Chapter XVII

“The Dolphin is certainly increasin’ with amazin’ rapidity,” remarked Lemuel Gill to Asaph a few days later, while the two were sprinkling with sulphur the mildewed leaves of a giant pink phlox.

“We are gettin’ together quite a houseful,” acquiesced his crony. “Now Eleanor Parker’s come the rooms are full of people as a pod is full of peas. Still, I was almighty glad to ask her. It pleased ’Becca no end, an’ I’d go a good bit out of my way to give happiness to Rebecca Crosby. Furthermore, we’re enjoyin’ havin’ the girl round. She’s like a fresh west wind--so cheery an’ wholesome. Old folks like us need young folks about ’em or they get crabbed an’ set in their ways. Now you couldn’t get very set with a person such as Eleanor is. She’s forever dashin’ in an’ dashin’ out--goin’ clammin’, crabbin’, bathin’, rowin’, an’ I don’t know what not. I never saw such energy in all my born days. An’ everythin’ she does she has such an elegant time a-doin’. It’s fun just to set back an’ watch her. Althea’s havin’ the time of her life with so much company. There’s three females now to talk bunnits an’ fol-de-rols.”

“Meantime it certainly leaves us more to ourselves,” murmured Lemmy with a sigh of satisfaction. “We ain’t had a chance to do so much cultivatin’ an’ transplantin’ all summer. My garden looks like another place an’ so does yours. You can’t work to much purpose when ’twixt every weed you pull somebody’s summonin’ you to go to the store for eggs; forage the fields for mint; or go chasin’ cedar boughs. How Althea manages to hang onto her enthusiasm for all this tea business beats me. I must own that even fudge cake is beginnin’ to have only a faint attraction. I’ve et so much of it I--”

“An’ I, too,” Asaph nodded. “That sweet stuff gets terrible cloyin’ after a while. I’d give more for a bowl of blueberries an’ milk than for all the cake ever frosted. But the women wouldn’t. This little cousin of ’Becca’s now, she nibbles down slabs of chocolate cake like as if she was a squirrel munchin’ nuts. It’s amusin’ to see her. I find myself continually starin’ at her for sheer pleasure. ’Tain’t that she’s so pretty. She can’t hold a candle to Peggy Davidson, not in my opinion. But she has a way with her you can’t help likin’--a kinder of a takin’ way same’s a kitten has.”

“Zeke Barker says she’s a hummer,” grinned Lemuel. “Already she’s been down to the shore an’ took the men by storm. Zeke is for askin’ her fishin’, an’ has bet me a silver quarter she wouldn’t dare take a squid off the hook should she jig one. But he don’t know her. She’d go to a squid or an eel same’s a man would. Still, I didn’t tell him that. I let him put up his money.”

Asaph bent to twitch a faded leaf from the plant beside him.

“Mebbe ’twould be just as well not to mention that joke at the Dolphin,” responded he with obvious embarrassment. “You see, Althea’s got strong notions about--”

“About my takin’ money from Zeke?” cut in the unabashed Lemuel.

“Uh--huh.”

“’Gainst her principles, eh? Well, well! Think of Althea concernin’ herself about my morals!” He sobered. “I can’t remember the day a woman’s given my soul a thought. You thank her, won’t you?” He seemed touched. “Still at the same time you might assure her that while the little wagerin’ I do with Zeke ain’t harmin’ me, it’s doin’ a lot for his Christian character. You’ve got to be mindful of your neighbor’s good’s well’s your own, you know. Partin’ with money ain’t Zeke’s strong point. It costs him a pang every time he does it. Now, my theory is that his spendin’ muscles want exercisin’. I reason every copper I wring out of him makes ’em that much more limber. By an’ by, if I keep at him long enough, I figger to get him so’st he can hand out a dollar bill without havin’ to be rubbed down with liniment afterwards. You might put it to Althea that way. Mebbe she’d feel different.”

“I’m afraid she wouldn’t.”

“Humph! That’s too bad. Well, we can’t all feel alike. This Parker girl now, she saw my point right away, agreein’ there was nothin’ like gymnastics for strengthenin’ one’s weak parts. For a girl so young she’s tremendously understandin’. Have you noticed how took with her Eric seems to be? He’s hung round her ever since she came, takin’ her ridin’ an’ dancin’ till I’ve hardly known what to make of it. Sometimes I’ve thought Peggy wondered at it, too. Why, ’twarn’t no time ago he was danglin’ at her heels like as if he couldn’t bear her out of his sight. An’ now look at him!”

The little man stroked his chin.

“Kinder surprisin’, ain’t it?” echoed his friend.

“Surprisin’ ain’t the word. I call it disconcertin’,” announced Lemmy. “In my day if you toted a girl round ’twas because you were keepin’ company with her an’ meant to marry her. But now--Lord! Today everybody goes with everybody--married or single, it don’t make no difference--an’ it means nothin’ in the world. Look at the folks that come to the Dolphin for tea--husbands with other men’s wives, an’ wives with other women’s husbands; fellars that take out a different girl every day in the week. It’s too much for my understandin’. S’pose you was to invite Ephriam Wise’s wife a-ridin’ an’ Eph was to take out Althea? Or s’pose I was to go meanderin’ out with Rebecca Crosby--”

He came to an abrupt halt as if the sentence so thoughtlessly begun had presented to his imagination a situation never before contemplated.

“I know,” interrupted Asaph, who, bending low over a kaleidoscopic mass of portulaca, had failed to take note of his colleague’s startled expression. “Belleport would be doin’ some pretty stiff talkin’, I guess. Likely it’s all custom. City folks do heaps of things different from what we do ’em here. I’m always tryin’ to remember that. Take Peggy an’ Eric, now. There ain’t two better young people livin’; an’ yet here they are, she shiftin’ from him to that navy chap, an’ he swappin’ her off for ’Becca’s cousin with less fuss than the tide makes a-turnin’.”

Lemuel, deep in thought, offered no reply.

“I’m kinder sorry ’bout it, too,” went on the man, “’cause Peggy an’ the Doctor were a couple pleasin’ly matched, to my eye. Wal’, I reckon there’s no use wastin’ tears about it. Worry helps nothin’. Besides, like as not they’ll whiffle round again an’ next we know the navy lieutenant may be matin’ up with Eleanor Parker an’ the Doctor with ’Becca Crosby.” Chucklin’ at the jest he awaited Lemmy’s answering guffaw.

But no sound of merriment came from the Captain. Instead he stood glowering down upon the riot of color at his feet as if its gaiety irritated him.

“Those spranglin’ things make me tired,” he growled. “I’ve got a bed of ’em over to my place an’ they spread round as if they owned the earth. I’ve been tempted a hundred times to pull ’em all up.”

“I thought you liked ’em,” ventured Asaph, puzzled by Lemuel’s sudden change of mood.

“I don’t.”

“Ain’t that funny, now? Folks’ tastes do certainly differ concernin’ flowers. I set a lot of store by my portulacas. As for Rebecca Crosby, she admires ’em above everythin’. She has a leanin’ towards bright-colored flowers anyhow. Only yesterday she was remarkin’ how cheery the sight of this bed was.”

“Likely it is,” came grudgingly from Lemmy. “Oh, I s’pose I’ll leave mine since they’re planted an’ doin’ well; still, they do take a sight of room.”

Having dragged himself out of his reverie far enough to participate in the argument he promptly settled back into it again.

Asaph, however, was too much interested in his work to heed his preoccupation.

“What do you figger Rebecca makes of this cousin of hers tearin’ the length of the Cape with Eric Hollingsworth?” he inquired, chatting on.

Lemuel yawned and with visible effort once more came back to life.

“I dunno. She don’t seem to take no notice of it. Likely she’s as put to it to understand the goin’s on of this generation as are the rest of us. What has Althea to say about it? Have you talked with her? She must have an opinion.”

“I did sorter hint to Althea one night that it looked to me as if affairs ’twixt Peggy an’ the Doctor were goin’ awry, an’ she just laughed an’ said not to bother my head about ’em; ’twas all right. So I reckon it must be. Even if ’twarn’t I don’t see what you an’ me could do about it.”

In the meantime, while the two men scratched their heads and pondered, Althea and Rebecca, the instigators of the plot, sat in the kitchen cracking nuts and stoning raisins.

“It’s goin’ better’n I hoped,” Miss Crosby was saying. “The Doctor is playin’ up splendid. I’d no idea he’d take hold so well. An’ the best of it is he seems to be really enjoyin’ it. You’d think he’d known Eleanor months instead of days.”

Althea’s answer came with less exultation.

“Oh, there’s no trouble about the way they’re gettin’ on,” said she. “The thing that’s worryin’ me now is whether they ain’t puttin’ up with one another ’most too well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Havin’ too good a time.”

Lightly Rebecca laughed.

“Oh, mercy! Don’t fret about that. It’s only a game. They’re just pretendin’.”

“I s’pose so.”

“Don’t you know they are?”

“I wish I could be sure. What’d you say to your cousin, anyway?”

Rebecca paused to extract a pecan from its shell.

“Nothin’,” was her astounding admission. “I meant from the first to explain the situation to her. That was my idea. But on turnin’ matters over in my mind I decided that to give away the scheme might spoil the whole thing. The minute I paraded the plan out into the daylight ’twas goin’ to make her self-conscious an’ foolish feelin’. So I decided to keep mum.”

“You mean to say you ain’t breathed a word to her of Peggy an’ Eric?” Althea gasped.

“Not a syllable. It seemed to me the fewer people we let into the secret the better. Eleanor warn’t born yesterday. She has eyes in her head. Furthermore, girls ain’t as innocent now as they were in your day an’ mine. They’ve common sense enough to look after themselves.”

“Common sense ain’t a commodity that comes much to the fore in love affairs,” was the dry comment.

“I’ll risk Eleanor,” smiled Rebecca tranquilly. “She ain’t goin’ to get into any snarl. She’s just havin’ a royal good time.”

“I hope so,” responded Althea with uncertainty. “Sometimes I get worried an’ most regretful I ever meddled with Peggy an’ Eric. It’s a solemn thing to take a hand in marriage makin’ an’ try to guide other folks’ futures. ’Tain’t no subject for humans.”

“I do believe you’re losin’ your nerve, Althea,” accused Miss Crosby, regarding her companion with amazed countenance.

“I am. I’m perfectly willin’ to admit it. When I saw Eric an’ Eleanor startin’ off in his car yesterday, an’ glimpsed Peggy’s face as she spied ’em disappearin’ down the road, a panic swept over me. I said to myself: ‘Althea Holmes, what have you set a-goin’?’”

“Why shoulder all the blame? You didn’t do the whole of it.”

“I helped.”

“I did the biggest part. ’Twas my idea,” consoled Rebecca.

“Ain’t you some scared?”

“Not a mite,” averred Rebecca serenely.

“You certainly are an uncommon person, ’Becca,” said Althea gazing with puzzled intensity into the other woman’s face. “How you can start a ball a-rollin’, an’ then set back an’ watch unmoved when it gets to whizzin’ faster’n you planned, beats me.”

“I don’t see as it’s whizzin’ much,” was the unruffled retort. “’Course Eric an’ Eleanor are havin’ a pleasant holiday together. But why shouldn’t they? Ain’t Peggy an’ her lieutenant doin’ the same?”

“But Eleanor’s walkin’ in the dark. She don’t know nothin’ of the purpose of her comin’ here.”

“N----o. Still--”

“You’ve talked with him, though, so he understands it’s only actin’,” Althea said, a sudden ray of comfort lighting her horizon.

Something in the concentrated attention Miss Crosby focused on the walnut she was cracking caused Althea to put down her bowl of raisins and exclaim:

“Didn’t you say nothin’ to Eric neither?”

“No, I didn’t,” blurted out Rebecca. “I meant to, honest I did. But the time never came right. Before I could get him alone an’ talk the matter over with him, Eleanor’d come an’ things had got to movin’. After that it didn’t seem of any use.”

“You mean to say both those young critters are just rushin’ along haphazard without an idea where they’re goin’?” cried Althea in dismay.

“If you choose to put it that way,” her ally confessed with a cool shrug. “Don’t look so paralyzed with fright, Althea. After all, it’s nothin’ more’n what’s done every day. Folks’ paths cross an’ recross. In books they call it destiny.”

“But this ain’t destiny,” objected Mrs. Holmes with horror. “This is what you an’ me have done by outright schemin’.”

“Likely that was destiny, too. Warn’t we kinder led into it?”

“I was!” It was the first sharp answer she had ever made to Rebecca, and no sooner were the words out of her mouth than she regretted them. But Rebecca charitably ignored their tartness and, passing over the silence that followed them, said in her customary tone:

“We both were.”

Nevertheless, for all this comforting assurance Althea’s conscience was not to be soothed.

“It’s terrible,” she wailed. “We’ve interfered, mebbe, with the workin’s of Divine Providence.”

“Law sakes, Althea, don’t go gettin’ so tragic!” interposed her friend, now evincing impatience. “’Tain’t anythin’. You’re makin’ a mountain out of a molehill. If Peggy an’ Eric Hollingsworth were mismated ain’t it better they should find it out before it’s too late?”

“Mismated?” repeated the bewildered Althea.

“Yes, mismated--matched up wrong.”

“But they warn’t,” protested Althea dramatically.

“Then they’ll find that out too,” was the confident reply.