Cloudy Jewel (Romance Classic). Grace Livingston Hill
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and preened herself before the glass; Junior had to understand at once just how to take a picture; everybody had to watch the doll open and shut its eyes, and to try to unbutton and button its coat and dress; and then the railroad track had to be set up and the train started off on its rounds. Ellen Robinson really looked almost motherly while she watched her happy children; and Julia Cloud relaxed, and let the smile come around her lips once more.
But all things come to an end, and Ellen Robinson was not one to forget her own affairs for long at a time. She sat back from starting the engine on its third round, and fixed her eyes on her sister with that air of commander-general that was so intolerable.
“Well, then, I suppose you won’t be over here till next week,” she frowned thoughtfully. “I needed you to help with the crabapple jelly. That makes it inconvenient. But perhaps I can hold off the fruit a little longer; I’ll see. You ought to be able to get all your packing done this week, I should think. When do they go?” She nodded toward the niece and nephew quite indifferently as though they were deaf.
Julia Cloud’s sensitive face flushed with annoyance, but the two pairs of bright eyes that lifted and fixed themselves upon their aunt held nothing but enjoyment of the situation.
“Why, we’re not going until Aunt Jewel is ready to go with us, Aunt Ellen,” announced Leslie, looking up from the doll she was reclothing. “You know we’re all going to college together, Auntie, too!”
Ellen Robinson lifted an indignant chin. She had no sense of humor, and did not enjoy jokes, especially those practised upon herself.
“Going to college! At her age!” she snorted. “Well, I always knew she was childish, but I never expected her to want to go back to kindergarten!”
Leslie rose up straight as a rush, her strong young arms down at her sides, her fingers in their soft suède gloves working restively as if she wanted to rush at her aunt and administer corporal punishment. Her pretty red lips were pursed angrily, and her blue eyes fairly blazed righteous wrath. Julia Cloud caught her breath, and wondered how she was to control this young fury; but before she could say a word Allison stepped in front of her, and spoke coolly.
“That’s the reason she’s such a good scout, Aunt Ellen. That’s why we want her to come and take care of us. Because she knows how to stay young.”
He suddenly seemed to have grown very tall and quite mature as he spoke, and there was something about his manly bearing that held Ellen Robinson’s tongue in check as he looked at his watch with a polite “Excuse me,” and then turned to Julia Cloud. “Aunt Jewel, if we are to meet my guardian on that train, I think we shall have to hurry. It’s quite a run into the city, you know.” Julia Cloud arose with a breath of relief.
“The city!” gasped Ellen. “You’re not going into the city this late in the afternoon, I hope! Do you know how long it takes?”
Allison glanced out to his high-powered machine confidently.
“We made it in an hour and a half coming over. I guess we shall have plenty of time to meet the five-o’clock train if we go at once. I’ve got a peach of a car, Aunt Ellen. I’ll have to come round and take you and the kids a ride to-morrow or the next day if Aunt Jewel can spare me.”
“Thank you! I have a car of my own!” snapped his aunt disagreeably.
“Oh! I beg your pardon! Well, Aunt Jewel, we really must go if we are to meet Mr. Luddington. Good-by, Aunt Ellen! Good-by, cousins! We’ll see you again before we leave town, of course. Come on, Aunt Jewel!” And he took Julia Cloud lightly, protectingly by the elbow, and steered her out of the room, down the steps, and into the car, while Leslie danced gayly after, chattering away about how nice it was to get back East and meet real relatives.
But Ellen Robinson was not listening to Leslie. She hurried after her departing guests regardless of a noisy struggle that was going on between her two youngest over the railway train, and stood on her front steps, fairly snorting with indignation.
“Julia Cloud, what does all this mean? You shan’t go away until you explain. Have you taken leave of your senses? What is this nonsense about going to college?”
Allison with his hand on the starter gave his aunt a swift, reassuring smile; and Julia Cloud from the safe vantage of the back seat leaned forward, smiling.
“Why, it’s the children that are going to college, Ellen, not I. I’m only going along to keep house and play mother for them. Isn’t it lovely? I’ll tell you all about it to-morrow when you come down to pick out your things. Be sure to come early, because I want to get started packing the first thing in the morning. Mr. Luddington, the children’s guardian, is coming to-night to complete the arrangements, and we expect to get away just as soon as I can get packed up. So come early.”
The engine purred softly for a rhythmical second, and the car slid quickly away from the door.
“But––the very idea!” snorted Aunt Ellen. “Julia Cloud!” she fairly shouted. “Stop! You had no right in the world to go ahead and make plans without consulting me!”
But the car was beyond ear-shot now, and Leslie was waving a pretty, tantalizing hand from the back seat.
“The very idea!” Ellen Robinson gasped to the autumn landscape as she stood alone and watched the car, a mere speck down the road, on its way to town. “The idea!” And then as if for self-justification: “Poor mother! What would she think if she could know? Well, I wash my hands of her.”
But Ellen Robinson did not wash her hands of her sister. Instead, she found that it was going to be very hard indeed to wash her hands of her own affairs without her sister’s help. She had, in fact, been counting on that help for the last several years, after her mother became an invalid and she knew that it was only a matter of time before Julia’s hands would be set free for other labor. It was quite too disconcerting now, after having got along all these years on the strength of the help that was to come, to find her capable sister snatched away from her by two young things in this ridiculous way.
They talked it over at supper, and Herbert was almost savage about it, as if in some way his wife had misrepresented the possibilities, and led him to expect the assistance that would come from her sister and save him from paying wages to a servant.
“Well, she’ll be good and sick of it inside of three months, mark my words; and then she’ll come whining back and want us to take her in;––be glad enough to get a home. So don’t you worry. But what I want understood is this: She’s not going to find it so easy to get back. See? You make her thoroughly understand that. You better go down to-morrow and pick out everything you want. Take plenty. You can’t tell but something may happen to the house, and the furniture burn up. We might as well have it as anybody. And you make it good and sure that she understands right here and now that if she goes she doesn’t come back. Of course, I’m not saying she can’t come back if she comes to her senses, and is real humble; but you needn’t let her know that. Just give her to understand it is her last chance, that I can’t be monkeyed with this way. I’ve offered her a very generous thing, and she knows it, and she’s a fool, that’s what she is, a fool I say!” He brought his big fist down heavily on the table, and jarred the dishes; and the children looked up in premature comprehension, storing up the epithet for future use. “She’s no end of a fool, going off with those crazy kids. Some one ought to warn their guardian about her. Why, she has no more idea of how to take care of two high and mighty good-for-nothings like that than an infant in arms!”
Meantime the subject of their discussion was seated serenely at a table in one of the best hotels of the great city, having the time of her life. In the years that were to come there might be many more delightful suppers, even more elegantly served, perhaps; but none would ever rival this first time in her existence when she had sat among the wealthy and great of the land and been treated like one of them.
Mr. Luddington was a typical business man, elderly and kind, with wise eyes and a great smile. He turned his eyes keenly on Julia Cloud for an instant at their first meeting, then let his full smile envelop her, and she was somehow