CHAPTER XV
CONNIE'S MOTHER
The steamer scraped against the dock and the girls straightened theirhats, picked up their suitcases, and started down the narrow windingstairs that led to the lower deck.
Connie led the way as she had done ever since they had left North Bend.She scrambled quickly out upon the pier and the chums, following moreslowly, were in time to see Connie rapturously embrace first a lady andthen a gentleman standing near by.
"Well, well!" a deep masculine voice was saying, "it seems mighty good tosee our girl again. But where are the others?"
Connie turned eagerly to the girls.
"This is my mother and father, Billie and Laura and Vi," she said, with aproud wave of her hand toward her smiling parents, who came forward andgreeted the girls cordially.
"It's too dark to see your faces," Mrs. Danvers said. "But Connie hasdescribed you to us so many times that it isn't at all necessary. I'msure I know just exactly what you look like."
"Oh, but they're three times as nice as anything I've said about them,"Connie was protesting when her father, who had been conversing with thecaptain of the _Mary Ann_, stepped up to them.
"If you young ladies will give me your checks," he said--and the girlsknew they were going to love him because his voice sounded so kind--"I'llattend to your trunks and you can go on up to the house."
The girls produced their checks, Mr. Danvers went back to the captain,and Mrs. Danvers and the girls started off in high spirits toward thebungalow.
"Are you very tired?" Mrs. Danvers asked them, and the turn of her headas she looked at them made the girls think of some pert, plump, cheerylittle robin.
It was really getting very dark, and the girls could not make out whatshe looked like, but they could see that she was small and graceful andher voice--well, her voice had a gay lilt that made one want to laugheven though all she said was "what a pleasant day it is." No wonder, withthat father and mother, Connie was such a darling.
"Why, no, we're not very tired," Billie said in answer to Mrs. Danvers'question. "We were on the train, but the minute we got on board the boatwe seemed to forget all about it. It's this beautiful salt air, Isuppose," and she sniffed happily at the soft, salt-laden breeze thatcame wandering up from the sea.
"Of course it's the air," agreed Mrs. Danvers gayly. "The air does allsorts of wonderful things to us. You just wait a few days and see."
They were walking along a rough boardwalk set quite a way back from thewater's edge so that there was a white stretch of beach between it andthe first thin line of lapping waves.
"Why, look at the boardwalk!" cried Laura, in wonder.
"You didn't say anything about a boardwalk down here, Connie," added Vi."You're really right up to date, aren't you?"
"What did you suppose?" put in Billie. "That Lighthouse Island was in thebackwoods and had no improvements?" And she laughed gayly.
"Well, I know that very few of the islands on this coast haveboardwalks," defended Laura. "Most of them have the roughest kind ofstony paths."
"You are right, there," said Connie. "I remember only too well when I wason Chatter Island we had to climb over the rocks all the way, and one dayI twisted my ankle most dreadfully--so badly, in fact, that I was laid upfor three days while all the other girls were having the best time ever."
"I know what I'd do on a real dark night," remarked Billie dryly. "If Icouldn't see where I was stepping, I'd take my chances and walk in thesand."
"I do that myself sometimes," answered Connie.
Several bungalows dotted the rather barren landscape, for LighthouseIsland was an ideal spot for a summer home--that is if one liked theseashore.
But the girls were not so much interested in what was on the island asthey were in what was beyond it. The ocean--the great dark, mysteriousocean drew their eyes irresistibly and set their minds to wandering. Andas the days passed they were to feel the spell of it more and more.
"Here we are," Mrs. Danvers said cheerily, and with an effort the girlsbrought their thoughts back to the present.
Mrs. Danvers had turned from the main boardwalk down another that led toa bungalow whose every window was cheerfully and invitingly lighted.
"Be careful where you step," Mrs. Danvers called back to them, and thegirls saw that she was picking her steps very carefully. "There are twoor three boards missing, and I can't get Mr. Danvers to do the repairing.He spends whole days," she added, turning plaintively to Connie, "up inthat old lighthouse just talking to your Uncle Tom. I don't know whetherit's your Uncle Tom's conversation he finds so fascinating or his clamchowder."
She opened the door as she spoke and the girls had a vision of acomfortable, gayly lighted room all wicker chairs and chintz cushions andchintz hangings, a room pretty and cozy, a room that seemed to bebeckoning and inviting the girls to come in and make themselves at home.
Which they did--immediately. All except Billie, who stepped back a momentand gazed off through the dusk to the light in the lighthouse towerglowing its warning to the travelers over the dark highways of the sea.
"I love it," she said, surprising herself by her fervor. "It looks sobright and brave and lonely."
Then she stepped in after the others and almost ran into Connie, who wascoming back to get her.
"What were you doing all by yourself out there in the dark?" she askedaccusingly. "We thought you had run away or something."
"Goodness, where would I run to?" asked Billie, as they went upstairstogether arm in arm. "There's no place to run except into the ocean, andI'd rather wait for that till I have my bathing suit on."
They found Mrs. Danvers and Laura and Vi in a large room as pretty andcomfortable as the room downstairs, though not quite so elaborate. Lauraand Vi were busily engaged in making themselves entirely at home.
Laura had her hat off and was fixing her hair in front of a mirror and Viwas hanging up her coat in the closet.
"You see there's a connecting door between these two rooms," Mrs. Danverssaid in her pleasant voice; "so that you girls can feel almost as if youwere in one room."
Then as she caught sight of Billie and Connie in the doorway she beckonedto them and disappeared into the next room, and with a laughing word toLaura and Vi they followed her.
This was the room that she and Connie were to occupy, Billie found, andshe looked about her at the handsome mahogany furniture and daintydressing table fixings with interest.
But she was even more interested in seeing what Connie's mother lookedlike in the light. She was not a bit disappointed, for Mrs. Danvers'looks entirely matched her voice.
Her eyes were a wide laughing hazel, set far apart and fringed with darklashes. Her hair, for she had not worn a hat, was a soft brown, and thenight wind had whipped a pretty color into her face.
"She is awfully pretty. Not as pretty as my mother," Billie thoughtloyally, "but awfully pretty just the same."
Billie must have been staring more than she knew, for suddenly Mrs.Danvers--it seemed absurd to call her "Mrs." she looked so like agirl--turned upon her and took her laughingly by the shoulders.
"So you're Billie Bradley," she said, her hazel eyes searching Billie'sbrown ones. "Connie said you were the most popular girl at Three Towersand that all the girls loved you. I can't say that I blame them, mydear," giving Billie's flushed cheek a gay little pat. "I'm not very surebut what I may do it myself. Now here----" And she went on to givedirections while Billie followed her with wondering eyes. How could awoman who was old enough to be Connie's mother look so absolutely andentirely like a girl of twenty? She was not even dignified like most ofthe mothers Billie knew--she did not even try to be. Connie treated heras she would an older and much loved sister. One only needed to be withthem three minutes to see that mother and daughter adored each other andwere the very best chums in the world. And right then and there Billiebegan adoring too.
"Now I'll run downstairs and get somethi
ng on the table for you girls toeat, for I know you must be starving," said Mrs. Danvers, or rather"Connie's mother," as Billie called her from that day on. "Don't stop tofix up, girls, for there won't be a soul here to-night but Daddy andme--and we don't care. Hurry now. If you are not downstairs by the time Ihave dinner on the table I'll eat it all myself, every bit." With thatshe was gone into the next room, leaving a trail of laughter behind herthat made Billie's heart laugh in sympathy.
"Connie," she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and regarding herchum soberly as she opened her bag and drew out a brush and comb, "I'msimply crazy about your mother. She's so young and pretty and--and--happy.Does she ever do anything but laugh?"
"Not often," said Connie, adding with a little chuckle: "But when shedoes stop laughing you'd better look out for 'breakers ahead,' as UncleTom says. Mother's French you know, and she has a temper--about once ayear. But for goodness sake, stop talking, Billie, and get ready. You'vegot a patch of dirt under one eye. What's that I smell? It's clamchowder!"
"Clam chowder," repeated Billie weakly. "Are you sure it's clam chowder,Connie?"
"Yes, clam chowder," repeated Connie firmly.