The Trumpeter Swan | Page 6

then you can show yourself off by inches."
"Until to-night then," said Randy, and opened the gate for her.
"Until to-night," she watched them and waved her hand as they drove
off.
"A beautiful child," the Major remarked from the shadow of the back
seat.
"She's more than beautiful," said Randy, glowing, "oh, you wait till you
really know her, Major."
V
The Schoolhouse at King's Crest had been built years before by one of
the Paines for two sons and their tutor. It was separated from the old
brick mansion by a wide expanse of unmowed lawn, thick now in
midsummer with fluttering poppies. There was a flagged stone walk,
and an orchard at the left, beyond the orchard were rolling fields, and in
the distance one caught a glimpse of the shining river.
On the lower floor of the Schoolhouse were two ample sitting-rooms
with bedrooms above, one of which was reached by outside stairs, and
the other by an enclosed stairway. Baths had been added when Mrs.
Paine had come as a widow to King's Crest with her small son, and had
chosen the Schoolhouse as a quiet haven. Later, on the death of his
grandparents, Randy had inherited the estate, and he and his mother had
moved into the mansion. But he had kept his rooms in the Schoolhouse,
and was glad to know that he could go back to them.
Major Prime had the west sitting-room. It was lined with low
bookcases, full of old, old books. There was a fireplace, a winged chair,
a broad couch, a big desk of dark seasoned mahogany, and over the
mantel a steel engraving of Robert E. Lee. The low windows at the
back looked out upon the wooded green of the ascending hill; at the
front was a porch which gave a view of the valley.

Randolph's arrival had had something of the effect of a triumphal entry.
Jefferson had driven him straight to the Schoolhouse, but on the way
they had encountered old Susie, Jefferson's mother, who cooked, and
old Bob, who acted as butler, and the new maid who waited on the
table. These had followed the surrey as a sort of ecstatic convoy. Not a
boarder was in sight but behind the windows of the big house one was
aware of watching eyes.
"They are all crazy to meet you," Randy's mother had told him, as they
came into the Major's sitting-room after those first sacred moments
when the doors had been shut against the world, "they are all crazy to
meet you, but you needn't come over to lunch unless you really care to
do it. Jefferson can serve you here."
"What do you want me to do?"
"My dear, I'm so proud of you, I'd like to show you to the whole
world."
"But there are so many of us, Mother."
"There's only one of you----"
"And we haven't come back to be put on pedestals."
"You were put on pedestals before you went away."
"I'll be spoiled if you talk to me like that."
"I shall talk as I please, Randy. Major Prime, isn't he as handsome as
a--rose?"
"Mother----"
"Well, you are-----"
"Mother, if you talk like this to the boarders, I'll go back and get shot
up----"

She clung to him. "Randy, don't say such a thing. He mustn't talk like
that, must he, Major?"
"He doesn't mean it. Paine, this looks to me like the Promised Land----"
"I'm glad you like it," said Mrs. Paine, "and now if you don't mind, I'll
run along and kill the fatted calf----"
She kissed her son, and under a huge umbrella made her way through
the poppies that starred the grass----
"On Flanders field--where poppies blow"--the Major drew a sudden
quick breath---- He wished there were no poppies at King's Crest.
"I hate this hero stuff," Randy was saying, "don't you?"
"I am not so sure that I do. Down deep we'd resent it if we were not
applauded, shouldn't we?"
Randy laughed. "I believe we should."
"I fancy that when we've been home for a time, we may feel somewhat
bitter if we find that our pedestals are knocked from under us. Our
people don't worship long. They have too much to think of. They'll put
up some arches, and a few statues and build tribute houses in a lot of
towns, and then they'll go on about their business, and we who have
fought will feel a bit blank."
Randy laughed, "you haven't any illusions about it, have you?"
"No, but you and I know that it's all right however it goes."
Randy, standing very straight, looked out over the valley where the
river showed through the rain like a silver thread. "Well, we didn't do it
for praise, did we?"