CHAPTER V
"THE SUMMER WILL TELL WHO LAUGHS LAST!"
To use Sidney's own thought, "things happened" with amazing swiftness.If a fairy godmother had been invited in at her christening her planscould not have prospered more.
First came Mrs. Milliken's unpleasant announcement that the SummerConvention of the League was to be held in Middletown during July whichmeant that every day for two weeks would see the old house invaded bythe curious and the reverent. Mrs. Milliken, in Sidney's hearing, hadgently hinted that it would be very nice if the girls could go awaysomewhere for July--at least all of them except dear Isolde.
Then Sidney heard for the first time of Isolde's invitation to theDeerings. Isolde had thrown it in self-defense at Mrs. Milliken. "I donot expect to be here, Mrs. Milliken. I am going to Professor Deering'sfor July and August to help him with his new book." Sidney turned awayto hide a sudden smile, not, however, before she caught Trude's eyesanxiously upon her.
Then the Egg--seventy whole dollars--came on the same day thatGodmother Jocelyn informed Vick by telegram that if she could be readyby the first of July she could go with her to California by way of theCanadian Rockies. "Be ready! Well, I should just say I _could_!" Vick'seyes had shone like stars against a velvet black sky and Sidney hadagain intercepted that anxious glance from Trude.
Isolde considered this an auspicious moment, with all the excitementover Vick, to break to Sidney their plans for the summer--plans hurriedto a head by the League's announcement.
"And Trude's going to Long Island with the Whites, dear, but you won'tbe lonely with Huldah. You can have Nancy here and probably she willinvite you down to Cascade."
"Oh, there's a letter from Huldah on the table in the hall! I meant tobring it in and forgot," cried Vick.
"Get it, dear," asked Isolde, gently, of Sidney. Action would helpSidney control her disappointment--if the child _was_ disappointed.Perhaps Trude was over-apprehensive.
Trude hastily scanned the few lines of the letter Sidney put into herhands. "Oh, _dear_," she exclaimed "Huldah can't come."
Could any fairy godmother, indeed, have shaped circumstances with morekindly hand?
"She says she can't leave her niece. Her niece's just had a baby. Andher rheumatism is bad."
"I call that rank disloyalty," cried Isolde with spirit. "After allwe've stood from Huldah!"
"What'll we do? Can't we make her come? Doesn't she owe us moreconsideration than her niece?"
Trude put the letter down. "Huldah isn't disloyal. You know that,Isolde. And she doesn't owe us anything. Don't forget, Vick, that sheworked for us for years for almost nothing when she could have goneanywhere else and received good pay. This house _is_ damp and big andHuldah is old. No, we can't beg her to come--over this. It was probablyhard for her to refuse. I'll stay home with Sid. We'll have lots morefun here together than I'd have with Aunt Edith White on LongIsland--in spite of the League. Will we not, Sid?"
There was so much more sincerity in Trude's honest blue eyes than anysuggestion of self-sacrifice that Sidney ran around to her and huggedher. She longed to tell Trude and the others of her own buddingplans--only she had not received as yet an answer from Cousin Achsa. Soall she could say was: "We just won't mind the League!"
And then that very afternoon the postman, meeting her outside the wall,had handed her an envelope addressed to "Miss Sidney Ellis Romley" andpostmarked _Provincetown_!
Sidney ran with it straight to her attic retreat. Her heart within herbreast hurt with its high hopes. There was a Cousin Achsa--her ownletter had reached her and had been answered! She studied theunfamiliar writing on the envelope--it was a big sweeping script. Theenvelope felt fine and soft in her fingers and smelled faintly of afragrance that was not of flowers and yet distinctly pleasant. Oh, thisCousin Achsa must be wealthy, like Pola!
She broke the envelope and spread out the double sheet it contained. Atits top she read, "My dear little Cousin." She paused long enough towonder why Cousin Achsa thought that she was little.
"My dear little Cousin:
"Of course you may come to visit us. We shall enjoy learning to love a young cousin who must be delightful if we can judge from her letter. We blame ourselves and the miles that have separated us for not knowing anything of 'Sidney Ellis Romley' until yesterday, though we knew your mother in days long past. Will you write and tell us when we may expect you? Can a girl of fifteen find her way to this outlying bit of country? If you decide you cannot perhaps we can arrange for you to come with someone. We await your word with affectionate anticipation.
"Your already loving cousin, "Achsa."
Sidney blinked hard simply to be certain that the words actually laybefore her eyes. Then she read it again and again--aloud. Oh, it wastoo wonderful to believe. It was a _beautiful_ letter--Cousin Achsamust surely live in the square white house on the eminence she hadpictured. She had written "we" so perhaps Cousin Asabel still lived ormaybe there were young cousins. Anyway, they wanted her. She hugged theletter to her and rushed off to find the girls. Oh, Huldah could staywith her niece if she wanted to! And Trude could go to Long Island! TheLeaguers could come and camp in the house! Guided by the murmur ofvoices Sidney broke headlong into an informal conference of the oldersisters. Her drama-loving soul could not have built a more perfectstage, nor asked a more thrilling moment of denouement. Isolde had justdeclared generously, that she could not enjoy a day of her stay withthe Deerings if Trude had to give up the Long Island plans.
"It isn't as though we girls received invitations every day," sheexplained tearfully. "And it'll be stupid for you here, Trude, withjust Sidney. Perhaps it's my duty to stay home and help Mrs. Milliken."
"Your sacrifice is quite unnecessary!" Sid answered in such a queervoice that the three older girls stared at her in alarm. In truth herflushed face and wild eyes gave strength to the sudden conviction thatshe had gone mad! She fairly leaped at Isolde and flung her letter intoIsolde's lap. "I guess 'just Sid' is capable of making her own plans!"
Sidney had a moment's terror that she was "beginning" wrong butIsolde's remark which she had overheard had upset all her preplanneddiplomacy. Now she stood back, anxiously, and watched Isolde read theletter.
As Isolde read it aloud she punctuated it with excited exclamations.
"'My dear little Cousin'--Why, Sid, how did you happen to write to her?How did you know she wasn't dead? Why--'Of course you may come andvisit us!' Sid, what _have_ you been doing? Why--" and so, to the end.
Sidney drew a long breath and braced herself. Her explanation tumbledout with such incoherence that the girls kept interrupting her to askher to repeat something. Well, they had told her she could use the Eggany way she wanted to and she wanted to go somewhere a long way off--ona train. One always had to visit someone or with somebody and she'dremembered these cousins--
"Why, how _could_ you, Sid? I don't think you've ever heard us speak ofthem. I'm sure I'd almost forgotten them--"
"Well, I _did_. Blood's thicker than water," witheringly, "and maybeyou can just remember relatives without ever hearing anything aboutthem. She's nice, I know, because her father was persevering andthrifty--"
A sudden laugh from Vick brought Sidney to an abrupt stop. But Isolde,rebuking Vick with a lift of her right shoulder, turned her attentionagain to the letter.
"It's a very nice letter--a--a cultured letter, don't you think so,Trude? Somehow I have always had the idea that these relations in theEast--the Greens--were very poor and--well, uneducated. But this letterdoesn't look like it. And they actually seem to _want_ Sidney to come!"
"It's a long way--" Trude put in.
"But I want to _go_ a long way. I don't just want to go to some placeright near home--like Cascade. There's money enough--Nancy and I askedat the railroad station. And the man there gave me a timetable with allsorts of interesting pictures on i
t. It's the very most interestingplace I ever heard of--it's an education. I want to go. I've--I'venever been anywhere."
Isolde was trying not to look as though this unexpected development ofthings was pleasing but she simply could not suppress the thought thatin permitting Sid to go to these cousins lay their one chance of happyescape for their summer. After all--these Cape Cod relatives _were_first cousins of their mother's, her very own people. She wished shecould remember what her mother had told of them from time to time butit could not have been anything to their discredit or she would haveremembered. And the letter, in its woody fragrance, the bold sweep ofthe handwriting, the expensive texture of the paper, bespoke culture,even wealth. However, with a lingering sense of duty, she remindedSidney that this Cousin Achsa must be very old.
As if that mattered! Sidney flung out an impatient hand. It was likeIsolde to sit rock-fashion and trump up reasons why she'd better notgo. But Vick came unexpectedly to her aid.
"If she's old--all the better. She'll make Sid behave herself. I thinkthis is the luckiest thing that could have happened. Now we can all goaway. Sid wanted adventure--she'll have it with Cousin--what's hername?"
Though she writhed under the tone in Vick's voice Sidney bit her lipsover the retort that sprang to them. Anyway, she _would_ have heradventure. She wanted to go on the train all alone; the ticket officeman had said it would be quite safe and had told her that he'd writesomething on a card that she could show to each conductor. She'd likenot to have even to do _that_, for that seemed a little babyish.
Trude had found a reassuring thought. "I'll be near enough, anyway, sothat if Sid gets homesick or finds that things aren't just what she'dlike them to be she can telegraph to me and come home. You will, won'tyou, kid?"
Sid promised hastily. Then for the next half hour everything whirledabout her; she could not believe what her ears heard, what her eyesbeheld. The girls were actually planning for her--clothes, trunks,tickets, trains. Trude was figuring and making notes on the back ofCousin Achsa's letter. It was, "Sid will need this--Sid had better dothat--it will be nice for Sid to see this--I think by way of Boston isthe better route--you'd better write to Cousin Achsa, Trude--No, letSid write herself--had we ought to consult the Trustees? Why, we're oldenough to decide this for ourselves--she'd better go just before Vickand then we can pack away our intimate things and turn the house overto the League."
"Didn't Evangeline come from somewhere up that way? Oh, no. Well, Ialways think of Cape Cod and Nova Scotia as being off there on the maptogether. Anyway, write and tell us, kid, when you find the Chalice orGrail or whatever it is! If you discover any untrodden fields ofromance--wire us and we'll send one of Issy's poets down--"
Now, in her exalted spirit Sid could meet Vick's raillery with a levelglance. Let Vick laugh! Cape Cod wasn't off "somewhere" in a corner ofthe map. It was as intriguing as the Canadian Rockies. And she had alot shut away in her heart about which Vick and the others knewnothing. All that about the good ship _Betsy King_. _Betsy King_ hadfoundered as a good ship should, but there was a big chance that CousinAsabel, Ezekiel's son, might have a boat. Then she had a glimpse into abeautiful world that Pola had given her; she would see Pola's worldfrom the train window. It was simply all too breath-taking to think of.Oh, the summer would tell who would laugh last!