“Don’t say that!” exclaimed Amos. “Let us hold on to it forever. I shall die a lover and I expect the same of you.”
The promise to Grandmother Jouvenal was not forgotten, and when they left the train at a little station in Maryland a carriage was awaiting them. As they entered the avenue and came in sight of the old house, Molly regarded her companion with eager eyes to be sure that he was properly impressed.
“It’s fine!” he exclaimed. “An ideal mansion of the period. And you say it is over two hundred years old?”
“Yes, the main house is, but just wait till you see the inside! It’s crammed full of colonial furniture and family portraits.”
“What on earth is the circular part at the end of that wing? Is it a circus or only a gymnasium for your grandmother?”
Molly laughed. “That’s the library. Grandpa’s father was an astronomer and started to build an observatory, but died when it was half-way up; so grandpa, who was not an astronomer, finished it as a library. But it makes a beautiful room.”
From her grandmother they received a cordial welcome. It was dark when they arrived, and as Mrs. Jouvenal had accepted for them an invitation to a dance that evening at the house of a neighbor, whose daughters were old playmates of Molly’s, there was little time for seeing the house. But Molly did not like to wait and proposed a hasty tour, wishing to show Amos at once the old portraits and furniture and the treasures of family silver. To this her grandmother objected. “Do wait till to-morrow, child. Your Amos can sleep without it, and besides the rooms are not in order yet. Remember I only came back myself this morning, after a two months’ absence.”
And so that pleasure was delayed. They arrived early at the ball, and as she joined him at the head of the stairs he glanced at the jewels in her hair and asked, after a moment’s hesitation, if she would do him a little favor.
“Of course I will. Only name it, dusky Rajah,” and looking up at him with admiring eyes she smiled as she remembered for the hundredth time how seriously he was annoyed by any compliment upon his appearance.
“Are you very much attached to that crescent in your hair?”