“It was Daddy,” she repeated.
He put a hand under her chin and lifted her face to his. He was smiling. The tears in his eyes were tears of joy. “Oh, my little girl,” he said tenderly, “this is going to make everybody happy.”
She looked up at him, not smiling, and not in the least deceived. She understood his sacrifice. It was made for her father, for Miss Ruth, for her. And that moment, Uncle Bob, ageing, growing stout, getting bald, was transformed to Phœbe, through her grateful love, into a figure all knightly and splendid and beautiful.
“I love you,” she told him.
He swept her to him in another embrace. “Good luck!” he whispered. “Good luck, and God bless you!”—and was gone.
CHAPTER XXV
Phœbe, standing at the center of her own room, slowly turned herself about, as if taking a farewell look at the big, old bed—so forbidding when contrasted with the dainty, bewreathed, ivory-tinted “twin” in which she had slept beside her mother; at the low heavy chest of drawers that held water-pitcher and bowl; at the marble-topped “dresser”, equally ugly, with its slab of stone like something out of a cemetery; at the tall, dark doors; the clothes-closet, that abode of fearful shapes; the high-backed chairs; and the ancient sofa.
And yet she was not saying good-bye to the room and the familiar objects in it so much as she was to the life she had led there. A swift change was coming. But not a change merely from the big room in the big, lonely house to the dear surroundings in New York. That transfer was indeed to be made. But there was more about to happen—a glorious thing! And it was she, Phœbe Shaw Blair, who was to bring it to pass!
She laughed a little, out loud. Then suddenly, for no reason, she covered her face with both hands, and kissed her palms as if they were the palms of another’s hands. “Oh, she must say Yes!” she cried. “Uncle Bob wants her to!”
She was all ready. Her face was rosy after a quick wash in the bowl. Her hair glistened even with a hurried brushing. She had on white stockings, and her newest black pumps, and a fresh smock-dress that was pale blue.