Chapter 22

"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."

"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is coming. He asked to be invited."

For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family. A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.

"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and protection like that awaiting her."

"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."

"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the Boarder and Lily Rose!"

Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud, so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her searchingly, became curious as to the cause.

"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now-- I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell me exactly."

"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.

"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."

"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.

Colette laughed.

"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"

"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that thing you lost in the surplice pocket."

"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."

"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a little resentfully.

"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"

"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of my improvement."

Colette colored and was silent a moment.

"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the surplice, and he took me at my word."

"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the defence for the rector.

"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes it now."

"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."

"That isn't easy, Amarilly."

"But it's right."

"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"

"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it wasn't up to him any more to find that."

"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way, Amarilly."

"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a favor."

"What is it, Amarilly?"

"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind, you know, and he has such a fashionable church."

"And you don't know St. John better than that?"

"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know. And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to ask him."

"Why don't you ask him?"

"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you take interest in others."

"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will," promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first, there's no hurry."

"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be looking forward to it."

"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"

"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."

"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"

"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know. Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr. Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."

"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't you?"

"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."

"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal weddings."

"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the brakeman friend of the Boarder."

"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"

"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are going to ride to the train in a hack."

"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically. "We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be married in white?"

Amarilly's face fell.

"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up nice before the wedding."

"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that surplice!"

"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."

"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once more, and when he does--"

A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"

Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure Lily Rose that it was "all right."

"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you had a white dress!"

Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's" nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to contribute toward a new dress.

"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd like to help him by helping you."

Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.

Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.

"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.

Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.

"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't you?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."

"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I couldn't take it from you."

"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding. You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"

"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried wistfully.

"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."

The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.

* * * * *

The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since the surplice denouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual charge, the Jenkinses.

The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with pleasure.

When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.

"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her friends' behalf."

"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked whimsically.

"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."

"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"

"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family, thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"

The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.

"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued, speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr. Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept them."

"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose to accept them."

"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from the weddings in our class which often mean so little."

"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you. I--"

"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you would gladly do so."

"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"

"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."

"And--you will go with me, Colette?"

She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.

"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."

"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.

And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment. She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.

"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"

A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no immediate reply.

The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious, and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived all her old resentment, arose to depart.

"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.

"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.

He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.

"To please them," she added, coloring.

"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you be friends again?"

"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"