Chapter XVI

The afternoon was at its height and the Dolphin gay with patrons, when a low grey car rolled up to the Holmes’s gate and from it alighted Peggy Davidson and a young naval lieutenant. The girl was wearing a clinging gown fashioned from some soft woolen fabric, and a saucy little hat cast a warm rosy shadow over her face.

It was plain from the deliberation with which the pair dallied along between the tall foxgloves and nodding purple monkshood bordering the path that they were far more interested in one another than in afternoon tea. Nevertheless, they at length ascended the steps leading to the veranda and, searching out a table just vacated by a couple no more hungry than themselves, they sat down.

Althea spied them and hastened forward.

“Oh, Mrs. Holmes, how good it is to see you!” cried Peggy, placing her hand with a gesture of caress on the elder woman’s arm. “I want you to meet Lieutenant Shattuck who is here from Annapolis.”

The officer rose. He was a fine specimen of young manhood--erect, clean-shaven, and with a frank, appealing smile that instantly put Althea at her ease.

“I tell him,” continued Peggy, “that the Dolphin has the best tea to be found anywhere in the world; and that is a daring claim to make to a connoisseur who has travelled the globe and sampled tea in almost every port under the sun.”

“I shall be afraid to offer him ours,” smiled Althea half timidly.

“You needn’t be. We do not need to apologize for our Dolphin brew,” dimpled the girl. “Besides, he is just home from a cruise to the Orient and at present everything American has a halo resting on it.” She toyed with her spoon to avoid the glance her companion flashed her. “Do tell me how things are going here,” she went on, addressing Althea. “Miss Rebecca is still with you?”

“Oh, yes, indeed! We couldn’t live without ’Becca.”

“She’s wonderful, isn’t she?” agreed Peggy. “And Mr. Holmes and the Captain are as busy with their flowers as ever, I suppose.”

“Still a-putterin’ same’s they were when you were here. They’d be in the garden from sunrise to sunset if they were let alone.”

“A garden is a tremendously engrossing thing,” laughed Peggy. “I must see them before I go and hear just what’s in bloom. And speaking of flowers, how lovely yours are today!” She motioned toward a jar of cedar where blue berries starred the foliage like jewels.

“They do look nice. Doctor Hollingsworth fixed ’em.”

“Eric! Why, I’d no idea he had so much artistic ability. He has been hiding his light under a bushel. Offer him my compliments when next you see him.”

“You can offer them yourself. He’ll be here in a minute; he’s out in the kitchen.”

“Is he?” Peggy seemed taken aback. “Well, I’m glad to know he is making himself useful. With such a crowd as you have today you certainly need all the aid you can muster. I actually felt guilty to come and swell the number you already have to wait upon.”

“You needn’t have,” was Althea’s instant retort. “I guess if anybody’s earned the privilege of bein’ waited on at the Dolphin it’s you. What shall I bring you with your tea? We’ve lobster salad sandwiches, cheese dreams, cinnamon toast--”

“You choose for me, Mrs. Holmes. I adore being surprised, you know. Lieutenant Shattuck gave me a genuine thrill when he appeared unannounced at the Inn Saturday.”

“Are you stayin’ long, sir?” questioned Althea, addressing the stranger.

“I hope so,” responded the officer, smiling in friendly fashion. “It all depends. My ship is to pick me up later at Provincetown; but I do not know when.”

“In the meantime I shall bring him here very often,” announced Peggy, with a pretty air of proprietorship. “I want him to become acquainted with all the nice things the Cape has to offer, and I hold the Dolphin to be the very nicest of the collection. Now we must not monopolize you for another second, Mrs. Holmes, or your other guests will be mobbing us. Already Miss Haverford, who is just behind you, has been motioning for at least ten minutes. She probably wants hot water. She is always diluting the poor old gentleman’s tea.”

Off bustled Althea.

“Well?” interrogated Miss Crosby, who detected an unwonted excitement in her friend the instant she entered the kitchen. “What’s up now?”

“Peggy Davidson’s in there with him,” Althea panted in a whisper.

“The brass-buttoned chap?”

Nervously Mrs. Holmes nodded.

“I’m terrible upset. The Doctor’s helpin’ wait on table an’ he’ll be sure to spy ’em sooner or later.”

“What if he does? He can’t expect every male but himself to be brushed off the face of the earth.”

“But it’s awful they should run afoul of one another here.”

“Not if they’re gentlemen an’ have any sportin’ blood,” replied Rebecca, straightening in her chair as if she rather anticipated the prospective encounter. “The thing for Eric to do is to perk up an’ pretend he don’t care a straw. If I was in his place I’d carry in their tea myself an’ thump it down on the table as if they were nobodies. Ketch me givin’ myself away an’ showin’ the white feather.”

“You’d oughter been a man, ’Becca,” responded Althea with admiration.

“There’s times when I wish I had been. The parts they have to play are so interestin’. Makin’ love now--I’d like nothin’ better than to do it. There’s so many cute little speeches a man can make to a girl if he’s smart enough to think of ’em. It’s like bein’ on the stage. I always did have a leanin’ toward dramatics.”

“I don’t s’pose it seems dramatic to them.”

“But it is. Only it’s a real play instead of a make-believe one--that’s the difference. Life is the theatre right over again. That’s what makes it so fascinatin’. Why, we’ve got somethin’ good as any movin’ picture right here under our noses this very minute--the heroine, the two rivals, all the fixin’s for a first-class show.”

“I wish we hadn’t.”

“Nonsense, Althea! Why are you so timorous? You’d oughter rise up an’ get enjoyment out of it all since you’ve got the chance. You would if ’twas a book. You’d delight in such an excitin’ story.”

“I know it. But you see when it’s goin’ on before my eyes--”

“You don’t hanker for it? I do. I can take as much pleasure watchin’ Peggy an’ those two men as if I was at a play. It’s thrillin’ beyond expression. I hope the navy feller is good lookin’, ’twould be a pity she should be wasted on a plain man.”

“Oh, his looks are all right.”

“Is he handsome as the Doctor?”

“M----m, I hardly know. Mebbe you’d say so. The Lieutenant is light complected, though.”

“One light an’ one dark! Ain’t that perfect?” ejaculated Rebecca, softly clapping her hands. “I told you it was all like a book.”

“Why don’t you carry in their tray an’ then you can get a peep at the new beau.”

It was plain the suggestion tempted Miss Crosby, for she seemed on the point of acquiescing; nevertheless, after a moment of thought, she resolutely swept the idea aside.

“I mean Eric shall,” was her answer.

“Rebecca! You wouldn’t send that poor young man on such an errand as that--not really!”

“Indeed I would,” promptly asserted Rebecca. “He’ll much better do it than your husband or Captain Gill. They’d be sure to say the wrong thing.”

“Men are sorter blunderin’,” Althea admitted. “Mebbe--”

But Miss Crosby did not delay to hear her confederate’s cautious philosophy.

“Doctor Hollingsworth!” called she as the young man passed through the doorway, “how’d you feel about takin’ this tray in to Peggy? She an’ that friend of hers are havin’ tea out on the piazza.”

The man started, a wave of color surging from neck to forehead.

“Both the Captain an’ Mr. Holmes are busy an’ the dishes are too heavy for Mis’ Holmes to lift,” went on ’Becca in an even tone.

Despite her innocent air, however, fun and excitement danced in her eyes, and catching their challenge Eric darted her an understanding smile. Then, squaring his shoulders with a determination that showed the humor of the situation was not lost upon him, he took up the tray.

“Certainly I’ll carry it,” nodded he.

“Just set it down an’ don’t loiter, ’cause there’s somethin’ else I want done when you get back. You won’t need to do more’n just greet ’em, I guess.”

The remark dropped lightly as a rose petal--so lightly that only the keenest observer would have sensed the demure little woman, intent on spreading with mayonnaise flakey bits of lobster, was in reality coaching the star actor of an engrossing comedy.

“I’ll be back directly.”

Again the glance of the two met, and heartened by the realization that he had a stanch ally, young Hollingsworth departed.

In the meantime Rebecca waylaid both Asaph and Lemmy Gill and announced to them quite as if it were an every-day happening:

“Peggy Davidson’s in there havin’ tea with some friend of hers. Doctor Eric is talkin’ to ’em now. By an’ by you must go in an’ see her.”

It seemed wiser to let it go at that. Indeed, before she had opportunity to explain further, Hollingsworth was at her elbow.

She lifted her eyes inquiringly to his face.

“Well?”

“They said to tell you everything was delicious. What else do you want done?”

As if she had crossed a reach of foaming rapids, Rebecca drew a quick breath.

“Sit down a second an’ let me think. It’s gone clean out of my head,” she murmured. “’Twill come to me in a moment. It was somethin’ quite important.”

But although the young physician remained for some time at her side, the elusive task Miss Crosby wished to have performed failed to present itself to her memory. Whenever he stirred and threatened to leave her she would exclaim:

“Wait just another jiffy; I’m almost rememberin’. I shall have it in a trice. Meanwhile, since you’re settin’ here would you mind dryin’ some of this lettuce. Here’s a towel. Just sop it off gently. I can’t endure wet lettuce, can you?”

The diplomat might as well have fastened a ball and chain to the foot of her victim so securely was he bound to her apron strings. And when at length the task she had set was finished and he was free to go, behold, Peggy and her swain had departed.

“Not a bad beginnin’,” acclaimed she to Althea later on. “But it’s got to be followed up. The man can’t be left hangin’ round that hotel with nothin’ to do but stare, glare, an’ make himself cheap. Somethin’s got to be done with him.” She meditated. “I’ve a sort of cousin in Springfield--a cute little mite of a thing who goes to Smith College. Eleanor Parker, her name is. I wish to mercy I had her here.”

“What for?”

“Althea! If you ain’t ’most as stupid as your husband! Why, as a sort of counter-irritant, of course--to take up Eric’s mind an’ give Miss Peggy somethin’ to think of.”

“You wouldn’t meddle in any such fashion as that, would you, ’Becca?” was Althea’s horrified query.

“Indeed I would--in a good cause.”

Mrs. Holmes vouchsafed nothing more, nor did Rebecca force her to further conversation. But after the two had sat in silence for almost an hour it was no surprise to the arch conspirator to have her say timidly:

“I s’pose you might invite that cousin of yours down to make you a visit, ’Becca. That wouldn’t commit anybody to anythin’. We’ve plenty of room an’--”

“You’d really like me to?” asked Miss Crosby in a tense whisper.

Apparently a measure of her excitement communicated itself to her more conservative companion, for presently, casting hesitation to the winds, Althea replied in accents as reckless as her own:

“Yes, I would. You could explain to her how the land lies an’ coach her up, couldn’t you?”

“Certainly.”

“Do you s’pose she’d come?”

“Oh, she’d come fast enough,” declared Rebecca with assurance. “She’d like nothin’ better than to get a whiff of salt air. She used to come down to see Brother Thomas an’ me when she was a child, an’ admire to. But of late I’ve had no place to invite her to. I happen to know she ain’t had any vacation this summer. She an’ her mother are in moderate circumstances, an’ Eleanor can’t afford to board away from home. Should she come she’d gladly help round in return for her keep, an’ p’raps another pair of hands wouldn’t be amiss.”

“They certainly wouldn’t on days like this,” smiled Althea. “You go ahead an’ ask her. Send her word tonight an’ tell her to start quick’s she gets the letter. Nobody need know about it but ourselves. I’ll fix things with Asaph. What more natural than your relatives should make a trip to the Cape to see you?”

“You’re sure you want her? I warn’t actually serious about it, you know, when I begun. I was just kinder thinkin’ aloud an’ turnin’ over in imagination what could be done, when the idea popped into my head.”

“But you’d enjoy havin’ the girl here for a while, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, indeed! I’m fond as can be of her an’ her mother. They’re the only folks I have in the world. Ever since Brother Thomas’s death they’ve continually urged me to come to Springfield an’ live with them. But I’d rather be independent. You know how ’tis. When you’re in somebody else’s home you’re neither hay nor grass--neither one of the family nor a visitor. Besides, I reckon I’d never be content such a distance away from the sea. After livin’ always on the coast the brine gets into your blood an’ you feel like a fish gaspin’ for breath if you go inland.”

“I know,” agreed Althea. “I wouldn’t live in the country were I to be given a farm an’ acres of land. ’Twould be no inducement.” Then, with mind still intent on the scheme in hand, she added, as if to calm the clamors of an uneasy conscience: “Likely comin’ to Belleport for a time will do your cousin worlds of good. You write her so’st the letter will be ready to go in the evenin’s mail an’ I’ll send Asaph to the post-office with it.”

“It’s awful kind of you, Althea.”

“Heavens to Betsy! Don’t put it that way. I like havin’ company. Furthermore ’twill be excitin’. I believe, Rebecca, I’ve caught your match-makin’ spirit. I never was mixed up in anythin’ of the sort before; but I’m bound to confess the adventure of it does set one’s blood to tinglin’.”

“Of course it does,” chuckled the contriver of the plot. “In my opinion there’s nothin’ can compare with a good live love affair for interest. Now if Eric will only brace up an’ do his part--”

“Mebbe he won’t take a fancy to your cousin.”

“No matter if he don’t. He can manage, I guess, to put up with her for a little while. Don’t worry about that. Leave him to me. I’ll make him understand the arrangement is for his good. Hush, here comes your husband an’ Captain Gill. We’d best keep the matter to ourselves if we don’t want the fat in the fire.” Then in quite another tone Miss Crosby called:

“Folks all gone, Cap’n?”

“The last bloomin’ one went out the gate just now. I’m tired to death an’ hungry as an elephant. What a day!”

“How many people have we had? Got any idea?”

“I lost track of ’em. They got to pilin’ in at such a rate all I could do was to whirl round an’ round with the cake like a dancin’ dervish. I’ll bet every smitch of food’s et up,” concluded he despondently.

“No, it ain’t,” contradicted Rebecca, “I saw to that. There’s salad in the ice-chest; an’ sandwiches an’ iced tea besides. Moreover, there’s a plate of your favorite little orange cakes under the big yaller bowl on the pantry shelf.”

“You’re an angel, Miss ’Becca!” began Lemuel. “In all my life I never met--”

“Instead of talkin’ nonsense you an’ Mr. Holmes better go an’ fetch some chairs,” interposed Rebecca. “We’ll have a picnic supper right here. Persuade the Doctor to stay, too. He must be hungry as the rest of us.”

“Who said eats?” called Eric.

“Come, bring along a chair,” put in Althea.

“There’ll be nothin’ for you at the Inn at this hour, so you may’s well have your supper here. Besides, we’ve a bit of news we want you should hear. ’Becca’s cousin is comin’ from Springfield to make her a little visit--at least we hope she is. She ain’t been away all summer, an’ I thought a breath of Cape air would do her good. We’re aimin’ to give her a real good time if she comes. She’s young, you see. Still, spite of the fact we’re all old folks--all but you, Doctor--I reckon we can make things pleasant enough for her so she won’t be lonesome.”

“I’m sure we can,” returned Asaph, his kind heart touched by his wife’s appeal. “I’m glad, ’Becca, some of your people are comin’ to see you.”

“What age is your cousin?” piped Lemuel Gill.

“She’s in the twenties.”

“Bless my soul! Nothin’ but a girl!”

Miss Crosby nodded.

“It’s her mother who’s really my cousin,” explained she. “But I always rank ’em together.”

“That’s why we may have to call in the assistance of somebody younger’n ourselves to entertain her,” Althea interpolated, “I’m dependin’ on Doctor Hollingsworth to do some of the honors.”

“I shall be glad to.”

“That’s good of you,” Rebecca declared. “I sha’n’t let the child bore you, I promise you that.”

“No relative of yours could possibly be a bore, Miss Rebecca,” responded Eric with a gallant bow to the little woman.

And with this introduction the prologue to the approaching drama ended.