CHAPTER XII--NOSEGAYS AND TENNIS
The household was late in pulling itself together next morning. Athalf-past nine, Mary and her husband, John, had carried trays of coffeeand rolls to the rooms of the guests, informing them, at the same time,that luncheon would be served at half-past twelve.
Mollie and Grace, in dressing gowns and slippers, had carried theirtrays into the room shared by Ruth and Barbara. Miss Sallie hadfollowed, looking so charming in her lavender silk wrapper, elaboratelytrimmed with lace and ribbons that all the girls had exclaimed withadmiration; which put the lady in a very good humor at the outset. Whodoes not like to be complimented, especially in the early morning whenone is not apt to feel at one's best?
To add to the gayety of the company there was a knock on the door,which, when opened, disclosed John bearing a large tray of flowers, asmall nosegay for each of the girls and a large bunch of dewy sweet peasfor Miss Sallie, all with the major's compliments.
"What a man he is!" she cried. "He disarms me with his bunches offlowers just as I was about to tell him something very disagreeable. Ireally don't see how I can do it."
"Oh, please don't, auntie, dear!" exclaimed Ruth. "I know what it is. Weall do. But if we broke up the party, and went trailing off home, nowthat the worst is over, it wouldn't do anybody much good, and think ofwhat a beautiful time we would be missing. To tell you the truth,auntie, we are just dying to stay. In spite of everything we are. Aren'twe, girls?"
"Yes, indeed," came in a chorus from the other three girls, a littlefaintly from Bab perhaps, but very eagerly from Mollie and Grace.
"Well, we'll see," replied Miss Sallie. "But it does seem to me thatthis trip has started off very badly. Three attacks in as many days."
"That's true," said Ruth. "Yet by the magic Rule of Three we should haveno more. We have finished now and the curse is lifted."
"When Mollie's old Gypsy comes over we must ask her to tell a fewthings," observed Grace. "I believe she really can predict the future.That night when you and Bab had gone with the Gypsies to get theautomobile I asked her if she told fortunes, and all she said was: 'Ican tell when there is blood on the moon.'"
"What a horrible idea!" exclaimed Miss Sallie. "Weren't you frightened?"
"No, I wasn't frightened, because she seemed to have forgotten meentirely. I really thought, at the time, she must be talking about herown affairs. She looked so black and fierce."
"Perhaps she meant Jose's blood," remarked Mollie from behind hernosegay of honeysuckle and mignonette.
"Well, there wasn't much of it," replied Bab, "because Jose receivedonly a scratch, and lost scarcely any blood. It was a close shave,though. Just half an inch nearer and it would have gone straight throughhis head."
"He seems to be a very remarkable young man," said Miss Sallie. "Did younotice he never said one word? Just sat there as quietly as if nothinghad happened."
"He was thinking," answered Barbara. "But of course most people wouldhave been too frightened to think. Did you notice the knife?" sheventured.
But nobody had, evidently. They had all been too excited andhorror-struck at the time to have noticed anything.
"I saw it was a knife, and that was all," said Ruth.
"I never saw a man dance before," observed Mollie, as if following alouda train of thoughts she had been pursuing while the others talked. "Iwas almost sorry he said he would, but when I saw what kind of dancingit was I was glad. It was really and truly a man's dance. I think itmust have been a toreador's dance, don't you?"
"Something like this," said Ruth, using a towel for a scarf and a combfor a dagger. "And, by the way," she continued, pausing as she prancedaround the room, "how did he happen to have a dagger so handy!"
"That's because he is a Spaniard, my dear," remarked Miss Sallie. "Theseforeigners carry anything from dynamite bombs to carving knives. Theyare always murdering and slashing one another."
"Perhaps," cried Mollie, excitedly, "it was the Black Hand that tried tokill him."
The others all laughed.
"Really, Mollie," cried Miss Sallie, "don't add any more horrors to thesituation. We are already surrounded by Gypsies, and tramps andassassins."
"But protected, Aunt Sallie, dear," protested Ruth, "protected by five'gintlemin frinds,' as Irish Nora used to say."
"Well, dress yourselves now," said Miss Stuart, making for the door withher silken draperies trailing after her. "And remember, Ruth, dear, ifyour father scolds us for staying I shall lay all the blame on you."
"Oh, I will manage Dad," replied Ruth.
When the two girls were left alone they did not speak for a littlewhile. Barbara, who was sitting on the floor near the window with herhead propped against a pillow, closed her eyes, and for a moment Ruththought she was asleep. A breeze laden with the perfume of thehoneysuckle vines stirred the curtain. Barbara took in a deep breath,opened her eyes and sat up.
"Ruth," she said, "do you know, the smell of the honeysuckles gives methe queerest sensation? I feel as if I had been here before, once longago, ever so long. I can't remember when, and of course I haven't been,but isn't it curious? These old rooms are as familiar to me as if I hadlived in them. I believe I could find my way blindfolded around thehouse."
"I should like to see you try it," replied Ruth, "especially when youstruck one of those back passages that lead off into nowhere inparticular. But you are tired, Bab, dear," continued her friend, leaningover and patting her on the cheek. "Come along, now, and get dressed. Itold Stephen and Alfred we would play them a game of tennis some timethis morning."
The girls found the two boys waiting in the hall to keep theirappointment. Alfred was fast losing his shyness in the presence of thesetwo wholesome and unaffected girls who could play tennis almost as wellas he could, ride horseback, run a motor car, repel a highwayman with apistol and not lose their heads when they needed to keep them most. But,what was more to the purpose, they were not in the least shy or afraidto speak out. They were full of high spirits and knew how to have a goodtime without appealing constantly to some everlasting governess who wasalways tagging after them, or asking mamma's permission. In fact, Alfredhad suffered a change of heart. When he had heard the house party was tobe increased by a number of girls he had bitterly repented ever havingleft England. By this time, however, he could not imagine a house partywithout girls, especially American girls.
"I say, you know," he said to Ruth as they strolled toward the beautifultennis court that was shaded, at one side, by a row of tall elm trees,"must I call you Ruth? I notice the other fellows do?"
"Oh, well," replied Ruth, "we are none of us actually grown yet and whatis the use of so much formality before it is really necessary? What doyou do in England?"
"In England," replied Alfred, "we don't call them anything. We don't seethem except in the holidays, and then they are only sisters andcousins."
"Isn't there any fun in sisters and cousins?" asked Ruth.
"Well, they're not very jolly," replied the candid youth; "not as jollyas you, that is."
Ruth laughed. By this time they had reached the court and were selectingracquets and tossing for sides.
"Stephen, Ruth and I will play against you and Barbara," said Alfredrather testily. "What is the use of tossing when it was arrangedbeforehand?"
"You seem rather eager, Alfred, my boy," replied Stephen. "I'm sure wehave no objections, have we, Barbara?"
"None," said Barbara, "At least I haven't. You may, however, when youhear that Ruth won the championship at Newport last summer."
"You look to me like a pretty good player, too," said Stephen.
Just then Jimmie Butler appeared, bearing a hammock and a book.
"You can get in the next set, Jimmie," called Stephen. "We are juststarting in on this one."
"I don't care for the game," replied Jimmie. "I prefer a book 'neath thebough, especially as this house party seems to go in companies of twos.Every laddie has a lassie but me, so I've taken to literature."
He waved his hand toward the garden, and then toward the walk leadingfrom the house.
In the old-fashioned flower garden, a stone's throw from the court,could be seen Miss Sallie and the major strolling along the paths,stopping occasionally to examine the late roses and smell thehoneysuckle trained over wicker arches.
In the direction of the house appeared Mollie and Grace, followed byMartin and Jose. The sound of their laughter floated over to Jimmie ashe swung in his hammock.
"Keep away, all," he called as he spread himself comfortably among thecushions and opened his book. "I intend to enter a monastery and takethe vow of silence, and this is a good time to begin. It's easy becauseI have nobody to talk to."
"What are you grumbling about, Jimmie?" asked the major, who came upjust then with Miss Sallie.
"Oh, nothing at all, Major," replied Jimmie. "I was only saying howdelightful it was to see all you young people walking around this sylvanplace in couples. It reminds me of my lost youth."
"Jimmie's lonesome," exclaimed Martin. "We'll have to get up some moreexcitement if we want to keep him happy."
"Very well," replied the major. "We will. The most exciting thing I canthink of, just now, is to take a long ride in the automobiles, or godriving, whichever the ladies prefer, and wind up at the forest pool fortea. How does that strike you, Jimmie?"
"It sounds fine," said Jimmie, "if you mean the haunted pool. It is abeautiful spot, and it has a new haunt since last you saw it, Major.It's haunted by water nymphs now."
"Only nymphs in wading," cried Mollie, blushing. "Jimmie caught us inthe act yesterday morning."
"Oho!" exclaimed the major. "You really are little girls, after all, areyou?"
"Think of going in wading in that lonesome spot," said Grace, "andactually meeting somebody as casually as if you were walking up FifthAvenue?"
"You're likely to meet Jimmie anywhere," said Martin. "He's a regularJohnnie-on-the-spot. He is the first person to get up and the last oneto go to bed. Excitements have a real attraction for him. Haven't they,Jimsy?" and Martin gave the hammock such an affectionate shake thatJimmie nearly fell out on his face.
The luncheon gong rang out in the summer stillness, and they startedtoward the house, leaving the players to finish the game.
"Jose," asked the major, putting his arm through the young Spaniard's,"have you any theories about last night?"
"Yes," replied Jose. "I do not think it will do any good to hunt for theone who threw the knife. I have, in my country, an enemy. I believe itwas he."
"What?" cried the major. "He has followed you all the way to America,and your life is constantly in danger?"
"I do not think he will come again," answered Jose. "At any rate, I amnot afraid," he added, shrugging his shoulders, "and I can do nothing."
"You could have him arrested," said Miss Sallie.
"Yes, Madam, I could. But it would not be easy to catch him."
"Dear, dear!" exclaimed Miss Sallie. "What a dangerous country Spainmust be to live in!"
"No more dangerous than America, Madam, I find," replied Jose.
"True enough," assented Miss Sallie, "since this is America and notSpain, and we find ourselves in a perfect hotbed of criminals. My dearJohn, I think we shall need a body-guard if we go out in the open thisafternoon."
"Well, Sallie," answered the courteous old man, "you shall have one inme and my nephews and their friends--a devoted body-guard, I assureyou."
At luncheon the feeling of good will which comes to friends who havejust found each other, so to speak, had spread itself. Enjoyment was inthe air and there were no discordant elements. All their troubles wereof the past, and Bab determined to cast aside her suspicions and regardJose in the light of a mysterious but otherwise exceedingly attractiveforeigner. When she looked across the table into his clear, brown eyes,which regarded her sadly but without a single guilty quiver of the lids,she could not but believe that there had been some bitter mistakesomewhere. He was lonely and strange, and there was something about himthat aroused her pity. Everybody liked him; even Miss Sallie wasattracted by his graceful and gentle manners.
Luncheon over, everyone made ready for the auto trip, and it was notlong before the two autos carrying a merry party, had set forth.