CHAPTER IX
LOVE’S GOLDEN SHADOWS
Now that she was face to face with her daring plan, Gloria was frightened at its magnitude.
“But dad has got to go,” she kept reminding herself, “and that is the only thing that really matters.”
Circumstances favored her strategy; that far-away look in her dark eyes was but the sign of her otherwise hidden anxiety, all the unaccountable gloom and forecast of homesickness that so strangely enveloped Gloria since that afternoon visit to her Aunt Harriet’s home, was now coming to a crisis, and in the few days that remained before she should leave her Barbend home, the little girl so lately a care-free youngster, was suddenly grown up, with the responsibility of keen, poignant anxiety.
She could not possibly confide in Jane, for Jane would have opposed her out of sheer loving kindness. And Gloria had to use the utmost caution to keep her dad from suspecting the merest hint of her actual plan; of her other friends Tom was not wise enough, neither was Millie, therefore she simply had to fight it out alone.
Two days after the launch picnic a telegram from the New York office notified Mr. Doane of an earlier sailing than he was prepared for. He was at home arranging for the renting of their little house, all furnished, to a reliable family who wanted to try a winter at the beach. Benjamin Hardy and his wife Margaret seemed to live for the pleasure they gave and received to and from their son Benjamin, Junior. This son was a nature student; he wanted to stay by the ocean for a wild, blustery winter, and the Doane cottage situated far enough inland to be comfortable and far enough out to be picturesque, suited Mr. and Mrs. Hardy and the son, perfectly.
Mr. Doane hardly knew how to tell Gloria that he had to leave her before the time originally arranged, but when he romped off to the orchard and she followed, helped her to spring up into her childhood nook in the big bulky apple tree, then he attempted to break the news.
“I know it’s a shame,” he said contritely, “but the old boat is going to toot off two days ahead of time.”
“Oh, that’s all right, dad,” replied Gloria brightly.