Authors -- Fiction; Ghosts -- Fiction; Love stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Fiction
That night after his cousin and his guest had gone to bed, Lindsay
wandered about the place. The moon was big enough to turn his paths into
streams of light. He walked through the flower garden; into the barn;
about the Dew Pond. The tallest hollyhocks scarcely moved, so quiet was
the night. The little pond showed no ripple except a flash of the
moonlight. The barn was a cavern of gloom. Lindsay gazed at everything
as though from a new point of view.
An immeasurable content filled him.
After a while he returned to the house. His picture of Lutetia Murray
still hung over the mantel in the living-room. He gazed at it for a long
while. Then he turned away. As he looked down the length of the
living-room, there was in his face a whimsical expression, half of an
achieved happiness, half of a lurking regret. "This house has never been
so full of people since I've been here," he mused, "and yet never was it
so empty. My beloved ghosts, I miss you. But you've not all gone after
all. You've left one little ghost behind. Lutetia, I thank you for her.
How I wish you could come again to see.... But you're right. Don't come!
Not that I'm afraid. You're too lovely--"
His thoughts broke halfway. They took another turn. "I wonder if it ever
happened to any other man before in the history of the world to see the
little-girl ghost of the woman--"
* * * * *
Blue Meadows had for several weeks now been projecting pictures from its
storied past into the light of everyday. Could it have projected into
that everyday one picture from the future, it would have been something
like this.
* * * * *
Susannah came into the south living-room. Her husband was standing
between the two windows.
"Davy," she exclaimed joyfully, "I've located the lowboy. A Mrs. Norton
in West Hassett owns it. Of course she's asking a perfectly prohibitive
price, but of course we've got to have it."
"Yes," Lindsay answered absently, "we've got to have it."
"I'm glad we found things so slowly," Susannah dreamily. "It adds to the
wonder and magic of it all. It makes the dream last longer. It keeps our
romance always at the boiling point."
She put one arm about her husband's neck and kissed him. Lindsay turned;
kissed her.
"At least we have the major pieces back," Susannah said contentedly.
"And little Lutetia Murray Lindsay will grow up in almost the same
surroundings that Susannah Ayer enjoyed. Oh--today--when I carried her
over to the wall of the nursery, she noticed the Weejubs; she actually
put her hand out to touch them."
"Oh, there's something here for you--from Rome--just came in the mail,"
Lindsay exclaimed. "It's addressed to Susannah Delano too."
"From Rome!" Susannah ejaculated. "Susannah Delano!" She cut the strings
of the package. Under the wrappings appeared--swathed in tissue paper--a
picture. A letter dropped from the envelope. Susannah seized it; turned
to the signature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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