He laughed, too: "How you scorned me for my ignorance, didn't you? Oh,
but I've learned a great many things since those days, Athalie."
"To sail a boat, too?"
"Oh, yes. I had to learn. There's a lot of water in the world; and
I've been very far afield."
"I know," she said. There was a subtle sympathy in her voice,--an
exquisite recognition of the lonely years which now seemed to lie far,
far behind them both.
She glanced down at her fresh plate which Mrs. Connor had just placed
before her.
"Clive!" she exclaimed, enchanted, "do you see! Peach turnovers!"
"Certainly. Do you suppose this housewarming could be a proper one
without peach turnovers?" And to Mrs. Connor he said: "That is all,
thank you. Miss Greensleeve and I will eat our turnovers by the stove
in the sun-parlour."
And there they ate their peach turnovers, seated on the old-time
rush-bottomed chairs beside the stove--just as they had sat so many
years ago when Athalie was a child of twelve and wore a ragged cloak
and hood of red.
Sometimes, leisurely consuming her pastry, she glanced demurely at her
lover, sometimes her blue eyes wandered to the sunny picture outside
where roses grew and honeysuckle trailed and the blessed green grass
enchanted the tired eyes of those who dwelt in the monstrous and arid
city.
Presently she went away to the room he had prepared for her; and he
lay back lazily in his chair and lighted a cigarette, and watched the
thin spirals of smoke mounting through the sunshine. When she returned
to him she was clad in white from crown to toe, and he told her she
was enchanting, which made her eyes sparkle and the dimples come.
"Mrs. Connor is going to remain and help me," she said. "All my things
are unpacked, and the bed is made very nicely, and it is all going to
be too heavenly for words. Oh, I wish you could stay!"
"To-night?"
"Yes. But I suppose it would ruin us if anybody knew."
He said nothing as they walked back into the main hallway.
"What a charming old building it is!" she exclaimed. "Isn't it odd
that I never before appreciated the house from an esthetic angle? I
don't suppose you'd call this architecture, but whatever else it may
be it certainly is dignified. I adore the simplicity of the rooms;
don't you? I shall have some pretty silk curtains made; and, in the
bedrooms, chintz. And maybe you will help me hunt for furniture and
rugs. Will you, dear?"