“Clover, you are a goose. You’ll be wiser one of these days, see if you aren’t,” was Rose’s only reply.
Chapter IV.
Two Long Years in One Short Chapter
Katy’s absence left a sad blank in the household. Every one missed her, but nobody so much as Clover, who all her life long had been her room-mate, confidante, and intimate friend.
It was a great help that Rose was there for the first three lonely days. Dulness and sadness were impossible with that vivacious little person at hand; and so long as she stayed, Clover had small leisure to be mournful. Rose was so bright and merry and affectionate that Elsie and John were almost as much in love with her as Clover herself, and sat and sunned themselves in her warmth, so to speak, all day long, while Phil and Dorry fairly quarrelled as to which should have the pleasure of doing little services for her and Baby Rose.
If she could have remained the summer through, all would have seemed easy; but that of course was impossible. Mr. Browne appeared with a provoking punctuality on the morning of the fourth day, prepared to carry his family away with him. He spent one night at Dr. Carr’s, and they all liked him very much. No one could help it, he was so cordial and friendly and pleasant. Still, for all her liking, Clover could have found it in her heart to quite detest him as the final moment drew near.
“Let him go home without you,” she urged coaxingly. “Stay with us all summer,—you and little Rose! He can come back in September to fetch you, and it would be so delightful to us.”
“My dear, I couldn’t live without Deniston till September,” said the disappointing Rose. “It may not show itself to a casual observer, but I am really quite foolish about Deniston. I shouldn’t be happy away from him at all. He’s the only husband I’ve got,—a ‘poor thing, but mine own,’ as the ‘immortal William’ puts it.”
“Oh, dear,” groaned Clover. “That is the way that Katy is going to talk about Ned, I suppose. Matrimony is the most aggravating condition of things for outsiders that was ever invented. I wish nobody had invented it. Here it would be so nice for us to have you stay, and the moment that provoking husband of yours appears, you can’t think of any one else.”
“Too true—much too true. Now, Clovy, don’t embitter our last moments with reproaches. It’s hard enough to leave you as it is, when I’ve just found you again after all these years. I’ve had the most beautiful visit that ever was, and you’ve all been awfully dear and nice. ‘Kiss me quick and let me go,’ as the song says. I only wish Burnet was next door to West Cedar Street!”
Next day Mr. Browne sailed away with his “handful of Roses,” as Elsie sentimentally termed them (and indeed, Rose by herself would have been a handful for almost any man); and Clover, like Lord Ullin, was “left lamenting.” Cousin Helen remained, however; and it was not till she too departed, a week later, that Clover fully recognized what it meant to have Katy married. Then indeed she could have found it in her heart to emulate Eugénie de la Ferronayes, and shed tears over all the little inanimate objects which her sister had left behind,—the worn-out gloves, the old dressing slippers in the shoe-bag. But dear me, we get used to everything, and it is fortunate that we do! Life is too full, and hearts too flexible, and really sad things too sad, for the survival of sentimental regrets over changes which do not involve real loss and the wide separation of death. In time, Clover learned to live without Katy, and to be cheerful still.
Her cheerfulness was greatly helped by the letters which came regularly, and showed how contented Katy herself was. She and Ned were having a beautiful time, first in New York, and making visits near it, then in Portsmouth and Portland, when the frigate moved on to these harbors, and in Newport, which was full and gay and amusing to the last degree. Later, in August, the letters came from Bar Harbor, where Katy had followed, in company with the commodore’s wife, who seemed as nice as her husband; and Clover heard of all manner of delightful doings,—sails, excursions, receptions on board ship, and long moonlight paddles with Ned, who was an expert canoeist. Everybody was so wonderfully kind, Katy said; but Ned wrote to his sister that Katy was a great favorite; every one liked her, and his particular friends were all raging wildly round in quest of girls just like her to marry. “But it’s no use; for, as I tell them,” he added, “that sort isn’t made in batches. There is only one Katy; and happily she belongs to me, and the other fellows must get along as they can.”
This was all satisfactory and comforting; and Clover could endure a little loneliness herself so long as her beloved Katy seemed so happy. She was very busy besides, and there were compensations, as she admitted to herself. She liked the consequence of being at the head of domestic affairs, and succeeding to Katy’s position as papa’s special daughter,—the person to whom he came for all he wanted, and to whom he told his little secrets. She and Elsie became more intimate than they had ever been before; and Elsie in her turn enjoyed being Clover’s lieutenant as Clover had been Katy’s. So the summer did not seem long to any of them; and when September was once past, and they could begin to say, “month after next,” the time sped much faster.
“Mrs. Hall asked me this morning when the Worthingtons were coming,” said Johnnie, one day. “It seems so funny to have Katy spoken of as ‘the Worthingtons.’”
“I only wish the Worthingtons would write and say when,” remarked Clover. “It is more than a week since we heard from them.”
The next day brought the wished-for letter, and the good news that Ned had a fortnight’s leave, and meant to bring Katy home the middle of November, and stay for Thanksgiving. After that the “Natchitoches” was to sail for an eighteen months’ cruise to China and Japan; and then Ned would probably have two years ashore at the Torpedo Station or Naval Academy or somewhere, and they would start a little home for themselves.
“Meantime,” wrote Katy, “I am coming to spend a year and a half with you, if urged. Don’t all speak at once, and don’t mind saying so, if you don’t want me.”
The bitter drop in this pleasant intelligence—there generally is one, you know—was that the fortnight of Ned’s stay was to be spent at Mrs. Ashe’s. “It’s her only chance to see Ned,” said Katy; “so I know you won’t mind, for afterward you will have me for such a long visit.”
But they did mind very much!
“I don’t think it’s fair,” cried Johnnie, hotly, while Clover and Elsie exchanged disgusted looks; “Katy belongs to us.”
“Katy belongs to her husband, on the contrary,” said Dr. Carr, overhearing her; “you must learn that lesson once for all, children. There’s no escape from the melancholy fact; and it’s quite right and natural that Ned should wish to go to his sister, and she should want to have him.”
“Ned! yes. But Katy—”
“My dear, Katy is Ned,” answered Dr. Carr, with a twinkle. Then noticing the extremely unconvinced expression of Johnnie’s face, he added more seriously, “Don’t be cross, children, and spoil all Katy’s pleasure in coming home, with your foolish jealousies. Clover, I trust to you to take these young mutineers in hand and make them listen to reason.”
Thus appealed to, Clover rallied her powers, and while laboring to bring Elsie and John to a proper frame of mind, schooled herself as well, so as to be able to treat Mrs. Ashe amiably when they met. Dear, unconscious Polly meanwhile was devising all sorts of pleasant and hospitable plans designed to make Ned’s stay a sort of continuous fête to everybody. She put on no airs over the preference shown her, and was altogether so kind and friendly and sweet that no one could quarrel with her even in thought, and Johnnie herself had to forgive her, and be contented with a little whispered grumble to Dorry now and then over the inconvenience