CHAPTER SIX
"Do you know where Billy is?" Theodora asked, coming into the library, one evening.
Cicely glanced up from her book.
"He was here, just a few minutes ago."
"Patrick wants him."
"Who?"
"Patrick."
Cicely looked surprised and closed her book.
"What does Patrick want of him, Cousin Theodora?"
"Why, really, Cicely, he didn't tell me. Did you say he was here just now?"
"Yes, the last I saw of him, he was asleep under the piano."
"Cicely! Oh, you mean the dog."
"Yes. Don't you?"
"No; I meant my husband."
"Oh, I haven't seen him since dinner." And Cicely tranquilly returned to her book, while Theodora departed in search of Mr. Farrington.
"Cicely," she said, when she came back again; "I am sorry; but I am afraid Billy's name will have to be changed."
"Which?" Cicely inquired, as her dimples showed themselves.
"Yours. Mine is the older and has first right to the name. Do you mind, dear? It is horribly confusing and it startles me a little to hear that my husband is asleep under the piano."
The girl laughed, while she tossed her book on the table.
"As startling as it was to me, this noon, when you said my dog was putting on his overcoat in the front hall. It doesn't seem to work well, this duplicating names. What shall we call him,—the puppy, I mean?"
"Melchisedek, without beginning and without end, because his tail and ears are docked," came from the corner.
"Oh, are you there, Babe?"
"Yes, I had some studying to do, and they were too noisy at home, so I came over here. I'm through now, so I am going home. Cicely, I wish you would let me see how many vertebra there are left in Billy's tail. I think he hasn't but one. That is butchery, not surgery, for it doesn't leave him enough to waggle." And Phebe gathered up an armful of books and took her departure.
Silence followed her going. Theodora had dropped down on the couch before the fire and lay staring at the coals. For the moment, she was forgetful of the girl sitting near her, forgetful even of her story which was pressing upon her insistently, yet eluding her just as insistently. In certain moods, she loved the old willow couch. It had played a large part in her girlhood; and now at times it was good to turn her back upon the present and think of the days when, after the memorable Massawan Bridge disaster, Billy Farrington's boyhood had been largely spent upon that lounge and in that library, while she had brought the fresh zest of her work and her play and all her gay girlish interests into his narrow life. Her father's skilful treatment had laid the foundations for the cure which the years had completed, until to-day her husband was as strong a man as she could hope to see. Year after year, her life had grown better and brighter; yet she loved to linger now and then over the good old days. She pressed her cheek into the cushion, and her lids drooped to keep the modern actual scene from destroying the old-time imaginary one.
"Tired, Cousin Ted?" Cicely had dropped down on the couch beside her.
"Not a bit."
"Worried?"
"No, indeed."
"I was afraid something was wrong, you were so quiet." The girl bent over and fell to touching Theodora's hair with light fingers. Suddenly she stooped and snuggled her face against Theodora's cheek. "Oh, I do love to cuddle you," she said impulsively. "I hope you don't mind. Papa used to let me; I wonder if he doesn't miss it sometimes."
Putting out her arm, Theodora drew the girl down at her side.
"Are you homesick, Cicely?"
"For papa, not for anything else. If he were here, or even well, I should be perfectly happy here. Only, Cousin Theodora—"
"Well?"
"Are we very much in the way, Billy and I? We don't belong here, I know; and it isn't our doing that we came. Are you sorry that we are here?"
"No. I am glad to have you with us, Cicely."
Theodora spoke the truth. In some strange fashion she had grown unaccountably fond of Cicely during the past four weeks. The girl was no saint; she was only a clean-minded, healthy young thing, born of good stock, trained by a wise father who believed that, even at sixteen, his tall daughter was still a child, not a premature society girl. He insisted upon plain gowns and a pigtail, upon hearty exercise and wholesome friendships with boys as well as with girls. So far as lay in his power, he had taught Cicely "to ride, to row, to swim, to tell the truth and to fight the devil," and the result was quite to the liking of Billy and Theodora. They enjoyed Cicely's irresponsible fun and her frank expressions of opinion; they enjoyed the atmosphere of ozone that never failed to surround her; they even confessed, when they were quite by themselves, to a sneaking sense of enjoyment in her rare flashes of temper. True, it was not always helpful to Theodora to be roused from her work by the monotonous er-er, er-er of scales and five finger exercises, and there were moments when she wondered if pianos were never built with only a soft pedal and that lashed into a position which would entail chronic operation. There were moments when the house jarred with the slamming of doors and echoed to the shouts of a high, clear young voice; and there were hours and hours when Melchisedek, as he was now to be called, whimpered without ceasing outside her door, with an exasperating determination to come in and sit supreme in the midst of her manuscript.
And then there was Allyn to be considered.
In her most optimistic moments, Theodora had pictured Cicely as a dainty, clinging little maiden who would cajole and coddle Allyn out of his unfriendly moods. Cicely certainly did rouse Allyn from those moods; but it was by no process of feminine cajolery. She went at him, as the phrase is, hammer and tongs. Good-tempered herself, she demanded good temper from him. Failing that, she lectured him roundly. Failing again, she turned her back upon him and left him severely alone, with the result that, in an inconceivably short time, Allyn generally came to terms and exerted himself to be agreeable once more. Allyn still kept up the pretence of indifference to her, of superiority over her; Cicely had no pretences. She showed her liking for him frankly; just as frankly she showed her disgust at his hours of gloom.
Upon one point, however, Allyn maintained a firm stand. He would put up with no endearments. Theodora was the only person who dared lay affectionate hands upon him, who dared address him in affectionate terms. Just once, in the early days of her being in the Farringtons' household, Cicely, moved with pity at the sight of a bruised forefinger, had ventured upon a caressing pat on Allyn's cheek. It was much the caress she would have bestowed upon Melchisedek, if she had chanced to step on his paw; but she never forgot the look of disgusted scorn with which Allyn had marched out of the room. Accustomed from her babyhood to petting her father and being petted by him, the girl was at first at a loss to interpret the situation. When the truth dawned upon her that Allyn was really in earnest, she refused to be suppressed, and persecuted the boy with every species of endearment which her naughty brain could invent.
"Oh, but you are the dearest boy in the world!" she announced, one day, walking into the library at The Savins where Allyn sat reading.
"What do you want now?" he asked gruffly.
"You, of course. I'm lonesome, and I want your society."
"Let my hair alone," he commanded, ducking his head, as she approached his chair.
"I'm not touching it."
"No; but you do sometimes, and I won't have it."
"Yes, it seems so like Melchisedek's that I love to straighten the parting," she said demurely, as she came around to the fire. "Where is Phebe?"
"Playing with her everlasting old skeleton."
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to read, if you'd let me be," growled Allyn, with a despairing look at the book in his hand. "What do you want?"
"You."
"What do you want of me?"
"I'm so fond of you. Besides, I am tired of being alone. Don't you want me to play for you?" Cicely's eyes shone mischievously, as she made the offer.
"Not for a farm. I don't like your diddle-diddles; they haven't a particle of tune to them."
"Come and take me to ride, then."
"Why don't you go alone? I'm busy."
Cicely took forcible possession of his book.
"Allyn, you must come. I've a bad attack of the blues."
"Get rid of them, then."
"That comes well from you."
"What's the matter, Cis?"
"Papa isn't coming home till fall, and I've got to stay here."
Allyn looked up sharply. Then he whistled.
"You don't mean it!"
She nodded, without raising her eyes, and Allyn suddenly discovered that her lids were unusually pink.
"Do you mind it so much?" he added. "Or is he worse?"
"No; only the doctor wants him to stay over there till the lung is all in order again."
"And you are homesick?"
"No,—yes,—a little," she said despondently. "But it's not all that."
"What is it, then?"
"It's the being left here till called for, like a sack of potatoes. Cousin Theodora is too polite to say so; but I know she must wish I were in—Dawson City. It's dreadful, Allyn, not having any real home."
"If that's the way you feel over there, you'd better come here to The
Savins and stay," he suggested.
The dimples came back into Cicely's cheeks.
"We should fight, Allyn."
"Who cares? It's only skin deep," he returned, with a sudden gravity which surprised her.
She looked at him steadily for a moment. Then she held out her hand to him.
"Let's not any more, then."
He touched her fingers gingerly, gave them a sudden squeeze and then plunged his fists into his pockets.
"Come on and ride, if you must," he said ungraciously.
She had never seen him in a brighter mood. He chattered ceaselessly, quaint stories of his schoolboy friends, quainter jokes and whimsies and bits of advice for her edification. In such moods, Allyn was well-nigh irresistible, and it was with genuine regret that Cicely turned her face towards home. Her regret, however, was as nothing in comparison with the consternation that seized her, as she entered the house. Before the fireplace in the hall, there always lay the skin of a superb tiger. To-night, before the tiger lay Melchisedek, and before Melchisedek lay a triangular scrap of brownish fur. As Cicely entered, the dog looked up with a bland smile; but the smile changed to a snarl, as she came near and stooped to view the ruin he had wrought. Then he rose, gripped his booty in his sinful little teeth, and trotted before her to the library door. On the threshold, he appeared to come to a sudden realization that justice was in store for him. His mien changed. The pointed, silky little ears drooped, and walking on three legs, stiffly and as if with infinite difficulty, he preceded his mistress to the fireside and laid the severed ear of the tiger on the floor at Theodora's feet, while Cicely exclaimed penitently,—
"Cousin Theodora, what will you do with us? It's bad enough to have me stranded on your threshold, without having Melchisedek hunting big game in your front hall."
The words were flippant; but the tears were near the surface. Billy interposed, for he saw Theodora's color come, and he knew that the rug, his own contribution to her college room, was one of her dearest possessions. He shook his head at the six-pound culprit who stood before him, waggling his stumpy tail in smug satisfaction over the success of his undertaking.
"Change his name to Nimrod, Cis," he said gravely; "and send for Babe to mend her first emergency case."