I'll bake the cakes and draw the ale."
"Gee whiz!" said Mr. Dane. I'd never heard things like that. It sounded
like Billy, and I liked it. "I've got to catch that midnight train."
For a minute it seemed as if we all stood shouting at one another,
Lorraine asking him to stay all night, Charles Edward giving him a
cigar to smoke on the way, I explaining to Lorraine that I'd sleep on
the parlor sofa and leave the guest-room free, and Mr. Dane declaring
he'd got a million things to do before sailing. Then he and Charles
Edward dashed out into the night, as Alice would say, and I should have
thought it was a dream that he'd been there at all except that I felt
his touch on my hand. And Lorraine put her arms round me and kissed me
and said, "Now, you sweet child, run up-stairs and look at the
moonlight and dream--and dream--and dream."
I don't know whether I slept that night; but, if I did, I did not dream.
The next forenoon I waited until eleven o'clock before I went home. I
wanted to be sure Aunt Elizabeth was safely away at Whitman. Yet, after
all, I did not dread her now. I had been told what to do. Some one was
telling me of a song the other day, "Command me, dear." I had been
commanded to stop thinking of all those things I hated. I had done it.
Mother met me at the steps. She seemed a little anxious, but when she
had put her hand on my shoulder and really looked at me she smiled the
way I love to see her smile.
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