“But why on earth aren’t you all here? The little mother and Jean have no business to be anywhere else on such a villainous night. Let me go right over after them,” and Hadyn turned toward the door.
“Stop! Wait! Listen to me!”
“Oh, of course, Mademoiselle la General,” laughed Hadyn, as Constance laid a detaining hand upon his arm. “I’m listening.”
“Then sit down to do it and hear the whole story. When you really know all about it you can help me; but you might as well whistle to the wind out yonder as to hope to get mother back here to-night. Yes, Lilly, put the logs in the basket, and you and Rose please stay in the kitchen until eleven. I will be out to speak to you when Mr. Stuyvesant goes.”
“When he does,” said Hadyn, under his breath, then louder: “It must be rather satisfying to have such a flower-garden right indoors when it is whooping things up so outside,” and he nodded toward the maid just leaving the room. “If you could only have a ‘Violet’ and a ‘Pansy,’ and one or two other blossoms, you’d have a whole greenhouse.”
Constance laughed outright as she answered:
“We’ve had wood nymphs, and some of the months—May and June, for instance—and several jewels, to say nothing of a few royalties, so nothing will surprise us now; but Mammy seems equal to all of them put together. And apropos of Mammy, let me tell you all about her and Charles.”
They sat down before the blazing logs while Constance told of the experiences of the past twenty-four hours. Hadyn listened with a troubled face.
“I’d no idea it was so serious,” he said, when she finished, “but I am mighty glad I came over to-night. And now you are to heed what I say: you may sit here with me until eleven if you will. I’ll be right glad of your company. Then you are going upstairs to bed—yes, you are, too. Now, it is no use ‘argifyin’,’ to quote Mammy. I’ll stay here in the library snug, warm, and as comfortable as any man could wish to be. I shall see Jean’s light if she signals, and I’ll be good—yes, honest I will. You doubt it, I know, and you think I will sneak over yonder and be more bother than I am worth; but I give you my word I won’t. I’ll do exactly as you would do if you were here alone.”
Constance raised her eyes to his, and little guessed how hard it was for the man who looked into their pure, trustful depths to refrain from holding out his arms to the girl who had grown so dear to him during the past three and a half years.