Molly Brown's College Friends Part 12

"Dr. Flint did want to marry me; I guess he still does, but--but----"

"But what, la.s.sie?" Sometimes Andy dropped into his parents' vernacular.

"I am not going to tell a man in his shirt sleeves why I didn't marry Dr. Flint," said Nance firmly. "It is too unpicturesque."

"Then I'll put on my coat."

"No, you won't! I wouldn't tell a man in a wet coat, either."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like to lay my brown head on a damp shoulder. Why don't you do as I told you and dry that shirt sleeve? Hold it close to the fire, sir!"

"I won't do it unless you tell me why you didn't marry Dr. Flint."

"Well, then, to keep you from catching your death of cold, I will tell you, but remember I have saved your life. It was--it was because--because he didn't have sandy hair and a bad temper," and Nance was enfolded in the despised shirt sleeves and found a very nice dry spot on which to lay her brown head.

The sun had set and twilight was upon them. The front door opened to admit the master of the house, but Molly was in ambush ready to catch him to keep him out of the library. Kizzie had started in to mend the fire but Molly stopped her.

"Never mind the fire, Kizzie. It is all right for such a warm evening.

Give us tea in the den."

"Why all of this mystery?" asked Edwin Green as he followed his wife back to the den, going on tiptoe as she demanded.

"Andy and Nance are in there."

"Andy McLean! Fine! I want to see him. Won't he be here to tea? I'll go in and speak to him."

"You'll do no such thing! Edwin Green, you may be--in fact, are, a grand lecturer on English, but you have no practical sense. Don't you know you might break in just at the wrong moment and Andy may get off to France without their making it up?"

"Making up what? Who making up: the Allies and the central powers?"

"Oh, Edwin, you know I mean Nance and Andy!"

"What are they making up? If it is a row, let's go help them."

"Not a soul shall go in that room until they come out, unless it is over my dead body."

"Well, well! I'd rather stay in this room with your live body than go in there over your dead one," and the professor pulled his wife down on the sofa by him, "especially if you will give me some tea," as Kizzie came in grinning with the tea tray.

"They's co'tin' a-goin' on in yander, boss. The fiah is low an' the lights ain't lit, but Miss Molly she guard that do' like a cat do a mouse hole. Cose Miss Nance ain't got no maw to futher things up for her but Miss Molly is all ready to fly off an' git the preacher, seems like."

"I can't remember that things were made easy for me this way when I was addressing my wife," complained Edwin as he stirred his tea with his arm around his wife, a combination that could not have been made had his arm not been long and Molly still slender.

"Ungrateful man! Why, Judy and Kent took the bus from Fontainebleau to Barbizon when they were simply dying to walk, just to give you a chance.

Have you forgotten?"

"I haven't forgotten the walk--I never will--and if they really rode on my account, I'll pa.s.s on the favor to other lovers and stay out of my library until the cows come home; that is, if you will stay with me."

Molly told him then of the whole affair and how Mildred had righted matters, telling Andy just exactly the right thing to bring him to his senses.

"I am almost sure they have made up and are engaged again," sighed Molly ecstatically. A romance was dear to her soul and being happily married herself, she felt like furthering the love affairs of all her friends.

"They are either engaged or dead," laughed Edwin. "Such silence emanating from the library must bode extreme calamity or extreme bliss. If it continues much longer I think it is my duty as a householder to break in the door and offer congratulations or call the coroner, as the case demands."

"It is getting late. Maybe I had better go in and ask Andy to stay to dinner."

Molly, who had a deep-rooted objection to noise and usually talked in a low tone, now spoke in a loud voice as she b.u.mped her way along the hall, pushing chairs and rattling the hat rack and calling out shrilly to the amused husband following her. Strange to say, she could not remember on which side of the door the k.n.o.b was, although she had lived several years in that house. She fumblingly hunted it and finally opened the door with a great rattle.

Nance was seated sedately knitting and Andy was holding his coat close to the dying flames. The room was almost dark.

"Kizzie should have lighted the lamp and attended to the fire," Molly said briskly. Oh, Molly, how could you be so untruthful, blaming things on poor Kizzie, too? (Molly's conscience did hurt her for dragging Kizzie in and she gave the girl a long coveted blue hat that she had meant to keep for second best, feeling that it might act as a salve on her own tender, truth-loving soul. Kizzie, quite ignorant of the cause for this generosity, gratefully accepted the hat and asked no questions.)

"Yes, it gets dark before one realizes," said Nance demurely.

"Ahem!" from the professor.

"Oh, Andy, your coat is still wet! Mildred told me you wrapped it around her. I'll get you Edwin's smoking jacket and have your coat dried. You must stay to dinner with us. I can 'phone your mother not to expect you at home."

Andy did not need much persuading, but accepted the invitation with alacrity. Molly called up Mrs. McLean to ask for the loan of her son for dinner.

"Yes!" exclaimed that wise lady at the other end of the wire. "I have been expecting a telephone call for the last half hour. You may keep him but I shall wait up to see him when he gets home. I am sur-r-e he'll have something to tell me. From my back window I saw Nance with the perambulator full of babies on her way to the lake and I sent Andy off for a walk, first putting a flea in his ear by suggesting that the lake was getting shallower and shallower. He has always been that inquisitive that I was sur-r-e he would make for that spot to find out why. I knew that all those poor-r young folks had to do was to meet. Keep him, Molly--and G.o.d bless you!"

There was a little choking sound at the other end that Molly understood very well. She hung up the receiver "with a smile on her lip but a tear in her eye." It is all very well for a mother to be unselfish and want her son to marry and to be happy, but there is a tug of war going on in her heart all the time.

"I know how I will feel when Dodo gets engaged," Molly said to Edwin when she told him of what Mrs. McLean had said; but that young father went off into such shouts of laughter, Molly had a feeling that mere man could never understand a mother's heart.

CHAPTER IX

PLANS

"I have no idea of going through dinner without letting you and old Ed know all about us!" said Andy as he took his place at Molly's hospitable board.

"What about you?" asked Molly, who was growing deceitful, her husband feared.

"About Nance and me! I can't keep it any longer," declared the happy young doctor. Nance kept her eyes on her plate but her mouth was twitching with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"What about you and Nance?" solemnly asked the professor.

"Why, we're engaged!"

"No! Not really?" and Edwin grinned.

"Oh, Andy! I'm so glad!" and Molly reached a hand out to her two friends, who were perforce placed across the table from each other since there were only four for dinner.