the carriage was ordered back to the hotel to return for them at five.

While sitting in the parlor Lily told her father of the mother's gift in the years gone by, adding: "He is my brother--I can never forsake him"; and the answer had been: "He shall not be forsaken. I am too grateful for what I have received willingly to sever a single thread that binds you to the friends of your past."

Mrs. Hopkins was standing in the door when these words were spoken, but turned away with a pain in her heart and a strange pallor on her usually flushed face.

That evening there was a long consultation in the little upper parlor of the village inn, and Mrs. g.a.y.l.o.r.d had repeated the plea: "You will let her remain with me until the summer heat is over? I cannot return home now if I would, and it would be insufferable here without her! As soon as the maple leaves shall crimson and the birds go where I cannot follow, I will come with her to Philadelphia and stand between you no more. It will take the intervening weeks to prepare my heart to endure the separation. Certainly you cannot refuse me this!" And the whole matter was given to the daughter for a decision. She whispered it at last in the ear of her doting father, as she hung about his neck while he petted and caressed her: "For Willie's sake, until he is stronger and able to return to Boston I will remain."

"Pretty hard, my darling, but as there is no appeal the subject is of course closed."

"But there is another of whom I have not told you, whose heart will rejoice at this decision," Lily remarked playfully.

"Not a lover I hope," interposed the father.

"Yes--a true lover! One who has helped me in many a trying hour, and whose advice it has always been safe to follow. You need not draw down that military mustache so threateningly, for this 'lover' is no other than 'Crazy Dimis,' who is even now free from the restraints of the 'county house' and is roaming about somewhere. She appeared to us yesterday out of the honeysuckle swamp, and with her usual earnestness exclaimed, as she pointed her long bony finger at me, 'Little fool, kiss and cry, kiss and cry, don't I know? Life is full of 'em; go, love is waiting--get it;

Eyes must weep--and eyes must hunger, Love must sleep and life must wonder;

don't I know?' And with a loud laugh she darted into the thick shades and life was left to 'wonder.' There is a good deal of common sense in her gibberings, and when three years ago she told me to 'go and make omens' I obeyed, and came to Mrs. g.a.y.l.o.r.d, whose hands were full of cheering 'omens.'"

One week after the northern visit Colonel Hamilton received very decided orders from headquarters to return immediately to his regiment. "Lee must be intercepted."

"You must do it all alone, Lillian," was the quick remark when the telegram was read. "Howe & Brother will furnish all in the upholstery line that will be desired, and be sure that our home is made fitting the reception of our daughter."

How full the succeeding days were to the hopeful wife and mother! "She will be here at the first tinging of the maple trees." This she had said to her aunt. "Only a little more than two months in which to make all ready."

"Such a dainty bit of precious girlhood must not be allowed to step on the common ingrain that covers your old uncle's floors, I take it." This was a little improvised indignation as the good old uncle listened to the plannings and recountings of the luxuries that were to surround her in the home to be prepared. "But the fisherman's cot shouldn't be forgotten, Lillian, and so sometimes you will let her come to us?"

"What a wicked, naughty uncle you are!" Lillian exclaimed, while she smothered all further ebullitions of a.s.sumed anger by placing a little white hand over his mouth. "There! Now to punish you for those words I shall be at the store at five for you to go with me and look over the premises!"

"Want to blacken my fingers with the guilt of spoiling her do you? Well, well! A full half hour lost in palavering; good-bye," and the jovial uncle went out from his home leaving it full of sunshine.

October dawned bright and beautiful. The hazy mist that brooded over the city was tinted with hues of purple and gold as they became tangled with the many colored leaves that fell through the cool shadows in the public squares, and in a week Lily-Pearl Hamilton would arrive! One cloud only was shadowing the path of Mrs. Hamilton, and that the absence and dangers of him to whom her heart had clung through all the gloomy days; but in a few months his "three years" would close and then--how happy they would all be!

"If Pearl can succeed in getting Old Auntie and Lizzy safely here, as he a.s.sured me he could do," she had said, "my cup will be full to overflowing!"

"How will your mother bear all this?" queried Mrs. Cheevers.

"With no serious result I imagine. The doctor told me the other day that she was not susceptible of a very severe shock, her brain having become so inactive that no injury would probably come to it through excitement."

Suddenly recollecting that Pearl's mother was to meet her at the new home at ten she hastened away.

"Everything was _perfect_ in the new home," was Mrs. Hamilton's conclusion, as with Lillian she walked from room to room. "Not ma.s.sive and oppressive with a superabundance of heavy carvings and marble, but bright and cheerful in its display of luxury and beauty. Your taste is good, my daughter, and I think Pearl will commend it."

While at the tea-table that night a letter was brought in for Lillian.