Old Rose and Silver Part 52

"Not long, I guess. See how people fool around over it, and we're getting through with it in one afternoon. We're making a record, I guess."

It seemed that they were, for when they came to the shabby little brown house, near the big white church, the minister, his wife, and a next- door neighbour were waiting. In a very short time, the ceremony was over and Mr. and Mrs. Romeo Crosby were on the train, speeding toward their honeymoon and the lively years that undoubtedly lay ahead of them.

Allison had changed his mind about going out that afternoon, but promised to go next time. Colonel Kent remained at home, and Doctor Jack sped away alone upon his errand.

When he reached Crosby's, Juliet clad in her best, was just leaving the house. She was outwardly cheerful, but her face still bore traces of tears.

"Where were you going?" asked the Doctor, as Juliet greeted him. There was a new shyness in her manner, as of some unwonted restraint.

"I was going into town. I wanted to see Aunt Francesca." She slipped easily into the habit of the others, seldom hearing the name "Madame Bernard."

"I'll take you. Here's a note from your brother."

Juliet opened it, read the fateful message, and turned white as death.

"What is it?" asked the Doctor, much alarmed.

In answer, she offered him the note, her hand shaking pitifully. The Doctor read it twice before he grasped the full meaning of it. "Well, I'll be--" he said, half to himself.

Unable to stand, Juliet sat down upon the well-worn door-step and he sat down beside her. "It's all my fault," she said, solemnly. "Romie told me this morning that I wasn't a lady, and he wanted me to be like her. He said I was a tomboy, and I told him that if I was, he'd done it himself, and he got mad and went away, and now--"

Juliet burst into tears, but she had no handkerchief, so Doctor Jack gave her his.

"'Tears, idle tears,'" he quoted lightly. "I say, kid, don't take it so hard."

"I--I'm not a lady," she sobbed.

"You are," he a.s.sured her. "You're the finest little lady I know."

"Don't--don't," she sobbed. "Don't make fun of me. Romie said that you were--laughing at me--yesterday-because I was--a--a tomboy!"

"Kid," he said, softly, almost unmanned by a sudden tenderness quite foreign to his experience. "Oh, my dear little girl, won't you look at me?"

The tone was wholly new to Juliet--she did not know that any man could be so tender, so beautifully kind. "It's because he's a doctor," she thought. "He's used to seeing people when they don't feel right."

"I'm so sorry," he was saying. "Your brother didn't mean anything by it, little girl. He was just teasing."

"He wasn't," returned Juliet, wiping her eyes. "Don't you think I know when he's teasing and when he isn't? I'm not a lady; I'm only a tomboy, and now he's gone away with her and left me all alone."

"You'll never be alone if I can help it," he a.s.sured her, fervently.

"Look here, do you suppose you could ever learn to like me?"

"Why, I like you now--I've always liked you."

"I know, but I don't mean that. Do you think you could ever like me a whole lot? Enough to marry me, I mean?"

"Why, I don't know--I never thought--" Juliet's voice trailed off into an inarticulate murmur of astonishment.

"Won't you try?" he pleaded. "Oh, Juliet, I've loved you ever since I first saw you!"

The high colour surged into her face. He was not joking--he meant every word. Even Juliet could see that.

"Won't you try, dear? That's all I'll ask for, now."

"Why, yes," she said, her wide blue eyes fixed upon his. "I'd try almost anything--for you, but I'm only a tomboy."

Doctor Jack caught her cold little hands in his. "Kiss me," he said, huskily.

Juliet's face burned, but she lifted her lips to his, obediently and simply as a child. The man hesitated for an instant, then pushed her away from him; not unkindly, but firmly.

"No, I won't take it, Princess," he said, in a strange tone. "I'll wait until you wake up." "I'm--not asleep," she stammered.

"You are in some ways." Then he added, irrelevantly, "Thank G.o.d!"

"I don't know," remarked Juliet, at the end of an uncomfortable pause, "what to do with myself. I don't want to stay here alone and I wouldn't go anywhere near them--not for the world."

"Where did you say you were going, when I came?"

"To Aunt Francesca's--Madame Bernard, you know."

"Good business," he answered, nodding vigorous approval. "Come on. She seems to be the unfailing refuge of the shipwrecked mariner in this district. If I'm not much mistaken, she'll take you into her big house and her bigger heart."

"Oh," said Juliet, wistfully, "do you think she would take me--and make me into a lady?"

"I think she'll take you," he responded, after a brief struggle with himself, "but I don't want you made over. I want you to stay just exactly as you are. Oh, you dear little kid," he muttered, "you'll try to care, won't you?"

"I'll try," she promised, sweetly, as she climbed into the big red machine. "I didn't think I'd ever be in this car."

"You can come whenever you like. It's mine, now."

Juliet did not seem to hear. The car hummed along the dusty road, making a soothing, purring noise. Pensively she looked across the distant fields, whence came the hum and whir of reaping. There was a far-away look in her face that the man beside her was powerless to understand.

She was making swift readjustments as best she might, and, wisely, he left her to herself.

As they approached Madame Bernard's, Juliet turned to him. "I was just thinking," she sighed, "how quickly you grow up after you get to be twenty-one."

He made no answer. He swallowed hard and turned the car into the driveway. Aunt Francesca came out on the veranda, followed by Mr.

Boffin, as Juliet jumped out of the car. She had the crumpled note in her cold little hand.

Without a word, she offered it to Madame Bernard and waited. The beautiful face instantly became soft with pity. "My dear child," she breathed. "My dear little motherless child!"

Juliet went into her open arms as straight as a homing pigeon to its nest. "Oh, Aunt Francesca," she sobbed, "will you take me and make a lady out of me?"

"You're already a lady," laughed the older woman amid her tears. "Come in, Juliet dear--come home!"