There was no mad riot of crimson and gold in the west. Above the tops of the crouching hills masses of rose-lined clouds with flame at their hearts melted into opal as they dared the sky heights. Bars of palest turquoise gathered the opaline blues to themselves; and, higher still, the faint green faded from the blue, leaving an eastern sea of pale pure azure through which a silver crescent drifted, tangled in foam spume of delicate pink cloud.
Gradually the color died away. The young moon dropped behind the eastern hills. Ashen grays and violets and liquid, indefinite, blue blacks claimed the world.
The Smiling Lady stirred and rose. Archibald joined her and together they went silently down the sweet, scented ways of the dew-wet dusk.
“You’ll come in,” she said when they reached a small white farmhouse nestled under great maples. He followed her into a candle-lighted room where Sandy, the collie, and an elderly woman with a shrewd, homely face rose from before the open fire to greet them.
“Mr. Archibald will be having tea with me, Ellen,” said the Smiling Lady, quite as though having tea with her were a life-long habit of the man’s.
Ellen took one swift, comprehensive look at the visitor as she carried the girl’s coat from the room. The respectful look of a well-trained servant it was, yet Archibald had a feeling that he had been catalogued and the record tucked away in a card index.
“Ellen plays the rôle of a dragon,” Miss Moran explained lightly, “a non-sulphurous dragon. It seems the most independent young woman must offer up concessions to tradition in the form of a dragon—and then I couldn’t get along without Ellen. She was my nurse once upon a time; my mother’s housekeeper afterward. She would not go away with the others—will never go away until she makes the long journey. Money has nothing to do with such service as she gives me. We share what I have and she’s family and friend and servant all in one.”
“You are fortunate to have her,” the man said gently. She nodded. For an instant there was no hint of a smile in her face and Archibald felt as though the candles in the room had suddenly burned out.
“She’s the only one now.”
There was a hurt in her voice, but the next moment she was calling gaily through the half-open door to Ellen.