Schubert the rest of his days and never getting them. That’s a
girl’s philanthropy for you!”
Jerry Lockhart came out of the house screwing his chin over the
unusual luxury of a stiff white collar, which his wife insisted upon
as a necessary article of toilet while Miss Elliot was at the house.
Jerry sat down on the step and smiled his broad, red smile at
Margaret.
“Well, I’ve got the music for your dance, Miss Elliot. Olaf Oleson
will bring his accordion and Mollie will play the organ, when she
isn’t lookin’ after the grub, and a little chap from Frenchtown will
bring his fiddle—though the French don’t mix with the Norwegians
much.”
“Delightful! Mr. Lockhart, that dance will be the feature of our
trip, and it’s so nice of you to get it up for us. We’ll see the
Norwegians in character at last,” cried Margaret, cordially.
“See here, Lockhart, I’ll settle with you for backing her in this
scheme,” said Wyllis, sitting up and knocking the ashes out of his pipe.
“She’s done crazy things enough on this trip, but to talk of dancing
all night with a gang of half-mad Norwegians and taking the carriage
at four to catch the six o’clock train out of Riverton—well, it’s
tommy-rot, that’s what it is!”
“Wyllis, I leave it to your sovereign power of reason to decide
whether it isn’t easier to stay up all night than to get up at three
in the morning. To get up at three, think what that means! No, sir,
I prefer to keep my vigil and then get into a sleeper.”
“But what do you want with the Norwegians? I thought you were tired
of dancing.”
“So I am, with some people. But I want to see a Norwegian dance, and
I intend to. Come, Wyllis, you know how seldom it is that one really
wants to do anything nowadays. I wonder when I have really wanted to
go to a party before. It will be something to remember next month at
Newport, when we have to and don’t want to. Remember your own theory
that contrast is about the only thing that makes life endurable.
This is my party and Mr. Lockhart’s; your whole duty to-morrow night
will consist in being nice to the Norwegian girls. I’ll warrant you
were adept enough at it once. And you’d better be very nice indeed,
for if there are many such young valkyrs as Eric’s sister among
them, they would simply tie you up in a knot if they suspected you
were guying them.”
Wyllis groaned and sank back into the hammock to consider his fate,
while his sister went on.
“And the guests, Mr. Lockhart, did they accept?”
Lockhart took out his knife and began sharpening it on the sole of
his plowshoe.
“Well, I guess we’ll have a couple dozen. You see it’s pretty hard
to get a crowd together here any more. Most of ‘em have gone over to
the Free Gospellers, and they’d rather put their feet in the fire
than shake ‘em to a fiddle.”
Margaret made a gesture of impatience.
“Those Free Gospellers have just cast an evil spell over this
