Josephine Dodge Daskam

“ THE COURTING OF LADY JANE
THE COURTING OF LADY JANE
THE colonel entered his sister’s room abruptly, sat down on her bed, and scattered a drawerful of fluffy things laid out for packing.
“You don’t seem to think about my side of the matter,” he said gloomily. “What am I to do here all alone, for Heaven’s sake?”
“That is so like a man,” she murmured, one arm in a trunk. “Let me see: party-boots, the children’s arctics, Dick’s sweater—did you think I could live here forever, Cal?” ”

“ Black Hannah appeared in the door, beaming and curtsying to the colonel.
“You-all ready foh yoh tea, Miss Lady?” she inquired.
A sudden recollection threw Mrs. Leroy into one of her irresistible fits of gentle laughter.
“Oh, Lady,” she murmured, “do you remember that impossible creature that lectured me about Hannah’s asking you for orders? Did I tell you about it, colonel?”
Jane shook her head reprovingly.
“Now, mother dearest, you always make him out worse—”
“Worse, my darling? Worse is a word that couldn’t be applied to that man. Worse is comparative. ”

“ Take Louise Morris, for instance; she regards you as partly entombed, probably”—the colonel winced involuntarily—“but, on the other hand, a girl like Jane Leroy would have no such nonsense in her head, and she can’t be much more than twenty.”
“She is twenty-two,” cried the unsuspecting colonel eagerly.
“Ah? I should not have said so much. Now such a girl as that, Cal, handsome, dignified, college-bred, is just the wife for an older man. One can’t seem to see her marrying some young snip of her own age. She’d be wasted on him. ”

“ I plan to spend the latter part of the winter in New York with friends. Perhaps by spring—”
“My dear Mrs. Leroy, how absurd! How cruel of you! What will Lady do? What shall I do? She has never been separated from you in her life. Does she know of this?”
“No; I shall tell her soon. As for what she will do—she will have her husband. If that is not enough for her, she should not marry the man who cannot—”
She stopped suddenly and controlled with great effort a rising emotion almost too strong for her. ”

“ He saw her, in fancy, opposite him at his table, moving so stately about his big empty house, filling it with pretty, useless woman’s things, lighting every corner with that last touch of grace that the most faithful housekeeper could never hope to add to his lonely life. For Theodosia had taught him that he was lonely. He envied Dick this sister of his. ”

“ Leroy! Do you think—could she—it is possible?”
“Lady is an unusual girl,” she said evenly, but with something gone out of her warm, gay voice. “She has never cared for young people. I know that she admires you greatly. While I cannot deny that I should prefer less difference than lies between your ages, it would be folly in me to fail to recognize the desirability of the connection in every other way. Whatever her decision—and the matter rests entirely with her—my daughter and I are honored by your proposal, Colonel Driscoll.” ”

“ The current of his thoughts changed absolutely. Old friends and new took up his leisure. His affairs, as they grew more pressing, woke in him a keen delight in the struggle with his opponents; as he shook hands triumphantly with his lawyer after a well-earned victory he felt years younger. He decided that he had moped too long in the country: “We must move into town this season,” he said to himself.
He fairly ran up the cottage steps in the gathering dusk. He longed to see them, full of plans for the winter. Hannah met him at the door: the ladies had gone to a dance at the Morrises’ ”

“ Just as I get thoroughly settled down to flowers in the drawing-room, and rabbits in a chafing-dish, and people for dinner, you skip off. Why don’t you bring the children here? What did you marry into the navy for, anyway? ”

“ The colonel left the fringe. “But—but perhaps there were other reasons; perhaps she didn’t—”
“Oh, probably she didn’t. But still, she said he was too young. That’s the way with these serious girls. Now I thought Dick was middle-aged when I married him, and he was thirty. Jane doesn’t take after her mother; she was only nineteen when she was born—I mean, of course, when Jane was born. Will you hand me that crocheted shawl, please?”
“My dear girl, you’re not going to try to get that into that trunk, too? Something will break.” ”