Under the Country Sky

by Grace S. Richmond

  CHAPTER XXIX

  MILESTONES

  Georgiana would not have believed that it would be a full year beforeshe should have a chance to see for herself what sort of life Jeannetteand Stuart were making for themselves under the conditions which seemedsuch doubtful ones. But so it turned out.

  It had been before Jeannette's marriage that Georgiana found a changecoming in her own life, and the months of the summer and autumn whichfollowed were busy with the happy preparations for the new experience.In January her first son was born, and she learned that even a full andjoyous partnership between two human beings is not the most completething that can happen to them. When she saw her husband take the round,little pink-blanketed bundle in his arms for the first time, and watchedhis face as he explored the tiny features for signs of the future, herheart beat high with such rich content as she had not dreamed of.

  "Strange, isn't it, dear!" Craig said, when he had laid the pink bundleback in the arms of the nurse, who bore it away to the pretty nurseryclose at hand. "It's an old miracle always new, and never so wonderfulas when it comes to us for the first time--how that little life can beneither you nor I, yet both of us in one. Big possibilities are wrappedup in that bit of flesh and blood; it's going to be a great interest,the watching them begin to show."

  "Oh, yes!" she murmured, lying quietly with her hand beneath her cheek,too weary and too happy for speech.

  "I wonder if I dare to tell you how soon it was after I knew you that Ibegan to think of you as playing this part in my life," he said verysoftly.

  "Did you? I'm so glad." It was hardly more than a whisper.

  "Are you glad? I often think a girl little dreams of how often thatvision comes to a man long before she has thought of it at all. I wasonly a very young man when I began to think of it. Even when there wasno woman in my mind I used to plan what I would do for my own son when Ishould have him. And when I saw you I thought--with the greatestreverence, darling: 'If _she_ might be my son's mother!'"

  He did not need the look her eyes gave him to tell him how this touchedher. When he went quietly away to leave her for the long sleep sheneeded it was with the consciousness that the bond between them wasmore absolute than it had ever been.

  It was in the following June, on the anniversary of the marriage of theJames McKenzie Stuarts, that the Jefferson Craigs had their firstopportunity to see with their own eyes how that marriage was prospering.Letters from Jeannette had come to Georgiana from time to time, with anoccasional postscript from Stuart, and these letters always breathed ofhappiness.

  "But one can't be perfectly sure from letters," Georgiana argued. "Afterall the opposition and skepticism they would never own to anybody thatlife didn't flow like a rose-bordered stream. But one glimpse of theirfaces will tell the story. If Jeannette has a certain look I've oftenseen on the faces of girls who have been married about a year I shallguess what causes it. As for Jimps--he will be as easily read as an openbook. Jeff, you won't let anything prevent our being there for the fetethey ask us for?"

  "Nothing that I can foresee and provide for," Craig promised. "I'm quiteas eager as you to discover how the transplanting of the hothouse plantinto the hardy outdoor soil of the country has worked out. There are tworesults about equally probable in such cases--hardly equally probable,either. The natural result, I should fear, would be the dwindling andstunting of the growth, unless protected by expedients not common tothe country, and fertilized until it should be really not growing incountry soil at all."

  "But the possible result?" urged Georgiana.

  "The one we're hoping for in this case--though I'm not sure how close ananalogy I can draw, being no gardener--is the gradual process ofadaptation to environment, so that the plant takes on a hardier quality,at an unavoidable sacrifice in size of bloom but with a correspondinggain in sturdiness and ability to bear the chilling winds and thebeating sunlight of outdoors. Great size in a flower never appealed tome anyhow. I like a blossom that stands straight and firm upon its stem,that gives forth a clean, spicy fragrance and doesn't wilt when it hasbeen an hour in my buttonhole."

  "That's the sort Jimps wants, I'm sure. He used to be always tucking oneof his scarlet geranium blossoms into his coat when he came over to seeme. We all think of Jeannette as the frailest sort of an orchid,beautiful to look at but ready to wither at a touch. This letter ofinvitation doesn't sound like that at all. You really think the longdrive won't hurt little son?"

  "Not a bit, if you keep from getting tired or overheated yourself. Wecan manage that very nicely, with Duncan to drive, Lydia to look afterthe boy, and a long stop on the one night we must spend on the way. Thechange will do you good, faithful young mother."

  This proved quite true, and the two days' journey in the great car wasindeed an easy one for all concerned. Little Jefferson Junior, sixmonths' old, slept away many hours of the trip, and spent the resthappily in his nurse's or his mother's lap, watching with big, dark eyesthe spots of colour or life on the summer landscape as it slippedsmoothly past. Georgiana had wanted to bring Father Davy, but though hehad grown considerably stronger during the past year, it had not seemedworth while to put his endurance to so severe a test. He had not beenleft forlorn, however, for the Peter Brandts had taken him to theirhome, a welcome and a delighted guest. No doubt but there was a placefor David Warne in the great city, as there had been in the countryvillage.

  On the afternoon of the second day, as they neared the old home village,to which Georgiana had returned only once since her marriage, she foundherself noting with quickening pulse every familiar landmark.

  "It seems so strange to think of my going away from such scenes for goodand all, and Jean's coming to them," she said to herself more than once."How little either of us would have believed it, just two short yearsago!"

  When they passed the old manse she gazed at it with affectionate eyes."Oh, how shabby and poor it looks!" she said under her breath to Craig."Did it look like that when you first saw it?"

  He nodded, smiling. "Just like that. But the moment the door opened thefirst time I knew its shabbiness was just a blind to mislead thetraveler, who might otherwise stop and try to steal the treasure that itheld."

  Her eyes were searching next for the chimney tops that should mark theother home for which they were bound. How often had she looked at thosechimney tops, because they told her where was her best friend duringthose solitary days that were already so far past. A moment more andGeorgiana's first exclamation of surprise broke from her lips. Therewere to be many before the day was done.

  "Look! All those ugly little buildings at the back are gone, and thehouse stands all by itself at the top of the slope. Isn't that animprovement? It's freshly painted, too; how that clear white brings outthe beauty of the old house! It used to be such a dingy slate! I alwaysknew it was a pleasant place, but I didn't fully appreciate it. The lawnis as trim as can be, and there's a border of shrubs and flowers allalong the drive. How little real change to make so much! That's Jean, Iknow. Oh, and there's Jean herself, running down the steps! She seesus!"

  "Is that really Jeannette Crofton?" Craig doubted. "Yes--for a fact!Well, well!"

  They might easily doubt the evidence of their eyes, for the slim figurethey had known so well had rounded until it showed softly bloomingcurves, and colouring which put to blush the cosmetics which the societygirl had not altogether eschewed, though it had been long before theless sophisticated cousin had found this out. No need for rouge orpowder now, for nature had laid on the lovely face her own unrivalledtints of rose overlying the soft browns of summer tan.

  "Oh, you darlings, to come and bring the baby! Do let me look athim--the blessed thing! Isn't he a beauty?--but, of course, how could hehelp it? Jimps! O Jimps! Here they are!"

  Thus cried Jeannette out of sheer exuberance, though the fact of thearrival was obvious enough, and James Stuart was already dashing acrossthe lawn from the opposite direction.

  As she looked at her cousin, Georgiana's first impression
was the oneshe had hardly dared hope for, that of Jeannette's entire content andwell-being. Not only was the physical improvement noteworthy but acertain worn and worldly look had vanished--one which had not affectedher beauty and had been discernible only to the closely observing eye,but which had been there none the less and was gone now.

  This change grew more and more apparent as Georgiana continued to regardher young hostess. From the moment the party first entered thewide-thrown front door, it was easy to discover that both Stuart and hiswife were eager as two children for the approval of their guests. Suchapproval was not long in appearing.

  "How pleasant--how charming!" cried Georgiana, as her quick eye took inattractive effect after effect. "Oh, you clever things, to do it likethis! How absolutely in keeping it all is, and how quiet, yet howbeautiful!"

  "She's done it," vowed James Stuart proudly. "I was a duffer at it tillshe showed me what she was after. I wanted to buy brocaded silkfurniture, like that in her home--while my money held out. But she wouldhave nothing but this sort of thing. Homelike, isn't it?"

  It was the word which described it, if one qualified the term by makingit apply only to homes built on foundations of good taste andsuitability to environment. As she looked about her Georgiana saweverywhere evidences of the use of abundant means, and she realized thatJeannette had been clever indeed to supply so much without impressingStuart with the undoubted fact that she had contributed more than he tothe final result.

  The whole effect of the house's interior was one of well-chosen butunostentatious comfort, and the materials and furnishings used were allso nicely adapted to their setting that only to more discerning eyesthan those of the Stuarts' neighbours would they have expressed unusualresources of supply.

  "It's an achievement!" Craig declared.

  His enlightened gaze traveled from one point to another of the long,low-ceilinged living-room, sunny with new windows, and with walls andhangings of soft browns and golden yellows. He noted that Jeannette hadhad the good sense to make use of the old furniture the house possessedwherever it was fit for preservation, and that she had dignified thewalls by retaining certain dim old portraits, done in fading oils, ofStuart's ancestors. Everywhere could be seen similar interestingblending of the new and the old, though it was often difficult to tellwhich was which.

  The elder Stuarts were living in a wing of the house, that being theportion where they had spent their lives, making little use of theupright and the corresponding wing, which were now turned over to theson and his wife. Since the elder people wisely preferred thissemi-independence, the younger were able to be much by themselves,Stuart explained, though always near and ready to lend a hand at anyhour. Since the stalwart son could not be entirely spared by thesomewhat feeble old couple, the arrangement seemed an admirable one,and thus far it had worked very well.

  "Jean's such a dear with them," Stuart said covertly to Georgiana,leading her aside for a moment to look at a curious old buffet which hadbeen long in the family. "They adore her, and she really seems very fondof them. Of course they have old Eliza to look after them, as they havehad for so long; but we ask them in to dinner every few days, and oftenhave them sitting by the fire with us here on cool evenings. The funnypart, though, is when Mother Crofton comes. She can't get over it, orget used to it; she sits and looks at Jean as if she were an actress ina play, and by and by would take off her make-up and be herself again."

  "I wonder how far that is from the real truth," thought Georgiana toherself, as she watched the young mistress of the place with fascinatedeyes.

  Certainly if Jeannette were acting it was very skilfully done. As sheled her guests about the house, and then established them on the lawn,beneath the great elms which furnished a grateful shade at thisafternoon hour over nearly the whole expanse, she seemed the embodimentof health and happiness.

  By and by, when the Crofton car arrived, bearing Uncle Thomas and AuntOlivia, with Rosalie and Chester following a few moments later inChester's roadster, Jeannette grew fairly radiant.

  CHAPTER XXX

  QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

  It was not until late that evening that Georgiana had a chance really tolearn the whole state of the case.

  During the intervening hours had occurred the event for which they hadall been invited--the entertaining of at least two hundred people fromthe surrounding country and the village. For this event, which Stuartnaively called a "party," Jeannette a "lawn fete," and the gueststhemselves, for the most part, a "picnic," porches, lawn and trees hadbeen hung with gay lanterns, bonfires had been built, the small villageband engaged, a light but delectable supper provided, and as muchjollity planned as could be crowded into the hours between five o'clockand eleven.

  From the standpoint of those entertaining, at least, the affair had beena success, for Stuart, long accustomed to the ways of his fellowcountrymen, considered himself fully able to tell from their manner, ifnot from their expressions of pleasure, whether they had really foundenjoyment in the efforts of their hosts.

  "They had a mighty good time, no doubt about it!" he declared, when thelast reluctant guest had departed in the last small car which had waitedat the edge of the roadway. (Not the least of young Chester Crofton'senjoyment had been occasioned by the sight of the long row of vehicles,from two-seated wagons to smart and even expensive motors, which hadlined the road for many rods.) "And a lot of them are well worthknowing," Stuart added.

  His eye chanced to fall on his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas Crofton, as hemade this assertion. The party were sitting in a group upon thelantern-lighted porch and its steps, and the senior Crofton's face wasplainly visible.

  That gentleman nodded. "You're quite right, Jim," he said. "I don't knowwhen I've had a more interesting conversation with any man than I didwith one of your neighbours, nor found a more intelligent set ofopinions on every subject we touched on. He wasn't the only one, either.As a rule I found the people who came here to-night possessed of rathermore than the average amount of brains. I should like to try livingamong them--for a change, at least."

  "I struck a tongue-tied dolt or two," remarked his son Chester, "butdolts aren't uncommon anywhere, even when not tongue-tied. And I did runup against some chaps I liked jolly well. One of them invited me up fora week-end; I nearly fell over when he did it. I didn't know countrypeople ever talked about week-ends. I thought they called it 'stayingover Sunday.'"

  "You mean Wells Lawson," Stuart informed him. "If you could see the listof newspapers and magazines, not to mention books, that the Lawsonstake, you'd open your eyes. He and his family have traveled a lot morethan I have, and their home is one of the finest model farms in thecounty. There's no hayseed in their hair."

  "I didn't discover much hayseed in anybody's hair," observed Dr.Jefferson Craig. "I think it's gone out of fashion."

  "There were some of the prettiest girls here to-night I ever saw," wasRosalie's contribution to the list of comments. A figure of exquisitemodishness, she perched upon the porch rail near Chester. "I did want totell them not to let any one young man stick by them every minute theway they did, but I could hardly blame the young men for wanting tostick, the girls were so sweet, and some of them were quite stunning."

  "You certainly gave them an example of how to make eyes at fifteen ortwenty fellows, one after another," laughed her brother, at her side."You'd have had them all coming, Rosy, if they hadn't been tied up totheir respective girls. A lesson or two from you, and those girls wouldbegin to play 'round in proper shape."

  "Rosy's going to stay and take a few lessons herself," insinuatedJeannette, who sat with her shapely young arm resting upon her father'sknee, as she occupied the step below him. "I'll promise to put someflesh on her little bones if she's here a month. She's too thin, afteronly her second season."

  "Oh, I'll stay," promised Rosalie promptly. "I simply love it here; I'mcrazy to stay!"

  "It's all very well now," came Aunt Olivia's low murmur in Georgiana'sear--there had been many of such murmurs in th
e same ear during theafternoon and evening, though why, Georgiana herself could not guess,since the elder woman knew the younger to be unreservedly committed toupholding Jeannette's whole course--"very well now, in June, withflowers blooming and friends about, but how the poor child is going toface a second winter I can't imagine."

  "She faced the first one very happily," Georgiana reminded her.

  "The first one was a novelty and of course she was determined not toacknowledge how lonely she must often have been. I do not say that JamesStuart is not a very attractive and trustworthy young man; I am fond ofhim myself--very. But I shall always feel that Jeannette has made aterrible mistake. Brought up as she has been, it is not conceivablethat she should continue to find this sort of life possible."

  It was with this moan in her ears that, a few minutes later, Georgianalistened to James Stuart. He had drawn her away from the group and wasstrolling with her across the lawn.

  "Well, George, tell me your honest opinion. Is my wife happy?"

  It was a blunt question, but Georgiana understood. He asked it not to bereassured but because he was confident of the answer.

  She spoke guardedly: "I never saw her seem more so, Jimps. You are sureof it yourself?"

  "I want you to ask her point-blank. Will you?"

  "It's not the sort of question to ask anybody point-blank, is it?"

  "It is in this case. Do you think I don't know the doubt in all yourminds?--yes, even yours, for you've become another person since youmarried Craig."

  "Oh, no!"

  "Oh, yes! You've been thinking ever since you came that you're deadthankful you don't have to come back to it--now, haven't you?"

  "Jimps, dear, I lived all my life in the hardest, narrowest economy. IfI had had all this beautiful experience Jean is having----"

  "I know. But you wouldn't come back, even to this place of ours----"

  "That's begging the question. For Jean it's a wonderful change, and anyone can see what it's done for her."

  "Physically, yes. But I want you to find out whether she's actuallyhappy or not."

  "I will," promised his friend with a nod; for she knew James Stuart muchtoo well to imagine she could put him off without complying with hisexpressed desire.

  It looked as if Jeannette herself were anxious to assure her cousin'smind, for Stuart had no sooner brought Georgiana back to the porch thanhis wife took possession of her.

  "Georgiana, dear, I want you to tell me one thing," began Jeannette, asthe two moved slowly a little away from the rest. "Do you think we aremaking a success of it?"

  "A wonderful success, Jean. I couldn't have believed it, even what I seeon the surface. How about it--inside? That's a pretty searchingquestion, and you needn't answer it if you don't want to. Everythingabout you seems to answer it."

  Jeannette stopped short and turned to face her cousin. "Haven't Iwritten you the answer, over and over?"

  "Yes. That's why I want to hear it from your own lips."

  "You shall. First, though--Georgiana, you knew Antoinette Burwellmarried Miles Channing last December?"

  "I heard of it. How do they come on?"

  "Separated; she's gone back to her father. She was the most wildly happybride I ever saw. Think of it, George--in six months! What do yousuppose would have happened if you----"

  "Don't! I didn't." And Georgiana's grateful thoughts went back to one ofthe crises in her life, the one from which Jefferson Craig had rescuedher.

  "Do you know the Ralph Hendersons? Married two years now--I'm sureyou've heard me speak of them. Everybody knows they quarrel like catsand dogs; they're hardly civil to each other in public. And I knowseveral more of our old set who are none too happy, if one may judge bytheir looks. Yet they all married 'in their own class,' as mother is sofond of saying, as if I didn't!--I married _above_ it! And I am supposedto have cast away all my chances for this life, not to mention the next,by marrying my farmer! Georgiana, I'm getting to hate that word_farmer_! Why isn't there a new word made for the man who reads andstudies and uses the latest modern methods on his farm? There are such alot of them now. College graduates, like Jimps, and men who have takenagricultural courses and are putting their brains into their work. Whyisn't there a new word?"

  "The old word must be made to acquire a new dignity," Georgianasuggested. "Never mind the word; you're glad you married your farmer?"

  "Glad! I thank God every night and morning; I thank Him every time I gorunning down the lane to meet my husband coming up from the meadow! Ofcourse I know, Georgiana, that the life I'm living isn't the typicallife of the farmer's wife at all--thanks to Jimps' success and my ownlittle pocket-book! But it has all outdoors in it and lots of lovelyindoors; and I'm growing so well and strong--you can see that by justlooking at me. And I'm getting to know my neighbours, and likethem--some of them--oh, so much! Life never was so full. Mother talksabout how hard I'll find it to get through my second winter. It doesn'tworry me. We'll order books and books, and we'll go for splendid tramps,and every now and then we'll run into town--for concerts and plays. Andbest of all, Georgiana,"--her voice sank--"I'm sure--sure--Jimps isn'tdisappointed in me."

  "Disappointed! I should say not--the lucky boy!" Georgiana agreed, allher fears gone to the winds.

  * * * * *

  When they returned to the porch it was to hear an outcry fromJeannette's mother: "Chester Crofton! Have you gone absolutely crazy?"

  "I think so, mother. Positively dippy. Got it in its worst form. It'sbeen coming on me for some time, but it's taken me now, for better orfor worse. I'm going to buy that small farm across the road and try whatI can do."

  "I'll back you," came in Mr. Thomas Crofton's deepest chest tones.

  "Hear, hear!" Dr. Jefferson Craig's shout drowned out Mrs. Crofton'sgroan.

  "O Ches--I'll come and keep house for you--part of the year, anyhow!"This was dainty Rosalie, her silk-stockinged ankles swinging wildly, asshe sat upon the porch rail.

  Georgiana was laughing, as her eyes met her husband's in a glance ofunderstanding, but her heart was very warm behind the laughter.

  Beyond the gleam of the lanterns she caught the golden glow of a summermoon rising, to illumine the depths of the country sky--the immense,star-spangled arch of the heavens. Beneath lay many homes, big andlittle, all filled with human lives, each with its chance somehow togrow; each with its chance, small or great, as a beloved writer has saidinspiringly, "_to love and to work and to play and to look up at thestars._"

  THE END