Читать книгу By the Way of the Silverthorns (Musaicum Romance Classics) - Grace Livingston Hill - Страница 4

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The ushers were getting ready for the dinner. They were housed in the home of Paul Redfern, one of their number, whose family were traveling abroad, and who was keeping bachelor’s hall with a couple of servants to keep things in order. There was plenty of space and they were having a grand time scattered through three or four palatial rooms, shouting conversation back and forth. They were all friends, three of them having gone to the same college, and the rest had been more or less intimate friends childhood. For the bridegroom from afar had left the matter of ushers to his bride as the simplest way of solving the problem, since all of his friends were on the west coast.

“Say, fellas, you’d better begin to rustle yourselves into battle array pretty quick! We ought to be starting in half an hour,” called Paul, who as host had suddenly become aware of the time.

“You don’t say! Is it that late?” said Reeves Leighton, starting up from a sleepy hollow chair into which he had dropped when he came in. “What unearthly hour is this dinner anyway? Man, do you know what time it is?”

“Sure I know,” said Paul, “and the dinner’s at six thirty. That’s not an unearthly hour. We have rehearsal in the church at eight, and they particularly asked us to be on time, because rehearsals always take forever and a day, and Mrs. Hollis said she wanted Sydney to get to sleep early so she would be all right for tomorrow. Syd hasn’t been very well lately, and her mother’s worried about her.”

“Yes, I guess she’s been going a pretty fast pace the last month or two,” said Steve Grant. “I see her everywhere I go. It beats me why when a girl gets engaged everybody in the neighborhood has to begin to torment her with parties and things. Say, we’re going to miss that gal a lot when she goes away.”

“Yes, Steve, you ought to have thought of that before. Why ever did you let a strange bridegroom from afar capture her?”

“I did my best,” said Steve jauntily with a handsome grin. “I couldn’t help it, could I, if she preferred the stranger from afar to my manly beauty?”

“Sure you could have helped it, Stevie,” teased Paul Redfern. “You never fail to get what you want, do you? The trouble was you were indolent. You should have begun sooner, and made hay while the sun shone! If we hadn’t counted on you to keep Syd in this part of the country some of the rest of us might have got going in time to save her!”

“Well, at that I hear she’s doing rather well for herself,” said Curlin Grant with a comical grin. “A million dollars is not to be sneezed at, and everybody knows you can’t scare up one of those from any of us poor country guys.”

Then the doorbell was heard in the distance, and they all came to attention.

“That’s bound to be Link!” said Paul. “He’s always right on the dot for time. Lincoln Silverthorn is a hound for doing everything on the dotted line. But that means, fellas, that we’ve got to hustle!”

“But where’s Luther Waite?” they called out as they scattered in search of their various garments.

“Oh, have you forgotten? ‘Luther Waite, he’s always late’?” yelled out Steve as he made a dash for the room that had been assigned him. “He’ll turn up after we’re seated at the table. That’s Lute.”

“Or maybe as we’re marching up the aisle,” added Curlin under his breath.

Lincoln Silverthorn came upstairs gloved, overcoated, his hat in his hand to see how near ready they were. He stood in the hall where he could get a fairly good view of each of the four rooms where the young men were hurrying into their garments.

“Hello, Link! Early as usual I see!”

“Late as usual, I see,” said Link grinning.

“Say, Link, seen anything of Lute Waite?”

“Ho! You wouldn’t expect those two to meet up with each other, not beforehand, anyway!” called out Curlin comically.

“No,” said Link. “I haven’t seen him. In fact I wasn’t looking for him. It wouldn’t occur to me to expect him so soon.”

But while they were laughing at that the doorbell rang again and Luther Waite came pounding up the stairs, his hat in his hand, his hair awry, and a look of distress on his face.

“Hi, there, Lute, you aren’t ill or anything are you, appearing on the scene so early?” called Steve wickedly, leaning over the stair railing.

“No, I’m not yet,” said Luther panting as he hurried up, “but I don’t know but I’m gonna be! Say, Link, you ought ta know, who are the girls in this show? Do you know them all?”

Link smiled at his serious face.

“Why, yes, I guess I can name them all. There’s Frannie Ferrin, Lou McHale—you know her, Lutie. Then there’s Carey Carewe, Patricia Nicholson, and Betty Patterson and Sue Richards—those I don’t know so well—and my sister Rae!”

A look of relief passed over your Waite’s face.

“Is that all? Are you sure?” he asked anxiously.

“Isn’t that enough?” groaned Reeves Leighton. “Just think of all those girls, and we don’t know which one we get yet,” said Reeves.

“Calm yourself, brother,” said Paul. “They’re all a pretty decent lot if you ask me. I should think one might manage a little thing like walking down the aisle with any one of them. It isn’t as if it was to last for a lifetime. What’s eating you, Waite? You look all worried and jittery.”

Waite dropped down on the top step of the stairs and leaned back against the stair railing.

“Well, you see, I’ve had a shock!” he said with a heavy sigh of relief. “I was waiting for my bus to come along, and the bus came from the other direction, and who should I sight but that goofy cousin of Sydney Hollis’, that girl they call ‘Min’ something, and I thought if she was going to be one of the wedding party I was going to beat it! They’d be sure to put her with me. I am always a sucker for the leftovers that nobody else wants, but this would be the third time in the last year or so that I’ve served in that capacity, and I’m not up to it again. I just can’t take it! You know it’s not merely a matter of walking down the aisle with her, Paul my friend, it’s the matter of a whole evening more or less, generally more. She’s the kind that freezes onto you fast in the course of the amble down the aisle, and boy! I defy you to get away from her again while the ceremony lasts! And even after, she has ways of hinting that she wants you to take her places the next day and the next week and so on. The first time I met her it took me a week to make her forget me so she couldn’t reach me by telephone. And the next time it was all winter I hadta keep dodging her.”

Luther Waite had a mop of deep mahogany curls, and gray eyes that had a hint of brown in them. He was rugged, with a lean face and build and a peppering of freckles across the bridge of a nice nose.

“But look her, Lutie,” said Reeves Leighton, “didn’t you know that the lady in question had moved far away to the west and isn’t in these parts at all? You must have been imagining!”

“Imagining? Me? I tell you I saw her with my own eyes, and I don’t imagine things. I got the very lowest marks always in school for anything that required an imagination, like a composition. I never had any imagination at all! No sir! Boy, I saw that baby, and she was burrowing in her hand bag for change to pay her bus fare, just like she used to do. No, sir, I wasn’t imagining. It was too lifelike. Believe me I dashed across the street and took the first bus I saw going the other way, and I’ve just got back. I meant to be here an hour ago. I really did. But you know how it was, fellas. I hadta get calm before I could think what to do. And I almost went back to my office and decided to telephone I had been taken with typhoid or smallpox or something and couldn’t come at all. But finally I thought I’d come and see if you fellas knew whether she was in the procession. If she was I was gonta beat it again so fast you wouldn’t know I had been here.”

He broke off and bowed his head in his hands, his whole big frame stooping dejectedly.

Then they all came by and gave him a good pounding on his broad shoulders.

“Get up, Lutie!” they shouted. “Can’t you see how you’re hindering us all? Get up and put your marcel in order. It’s streaming out all over the place. Powder your nose, wipe the tears away from your eyes, and cheer up! We won’t let old Min bother the poor little fellow! Not that we’re not sympathetic, you know, for we’ve all had our taste of Cousin Min Lazarelle, but don’t be worried any more. Min is far far away, and can’t spoil the joy of the evening for you any more!”

They pulled Waite up on his feet and sat him down in one of the hall chairs, and then they told him to hurry, that it was time to start to the dinner and they mustn’t be late.

He sat for a moment staring at them sadly.

“But I saw her!” he reiterated. “I sure did!”

“Okay,” they cried, laughing. “We’ll protect you! Get up and navigate. We’ll ask Mrs. Hollis to put you beside that cute little McHale number, Lou McHale. Now, brush your marcel and come along!”

And so at last they were on their way.

But as they piled into the big Redfern limousine, Link, in the back seat with Reeves Leighton, heart Lute Waite say in an uneasy undertone to Curlin Grant:

“Say, Curly, you don’t suppose Syd’s mother could have made her invite Minnie Lazarelle to the wedding, do you? Because I know I saw her! And if she’s here I tell you I won’t go near the place. She gets my goat!”

Link leaned forward and said distinctly, so they all could hear:

“You’re all haywire, Waite. Just last night Syd was talking to my sister over the phone and she said she was thankful that this was one time her would-be cousin wouldn’t walk in unexpectedly. So I’m sure she’s not invited. But what’s the matter with that baby anyway? I never had any experience with her. I never took particular notice of her. Is she fierce-looking? Has she got a wooden leg or halitosis, or is she just a fool?”

“She’s just a clinging vine, my lad,” said Reeves Leighton amusedly. “Once stuck with her you can’t get rid of her by any rule that ever was tried. Short of throwing pepper in her eyes and running away I can’t think of anything that would work. She’s one of those girls who has been made to believe that a girl’s chief business in life is to acquire a man, and she means to make good and not let a chance run by her.”

“I’ll say she does!” said Luther sighing deeply.

“Hey! Quit that sighing!” said Link giving the big red head a shaking. “You act as if you were going to a funeral instead of a wedding. Snap out of it or they will all think you were in love with the bride!”

“I was!” said Lutie. “Definitely! Ever since we used to slide down the cellar door together when we were kids. I never thought this could happen that she would select somebody else in my place and go off to California.” Waite got out his handkerchief and pretended to weep, while they all roared with laughter.

“Between losing Syd, and that vision I had of her cousin Min, I’m a wreck!” he announced with a well-simulated sob, mopping his face despairingly.

“There she is, Lutie!” called out Steve suddenly. “That’s Min down there by that next corner, isn’t it? That woman with the green coat and the small sized wedding cake for a hat? Or isn’t it? I’m positive she must be it. You’d better hide, Lutie. Put your head down under this coat, and we’ll hide you!”

Waite crowded his big shoulders down, and allowed them to cover his bulk with the coat.

“Hey, there! You’re mussing his marcel!” cried out Curlin. “He won’t be fit to be seen when he gets there!”

“I don’t want to be seen!” wailed Lutie. “I just know Min has come here for the wedding, and if she has she’ll get me. There’s nothing I can do about it! I’m depending on you, Link, to protect me!”

They rollicked and bantered all the way from the Redfern house to the Hollis place, for all the world as if they were children, and not grown young men with a serious outlook on life.

Arrived at the Hollis home they marched gravely up the steps and waited with charming dignity and only a few covert grins. When the door was opened, they left their coats and hats in the commodious coat room to the right of the hall door, and then filed into the reception room with the easy familiarity of old friends of the family.

A ripple of laughter from upstairs made it plain that the girls were already on the scene.

“That’s Carey Carewe’s musical giggle,” asserted Luther Waite with relief in his voice. “Now, if I can only get next to her the day will be saved!”

“It’s night, not day, fella! You’ve mixed your signals! Take it calmly, Waite. A few more hours and it will all be over!” advised Paul Redfern gravely.

Upstairs Mrs. Hollis, attired in black lace and smiling composure, about to go down to meet her guests, had just been informed of the presence of Minnie Lazarelle. She retired hastily to the back hall to tap at the nursery door and have a talk with her.

“Oh, my dear Minnie!” she said in a shocked tone as the door opened readily and the smiling and triumphant face of the uninvited guest appeared, nothing daunted.

“My dear!” she reproved in a tone that told Minnie that she certainly was anything but dear just then. “How in the world did this happen? I had no idea that you were in this part of the world, or could possibly come at the present time. And of course it’s quite impossible for you to stay here now, we are full up to overflowing.”

“Oh, that’s quite all right, Aunt Jessica,” laughed Minnie brightly. “I don’t mind sleeping in the old nursery at all. And of course being a relative it’s quite the right thing to put me here. Though I would have enjoyed being over next to Sydney. In fact I did go over there and found that little stick of a college mate of Syd’s had preempted the best room, so I decided I’d better room with her. But when I had had my bath and came out into the room I found she had gone, and your officious maid ordered me back here, so I came. But it’s all right. I don’t mind in the least, Aunt Jessica.”

Minnie seldom called the Hollises aunt and cousin unless she had some axe to grind, but she was using the strained relationship for all it was worth now, and smiling blandly into the desperate eyes of the bride’s mother.

“Oh, but Minnie, you don’t understand!” she said. “We have had a difficult time getting everybody provided for, and we can’t even spare you this room. If you had only sent me word you were coming I would have arranged some place for you to stay till the wedding was over. And we’ll try to find a place now for you to go. You see there won’t even be room for you at the table. Every place is filled and it will make things very awkward indeed to have an extra one come in. it is quite impossible. Get on your hat and coat, my dear, and we’ll call up Mrs. Fremont. She has plenty of room and is always willing to help out. I’m sorry I can’t send you over in the car. It has gone to the station for the bridegroom but we’ll have a taxi here in a minute or two. Please get ready as soon as possible. I’ll send the maid to help you put your things back in your suitcase if you have unpacked, because we haven’t much time, you know, and ought to be sitting down to the table very soon.”

Minnie Lazarelle’s face suddenly took on a deeply injured expression, and then grew hard and determined.

“Well, that certainly is a strange way to look at it,” she said. “One would have supposed you would have sent me an invitation to my cousin’s wedding. As close as we have always been——”

“Why, Minnie, child, what can you possibly mean?” said Mrs. Hollis in astonishment. “You and Sydney have never been close. In fact you’ve scarcely seen one another through the years, except once or twice when you were passing through the city and wrote asking if you might stop here. Of course we are not really related at all, except by marriage—and courtesy. You are the stepdaughter of the woman whose first husband was a second cousin of my husband’s. Of course we always want to be kind and courteous to everyone, and are usually ready to put ourselves out when another person is in an emergency, but this is an occasion that involves previously invited guests, and it isn’t at all possible to have you here. We will see that you are well cared for however. Get your hat on quickly, please. I haven’t much time. I should be down in the reception room right now. Did you unpack yet?”

“No!” said Minnie with a toss of her arrogant head. “I hoped you’d give me a better room, and I didn’t want to hang up my dresses till I was sure where I was to be. I didn’t trust that impudent maid of yours, and I hoped you’d let me room with Sydney.”

“Oh, my no! That would be unthinkable! Sydney must have her room to herself the last night before her wedding!”

“Well, at least you might put me in the room next to Sydney’s”

“No!” said Mrs. Hollis firmly. “The rooms are all apportioned and the arrangement cannot be changed.”

“Well, why can’t I room with Rae Silverthorn? I certainly belong as much as she does. She doesn’t pretend to be a relative. I never saw what Syd saw in her anyway. She’s a little cheap skate, that’s what I call her!”

“Minnie! That will be all from you!” said Mrs. Hollis with a gleam of real battle in her eyes. “This is our house and we will run its affairs without your assistance. I have no more time to discuss the matter. Here comes Thelma. Thelma, will you call up the taxi office and ask them to come at once to the service entrance and pick up Miss Lazarelle. At once, Thelma! He’ll understand. He promised to have a taxi ready for instant service if I should need it. And then, Thelma, come right back here and help Miss Lazarelle to pick up all her things, and take her down to the side door, immediately! It’s important to get this matter attended to quietly before they all get here. Yes, Sydney, I’ll be down in just a moment.”

Mrs. Hollis turned back to the angry young woman who hadn’t made a move to get her hat on. Her eyes were flashing and her lips were contemptuous.

“I didn’t think you’d be actually rude to me,” she said in a tone of suppressed fury. “I thought you prided yourself on always being so genteel and courteous.”

“You don’t seem to realize that you have transgressed all rules of courtesy in coming here uninvited and unannounced,” said Mrs. Hollis. “Come! It is imperative that you go down at once, unless you want me to call my husband to deal with you.”

“Well, I don’t want to go to some old frump’s house. I wanted to come to this party and have a good time.” Minnie put on an aggrieved look and quivered her mocking little lips, but Mrs. Hollis, alive to new voices down in the front hall, turned away without answering, nearly distracted.

“Take her down to the taxi at once,” she said in a low tone to Thelma who had returned from the telephone and was gathering up the would-be guest’s brushes and lipstick and powder.

“I’d be willing to stay up in the attic while you eat your old dinner!” said Minnie with a sullen look. “Then Thelma could bring me up some scraps that were left over.”

“I am sorry, Minnie, that you are taking that attitude. I’ll try to find time to see you day after tomorrow if you decide to stay that long, but I really must go at once!”

“I think they’ve come,” motioned Thelma with a lift of her eyebrows and a movement of her lips, meaning the bridegroom and his party had arrived.

“I must go!” said the bride’s mother in great haste. “I’m leaving this with you to look after,” she murmured to the maid and departed swiftly, turning the key in the lock as she closed the door behind her, reassured as she dimly heard the sound of the taxi arriving at the side door.

Swiftly she sped down to greet her guests, some of whom had already entered the large living room, and were standing about in that awe that precedes weddings and funerals before the hostess arrives.

“Good evening, Steve, and Curlin! It’s so good to see you again. Reeves, it’s so nice you could come down. We were quite anxious when you said you might be detained till tomorrow. Oh, and here’s Luther! Link, did your sister come down with you? I haven’t seen her yet.”

“No, I think she came down on the train. I’ve been at the office all day, you know.”

“Why yes, of course. And— Where is Paul? Hasn’t he arrived yet?”

“Present!” said Paul appearing from the hall with a grin on his pleasant lips.

“Then you’re all here!” said Mrs. Hollis with relief, wondering if that was the taxi going down the drive or a car arriving with the bridegroom. “Ah! There come the girls!”

There was a soft rustling on the stairs.

Frances Ferrin was the first to enter, saucily with a quick look around.

“Why, they’re all here, Syd!” she said in a comical whisper. “Even Lute Waite has come! Who accomplished that?”

Luther Waite arose.

“I’ve reformed!” he announced gravely, and with one hand on his heart bowed gravely before her.

“Isn’t that grand!” said Fran laying her hand on his bowed head in the manner of one conferring an accolade.

Into the midst of the festivity the groom arrived, looking as handsome and happy as any bridegroom should look, and there were cheerful greetings of those he already knew and introductions to those he had not met. In the meantime Mrs. Hollis with troubled glance consulted Thelma.

“Hasn’t Miss Silverthorn come yet? Are you sure she isn’t up in the guest room? Hadn’t you better run up and be sure, because it’s really time we sat down to dinner. Why did she go away?”

“Why, I don’t know, Mrs. Hollis,” said Thelma with a troubled look. “She said she had forgotten to give her mother something, but I couldn’t help thinking Miss Lazarelle had something to do with it. She had her suitcase in her hand and as she went out the door she called me and told me that Miss Lazarelle was up in her bathroom taking a bath. And when I got time to run up I found she was there dressing and she asked me what had become of Miss Silverthorn. I told her that she must come out of that room right away. That you had given me directions about it, and she was to go in the nursery till you came——”

“Oh! That girl! I wonder what started her to coming. What time did she arrive? Before Miss Silverthorn?”

“Yes, about half an hour, and I thought she was taking a nap or something. I wondered if you knew she was coming.”

“No, Thelma. What did she say when she arrived? Who did she ask for?”

“She asked for Miss Sydney, and when she found she wasn’t here she said, ‘Well, I’ll just go up to a guest room and get a bath and take a rest,’ and she was quite nasty about going to the nursery.”

“Well, I’m thankful she’s out of the way for the evening. But keep a sharp lookout for her. I don’t trust her. She’s liable to turn up again in the morning. There! Isn’t that the doorbell? Perhaps Rae has arrived. We mustn’t keep the dinner waiting, because we have to be early at the church. If it’s Miss Rae tell her to hurry. Help her if she needs help. It never takes her long to dress, however.”