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He turned his head toward the spruce grove, thinking vaguely of the June picnic, and what had come of his walking away from the dance that morning, when suddenly a great column of smoke and fire rolled up from the grove, and in the same second came piercing shrieks in Elspie's voice.
There was something in Olive which passed Elspie's comprehension.
But the child knew none of these, and therefore she crept, awe-struck, about the silent house, and when night fell, dared not even to pass near the chamber once her own and Elspie's now Death's. She saw the other members of the household enter there with solemn faces, and pass out, carefully locking the door. What must there be within?
But that it was eminently satisfactory to all concerned was clearly evinced by the appearance of the whole party the elegant ease with which Fergus McKay did it; the tremendous energy with which Jacques Bourassin tried it; the persistent vigour with which Andre Morel studied it; the facility with which Elise acquired it under Elspie's tuition; the untiring perseverance with which Archie and Little Bill did something like it for the latter had quite recovered, and was fit to hold his own, almost, with any one; the charming confusion of mind with which Fred Jenkins intermingled the sailor's hornpipe with it; the inimitable languor with which La Certe condescended to go through it; the new-born energy with which Slowfoot footed it; the side-splitting shrieks with which Old Peg regarded it; the uproarious guffaws with which the delighted old Duncan hailed it; the sad smile with which that weak and worn invalid Duncan junior beheld it; and, last, but not least, the earnest mental power and conspicuous physical ability with which Dan Davidson attempted something which Charity personified might have supposed to bear a distant resemblance to it.
But his rosy face became rosier when he met the horrified and sternly reproachful stare of Elspie's keen blue eyes as she turned round a whole volume of sermons expressed in her "Eh, sir?" Then she added, quietly, "I'll thank ye no to speak ill words in the ears o' this puir innocent new-born wean. It's no canny." "Humph! I suppose I must beg pardon again.
An' I do not think that we will be troubled this time wi' the Nor'-Westers, whatever though wan never knows what a tay may bring furth." "That is the very reason, sir," said Davidson, "that I want to get married at once, so that if anything does happen again I may claim the right to be Elspie's protector."
And so he lay back among the cushions, surrounded by flowers, his one hand in Auntie Elspie's, and looked with shining eyes, not at the beautiful familiar bits of landscape which were passing, and to which the Aunties were calling his attention, but at the gleam of a golden-brown head that was occasionally visible from John Lindsay's buggy.
It was covered, not with its usual counterpane of patchwork stars, the work of Elspie's diligent hand through many a long year, and on which her own baby-fingers had been first taught to sew but with a large white sheet. She stood, scarce knowing whether to fly or not, until she heard a footstep on the stairs. One minute, and it would be too late.
Then Marmaduke forsook his companions and without asking permission scrambled into her car with Gavin, and sat on the silk fringe of Auntie Elspie's dress, and shouted and waved encouragement to every one that passed while The Woman screamed expostulations. "Never mind," he roared, to each one, "we didn't forget to flag the train!" and from each buggy and car the long delayed cheers burst forth.
An' when I see all the graves down here that they don't nobody know who's they are, I thought mebbe one of 'em wouldn't care if I kind of adopted it. "At that she sort o' searched into Mis' Merriman's face, an' then Elspie's head went down, like she hed to excuse herself.
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