"It will be all right, dearest," said Lorry, divining his wife's
thoughts as she sat staring rather soberly straight ahead of her, "Just
as soon as we get to Edelweiss, the whole affair will look so simple
that we can laugh at the fears of to-day. You see, we are a long way off
just now."
"I am only afraid of what may happen before we get there, Gren," she
said, simply. He leaned over and kissed her hand, smiling at the
emphasis she unconsciously placed on the pronoun.
Beverly Calhoun was announced just before coffee was served, and a
moment later was in the room. She stopped just inside the door, clicked
her little heels together and gravely brought her hand to "salute." Her
eyes were sparkling and her lips trembled with suppressed excitement.
"I think I can report to you in Edelweiss next month, general," she
announced, with soldierly dignity. Her hearers stared at the picturesque
recruit, and Halkins so far forgot himself as to drop Mr. Lorry's lump
of sugar upon the table instead of into the cup.
"Explain yourself, sergeant!" finally fell from Lorry's lips. The eyes
of the princess were beginning to take on a rapturous glow.
"May I have a cup of coffee, please, sir? I've been so excited I
couldn't eat a mouthful at home." She gracefully slid into the chair
Halkins offered, and broke into an ecstatic giggle that would have
resulted in a court-martial had she been serving any commander but Love.
With a plenteous supply of Southern idioms she succeeded in making them
understand that the major had promised to let her visit friends in the
legation at St. Petersburg in April a month or so after the departure of
the Lorrys.
"He wanted to know where I'd rather spend the Spring--Washin'ton or
Lexin'ton, and I told him St. Petersburg. We had a terrific discussion
and neither of us ate a speck at dinner. Mamma said it would be all
right for me to go to St. Petersburg if Aunt Josephine was still of a
mind to go, too. You see, Auntie was scared almost out of her boots when
she heard there was prospect of war in Graustark, just as though a tiny
little war like that could make any difference away up in
Russia--hundreds of thousands of miles away--" (with a scornful wave of
the hand)--"and then I just made Auntie say she'd go to St. Petersburg
in April--a whole month sooner than she expected to go in the first
place--and--"
"You dear, dear Beverly!" cried Yetive, rushing joyously around the
table to clasp her in her arms.
"And St. Petersburg really isn't a hundred thousand miles from
Edelweiss," cried Beverly, gaily.
"It's much less than that," said Lorry, smiling, "But you surely don't
expect to come to Edelweiss if we are fighting. We couldn't think of
letting you do that, you know. Your mother would never--"