The Gold of Chickaree Part 56

'Hush!?Don't you understand? The more b.u.t.tons, the fewer gloves?if you are limited. That was why I asked how much.'

'The b.u.t.tons do not look costly.'

'But they are?in effect.'

'What's the difference?'

'Every additional b.u.t.ton counts for so much,' Hazel told him.

'How many b.u.t.tons are needed for comfort?'

'Twelve are best for some occasions,?and I think I have one box with two.'

'But how many are needed for comfort?' said Dane, inquisitorially now.

'Why!?as I told you,' said Hazel. 'The comfort of a glove depends on its fitting your dress and the occasion as well as your hand.'

Dane pulled a card out of his pocket and did a moment's figuring on it with his pencil. Then shewed it to Wych Hazel.

'Do you see?' he said low and rapidly in French. 'If you are buying so many?the difference between two b.u.t.tons and four would keep a fire all winter for one of Rosy's old women who has no means to buy firing.'

Hazel looked at him with open eyes, shook her head, and moved away. 'I see I must quit my side of the counter,' she said. 'That would not suit Prim's "views" at all. May I get them with two?'?

Practically the same thing went on in the lace and embroidery departments. In the shawl room Hazel was better satisfied, though even there Rollo was content with less than a cashmere. Furs, linens, ribbands, what not, claimed also attention; and Prim's trunk took a good while to fill.

The next thing was a new carpet for the long library at Dr.

Maryland's.

So went the day, with many an other purchasing errand, general and particular. New Year's gifts for the mill hands and the children; the supplies for the stores which Rollo was purposing to open in the Hollow, where all sorts of needful things should be furnished to the hands at cost prices; an easy chair for Reo, a watch for Mrs. Boerresen; books, pictures, baskets. In the course of things Hazel was taken to a Bank, where a dignified personage was presented to her and she was requested to inscribe her name in a big book, and a deposit was made to her account. Also a good down town restaurant was visited, where they got lunch. It was a regular game of play at last. Rollo bought, as Hazel never before saw anybody, things he wanted and things he did not want, if the shopman or shopwoman seemed to be of sorry cheer or suffering from that sort of slow custom which makes New Year's day a depressing time to tradespeople. And Hazel looked on silently. It was so new to her, this sort of buying, and (it may be said) the buyer was also so new! She did not feel like Wych Hazel, nor anybody else she had ever heard of, and could hardly find self- a.s.sertion enough to execute her Chickaree commissions when she saw the right thing. She made a suggestion now and then indeed,?

"strawberry baskets" and "fishing lines" and "worsted." 'Byo says Trudchen knit every minute she was at Chickaree,' she remarked.

And every suggestion she made Rollo acted upon as fast. Some things were ordered at once to Chickaree; others were sent or taken home with them to the hotel; whither at last, with their work but half done, the two busy and tired people repaired themselves.

A pile of business letters demanded Mr. Rollo's time after dinner; and while he was somewhat absorbed in them, Hazel softly brought a foot cushion to his side and placed herself there. It was almost a demonstration, the way she did this, but she ventured nothing further, and sat there still and absorbed in her own musings. Dark blue silky folds lay all around her, and hands and arms came out a little from the wide lace sleeves and were crossed upon her knees. Rollo's eyes wandered to her from his letters once and again, and finally he tossed them aside, and stooped down to look at her and pull her curls a little away from her face.

'Business can wait!'?he said. 'What are you musing about, d.u.c.h.ess?'

'O, a host of things!?'

'Take me along.'

'So I have.'

'In what capacity, pray?'

'General Superintendent.'

Rollo began to laugh. 'May I know what I am to superintend?'

'Well,' said Hazel, with a bit of a laugh on her side, 'you were filling my trunk?and I could not tell how!'

'Why not?' said Dane, drawing a long curl through his fingers.

'Would it be like Prim's?'

'I hope I have more discrimination!'

'As how?'

'Than to think the same things would suit two so different people.'

'O I did not suppose you would m.u.f.fle me in stone-coloured merino,' said Hazel,?'but I mean? You know what I mean!'?

'I should not like you as well in stone-coloured merino as in blue.

Should a bird of paradise wear the plumage of a thrush or a quail?'

Hazel looked soberly down at the dark silky waves that rippled along between her and the firelight. She said not a word. Dane knew well enough what she was thinking of, but chose to have the subject brought forward by herself if at all. He paused a minute.

'Would you like a trunk filled like Prim's?'

Hazel trilled her fingers thoughtfully over the hand that lay near her, and then suddenly asked, 'Does that annoy you?'

'Not much,' said Rollo drily. She glanced up at him.

'Mr. Falkirk used to hate it.?And I forgot what my hand was about,' said Hazel; sedately folding it again with its small comrade.

From which it as brought back, first to her husband's lips.

'Have we got to the bottom of that trunk yet?'

'There was another point,' said Hazel. '_Should_ I ever get to the bottom of it?'

'Never!' said Dane. 'If getting to the bottom of it implied using what you took out.'

Hazel laughed a little.

'That was just how I felt, 'she said. 'But Olaf'?growing sober again?'after all you do not answer the real intrinsic question.'

'How would you state that, as it presents itself to you?'

'Whether you would fill it _so_,' she said, looking musingly at the fire. 'So,?not in precise colour, of course, nor exact pattern,?but in general quality?and plainness?and?' she paused for a word.

Dane said quietly, 'Probably not.'

Hazel went back into an unsatisfied muse.

'One would think,' she said with a half laugh, 'that I was an inquisitor, and that you were answering under torture!'

'Come,' said he, 'you shall not say that again. Question, and I will answer straight.'