The Comings of Cousin Ann Part 13

Jeff had noticed, as he pa.s.sed Judith's home, that the little blue car was parked in front and his surmise was that the girl was going to the ball but had not yet gone. He registered the determination to hurry his own crowd into the skating rink and wait and speak to Judith. This decision had come immediately after his promising himself that he wasn't even going to think any more about the girl, and that if she happened to be one of the guests at the debut party he was going to spend the evening being pleasant to his sisters' friends and not even ask her to dance.

Mrs. Buck accepted his offer of a.s.sistance with shy acquiescence. The blue car was not easy to get out of, as the seat was low and there was no step, so Jeff must swing the lady out, lifting her up bodily and jumping her to the curbing. She came down lightly but fl.u.s.tered.

Unreasoning anger filled Jeff Bucknor's heart when he released the blushing Mrs. Buck to find Tom Harbison had pushed his way in between the sidewalk and the blue car and was insisting upon helping Judith to alight.

"Thanks awfully, but I am accustomed to getting out by myself," she said.

"And I am accustomed to helping beautiful young ladies out of cars,"

said Tom. "You don't know what a past master I am in the art."

"If there were any beautiful young ladies around I am sure they would be delighted, but since there are not any in sight your art will have to languish for lack of exercise," flashed Judith.

Mrs. Buck and her daughter had both covered their finery with old linen dusters, which they had planned to discard before entering the hall. It was a distinct annoyance to Mrs. Buck that these two handsome young cavaliers should see them thus enveloped.

"They'll get the wrong impression of my girl," was her thought, and now here was Judith wasting her time and the precious dancing hours bantering with a strange young man as to whether she should be allowed to jump from her car una.s.sisted or should be helped out in a ladylike manner.

"Well, Judith, come along one way or the other," Mrs. Buck drawled.

"Perhaps Miss Buck would take one of my hands and one of yours,"

suggested Jeff to Tom.

"Perhaps the decrepit old lady will," laughed Judy, making a flying leap between their outstretched hands without touching them and landing lightly on the sidewalk by her mother. "Thank you both very much," she said, and clutching her mother's arm she hurried into the lobby of the skating rink and was lost to view in the crowd of arriving guests.

"Here's the dressing-room, Mumsy, and we can leave our awful old dusters in there. Weren't you furious at being seen in the horrid things and that by the best beaux of the ball? Now, Mumsy, you just stick to me and we'll go say howdy to the dear old men and thank them for my dress and shoes and stockings and then you can go sit by some of your nice church members, while I find somebody to dance with me."

"But, Judy, surely you are not going to thank the old men right out before everybody, and surely you are not going to ask anybody to dance with you!"

"Of course not, Mumsy! I'm going to use finesse about both things. You just see how tactful I am. Oh! Oh! Oh! I'm so excited! Just look at the streamers and flags and all the funny funeral wreaths, and only listen to the music! I'm about sure there are wings on my golden slippers. Really and truly, Mumsy, they do not touch the ground when I walk. I'm simply floating in a kind of nebulous haze--in fact I believe I am charged with electricity."

"Charged with foolishness, you mean!"

"Oh, but Mumsy, look, we are right behind my cousins from Buck Hill.

Let's don't go in too close to them. I'm entirely too happy to take a snubbing from Mildred Bucknor. Doesn't Cousin Ann Peyton look beautiful?"

"You mean the old lady in hoop skirts? She's terribly behind the times, ain't she? But, Judy, who was the young man who was so bent on helping you out of the car? You didn't pretend to introduce him."

"Mr. Harbison. I have not met him myself yet. I believe he is Mildred Bucknor's special property."

The ten old men of the receiving line were drawn up in battle array, in all the glory of their best clothes. Pete Barnes was gorgeous in checked trousers and Prince Albert coat, with his bushy iron-gray hair well oiled and combed in what used to be known as a roach, a style popular in his early manhood. Some of the veterans were in uniform--the blue or the gray. All wore white carnations in their b.u.t.ton-holes. The guests shook hands with the hosts and then moved on.

Those who had come merely to look on sought the chairs ranged against the wall; others who wanted to dance were eagerly arranging for partners if they were men, while the fair s.e.x a.s.sumed a supreme indifference. Colonel Crutcher busied himself giving out dancing cards and seeing that the young people were introduced.

The first sensation of the evening was the entrance of Miss Ann Peyton. With slow grace and dignity she sailed into the ballroom and approached the receiving line alone. Mr. and Mrs. Bucknor had stopped a moment to speak to some acquaintances and Mildred had intentionally held back the crowd of young people comprising the house party from Buck Hill, whispering that they really need not mix with the others.

"Of course we must speak to those ridiculous old men, but after that we can just stay together. It will be lots more fun."

"Here comes Miss Ann Peyton!" the whisper went around the hall.

"Well, if it isn't Cousin Ann!" Big Josh Bucknor boomed to his daughters.

"For goodness sake don't ask her to go home with us," begged those ladies.

Big Josh slapped his leg and laughed aloud. Everything about Big Josh was loud and hearty. He was a short, fat man with a big, red face and a perfectly bald head. The Misses Bucknor were tall and aristocratic in figure and bearing. They were constantly being mortified by their father's tendency to make a noise and his unfailing habit of diverging from the strict truth. But Big Josh was more popular in the county than his conscientious daughters.

Old Billy had wormed his way into the ballroom with the pretext of having to carry Miss Ann's shawl. Quietly he slipped up the stairs into the balcony and, hiding behind the festooned bunting, he peeped down on his beloved mistress as she stood, a quaint, old-fashioned figure, making her bow to the receiving line.

"By gad, Miss Ann, you are looking fit," said Major Fitch. "We are proud to have you with us. I hope you will save me a dance. Yes, yes!

We are going to have some reels and lancers and some good old time quadrilles. If the young uns don't like it they can lump it. Here, Colonel Crutcher, give Miss Ann a dance card. How about giving me the first square dance?"

"And put me down for the next," begged the Colonel gallantly. "It won't be the first quadrille I have stepped with you."

All down the line Miss Ann was greeted with kindness and courtesy. Old Billy almost fell out of the balcony, so great was his joy when he saw Miss Ann's card in demand and realized that his mistress was being sought after. A flush was on the old lady's cheeks as she swept across the ballroom floor and seated herself in the outer row of chairs, reserved for the dancers. A little t.i.tter arose.

"What a funny-looking old woman!" was the general verdict.

"By the great jumping jingo, they shan't laugh at her!" exclaimed Big Josh. "She's kin--hoop skirt and all."

His daughters held him back a moment: "Remember! Don't dare invite her home with you."

Big Josh made a wry face but he immediately went to speak to his aged cousin, looking threateningly at the crowd who had dared to giggle at anyone related to him.

"How do you do, Cousin?" he said, pushing her voluminous skirts aside so that he might slide into the chair next to her. "Glad to see you looking so spry. Thought we couldn't come to-night because the lane is so bad after the rain this morning. Dust three feet deep yesterday and to-day puddles big enough to drown a pig. I'm gonter get me a flying machine. Lots cheaper than trying to put that road in condition. Yes--I'll get a family machine for the girls and a light little fly-by-night for myself. I believe in the latest improvements in everything.

"Oh, yes, I have flown often. Every time I go to Louisville a friend takes me up. Not afraid a bit--love it. Of course I know how to run the motor--simplest thing in the world. All you have to remember is not to sneeze while you are up in the air. Sneezing is sometimes fatal. It destroys your equilibrium as nothing else does and you are liable to make a disastrous nose dive. Running an airplane is much easier than an automobile. Nerve? Not a bit of it. I tell you, Cousin Ann, when I get my flying machine I'll come get you and ride you to my place and then you will be spared the b.u.mps of that devilish lane.

Just as soon as I get it I'll drop you a line. Of course, old Billy can bring the carriage and horses up at his convenience. You are at Buck Hill now, I understand. I tell you, I'll 'phone over just as soon as my airplane comes and you can get yourself ready for a flight. Be sure to wrap up warm and put something over your head."

Miss Ann a.s.sured him she would.

"By crickity! Who is that girl speaking to the old men now? That red-headed girl in the fairy queen dress? Bless Bob, if it ain't old d.i.c.k Buck's granddaughter. I used to give her a lift into school when she was a kid. I tell you she's got some style about her. Looks more born and bred than any gal here. I don't see where she got it from."

"From the Bucknors!" announced Miss Ann, firmly.

"Bucknors! Oh, come now, Cousin Ann, you aren't going to come that old gag on me. Old d.i.c.k Buck used to boast he was our kin when he got drunk, but it is absurd. Drunk or sober, he was no relation of ours."

"He was your cousin, both drunk and sober. I've heard my grandfather tell--" and Miss Ann launched into the tale.

"Well, by gad, if she's of the blood we ought to recognize her!"

declared Big Josh, smiting his thigh with a resounding smack. "I'll speak to the family about it. Little Josh will be here to-night and Cousin Betty Throckmorton's Philip and no doubt many of the clan. I tell you I wouldn't mind claiming kin with a gal like that, especially now that old d.i.c.k Buck is dead."

CHAPTER XIV

On With the Dance

Others besides Big Josh had noticed Judith as she came forward to speak to her old friends. Her dress, a shimmer of white and gold, might have been wished on her by a fairy G.o.dmother, a thing of gossamer and moonbeams.