Once in the early days when Colonel Hathaway had been strangely rude to Danny and loudly exclaimed, “Pish! Tush! Rot!” when Danny had advanced some inoffensive theory, the young man had wonderingly remarked to his wife, “What do you think is eating the Colonel?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Mary Louise had answered miserably and a little haughtily.
But Danny persisted:
“Why, what’s the matter with him? Why did he jump on me so hard? I merely remarked that, when the returned soldiers have once shed their uniforms, they are not crazy about getting back in them and parading up and down like nigger minstrels. I guess I ought to know. Anyhow, even if he disagreed with me, there was no use in jumping on me so hard, both feet down and chest extended.”
“You are mistaken. Grandpa Jim could not be rude to you. He merely hated to have you make fun of your country.”
“Fun of my country! Gee, honey, you are all off, you and the Colonel both. I was talking about parades, not my country.”
“All right, Danny dear, but please don’t say things about Grandpa Jim,” and Mary Louise slipped her hand in his.
From that day on, Danny never mentioned the uncomfortable moments that he was forced to spend in the presence of his host. He made those moments as short as possible, sometimes not even coming home to his meals, making the plea of stress of business preventing him.
Poor Mary Louise was torn between two loves, two duties. She adored Grandpa Jim. Had he not been everything to her from the time she was a baby? Could she forget the supreme sacrifice he had made to her poor mother, hounded from city to city, country to country, falsely accused of having been disloyal to the United States when all the time it had been her father and mother who had been guilty of treason? No! Never could she forget the scene at Hillcrest Lodge after her mother’s death when the knowledge of her grandfather’s wonderful courage and unselfishness had come upon her with full force. Then there was Danny, her Danny, the same man to whom she had given her first and last and only love; Danny with his charming disposition and sweet merry eyes; Danny, the returned and wounded soldier, who had been the most popular man in the regiment and looked upon as the bravest and best. It hurt Mary Louise to the quick that her grandfather should treat Danny as he did, but she could not face the fact that the old gentleman was not altogether himself. It would have been better had she realized the truth and talked the matter over with Danny and her friends, but a mistaken idea of loyalty to her beloved grandfather sealed her lips and her ears. She would not discuss it with them nor must they broach the subject to her.
And so the young couple drifted along, as devoted as ever but with the small cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, beginning to spread over their bright sky.