my own eyes, and I don’t imagine things. I got the very lowest marks always in school for anything that required an imagination, like a composition. I never had any imagination at all! No sir! Boy, I saw that baby, and she was burrowing in her hand bag for change to pay her bus fare, just like she used to do. No, sir, I wasn’t imagining. It was too lifelike. Believe me I dashed across the street and took the first bus I saw going the other way, and I’ve just got back. I meant to be here an hour ago. I really did. But you know how it was, fellas. I hadta get calm before I could think what to do. And I almost went back to my office and decided to telephone I had been taken with typhoid or smallpox or something and couldn’t come at all. But finally I thought I’d come and see if you fellas knew whether she was in the procession. If she was I was gonta beat it again so fast you wouldn’t know I had been here.”
He broke off and bowed his head in his hands, his whole big frame stooping dejectedly.
Then they all came by and gave him a good pounding on his broad shoulders.
“Get up, Lutie!” they shouted. “Can’t you see how you’re hindering us all? Get up and put your marcel in order. It’s streaming out all over the place. Powder your nose, wipe the tears away from your eyes, and cheer up! We won’t let old Min bother the poor little fellow! Not that we’re not sympathetic, you know, for we’ve all had our taste of Cousin Min Lazarelle, but don’t be worried any more. Min is far far away, and can’t spoil the joy of the evening for you any more!”
They pulled Waite up on his feet and sat him down in one of the hall chairs, and then they told him to hurry, that it was time to start to the dinner and they mustn’t be late.
He sat for a moment staring at them sadly.
“But I saw her!” he reiterated. “I sure did!”
“Okay,” they cried, laughing. “We’ll protect you! Get up and navigate. We’ll ask Mrs. Hollis to put you beside that cute little McHale number, Lou McHale. Now, brush your marcel and come along!”
And so at last they were on their way.
But as they piled into the big Redfern limousine, Link, in the back seat with Reeves Leighton, heart Lute Waite say in an uneasy undertone to Curlin Grant:
“Say, Curly, you don’t suppose Syd’s mother could have made her invite Minnie Lazarelle to the wedding, do you? Because I know I saw her! And if she’s here I tell you I won’t go near the place. She gets my goat!”
Link leaned forward and said distinctly, so they all could hear:
“You’re all haywire, Waite. Just last night Syd was talking to my sister over the phone and she said she was thankful that this was one time her would-be cousin wouldn’t walk in unexpectedly. So I’m sure she’s not invited. But what’s the matter with that baby anyway? I never had any experience with her. I never took particular notice of her. Is she fierce-looking? Has she got a wooden leg or halitosis, or is she just a fool?”
“She’s just a clinging vine, my lad,” said Reeves Leighton amusedly. “Once stuck with her you can’t get rid of her by any rule that ever was tried. Short of throwing pepper in her eyes and running away I can’t think of anything that would work. She’s one of those girls who has been made to believe that a girl’s chief business in life is to acquire a man, and she means to make good and not let a chance run by her.”
“I’ll say she does!” said Luther sighing deeply.
“Hey! Quit that sighing!” said Link giving the big red head a shaking. “You act as if you were going to a funeral instead of a wedding. Snap out of it or they will all think you were in love with the bride!”
“I was!” said Lutie. “Definitely! Ever since we used to slide down the cellar door together when we were kids. I never thought this could happen that she would select somebody else in my place and go off to California.” Waite got out his handkerchief and pretended to weep, while they all roared with laughter.
“Between losing Syd, and that vision I had of her cousin Min, I’m a wreck!” he announced with a well-simulated sob, mopping his face despairingly.
“There she is, Lutie!” called out Steve suddenly. “That’s Min down there by that next corner, isn’t it? That woman with the green coat and the small sized wedding cake for a hat? Or isn’t it? I’m positive she must be it. You’d better hide, Lutie. Put your head down under this coat, and we’ll hide you!”
Waite crowded his big shoulders down, and allowed them to cover his bulk with the coat.
“Hey, there! You’re mussing his marcel!” cried out Curlin. “He won’t be fit to be seen when he gets there!”
“I don’t want to be seen!” wailed Lutie. “I just know Min has come here for the wedding, and if she has she’ll get me. There’s nothing I can do about it! I’m depending on you, Link, to protect me!”
They rollicked and bantered all the way from the Redfern house to the Hollis place, for all the world as if they were children, and not grown young men with a serious outlook on life.
Arrived at the Hollis home they marched gravely up the steps and waited with charming dignity and only a few covert grins. When the door was opened, they left their coats and hats in the commodious coat room to the right of the hall door, and then filed into the reception room with the easy familiarity of old friends of the family.
A ripple of laughter from upstairs made it plain that the girls were already on the scene.
“That’s Carey Carewe’s musical giggle,” asserted Luther Waite with relief in his voice. “Now, if I can only get next to her the day will be saved!”
“It’s night, not day, fella! You’ve mixed your signals! Take it calmly, Waite. A few more hours and it will all be over!” advised Paul Redfern gravely.
Upstairs Mrs. Hollis, attired in black lace and smiling composure, about to go down to meet her guests, had just been informed of the presence of Minnie Lazarelle. She retired hastily to the back hall to tap at the nursery door and have a talk with her.
“Oh, my dear Minnie!” she said in a shocked tone as the door opened readily and the smiling and triumphant face of the uninvited guest appeared, nothing daunted.
“My dear!” she reproved in a tone that told Minnie that she certainly was anything but dear just then. “How in the world did this happen? I had no idea that you were in this part of the world, or could possibly come at the present time. And of course it’s quite impossible for you to stay here now, we are full up to overflowing.”
“Oh, that’s quite all right, Aunt Jessica,” laughed Minnie brightly. “I don’t mind sleeping in the old nursery at all. And of course being a relative it’s quite the right thing to put me here. Though I would have enjoyed being over next to Sydney. In fact I did go over there and found that little stick of a college mate of Syd’s had preempted the best room, so I decided I’d better room with her. But when I had had my bath and came out into the room I found she had gone, and your officious maid ordered me back here, so I came. But it’s all right. I don’t mind in the least, Aunt Jessica.”
Minnie seldom called the Hollises aunt and cousin unless she had some axe to grind, but she was using the strained relationship for all it was worth now, and smiling blandly into the desperate eyes of the bride’s mother.
“Oh, but Minnie, you don’t understand!” she said. “We have had a difficult time getting everybody provided for, and we can’t even spare you this room. If you had only sent me word you were coming I would have arranged some place for you to stay till the wedding was over. And we’ll try to find a place now for you to go. You see there won’t even be room for you at the table. Every place is filled and it will make things very awkward indeed to have an extra one come in. it is quite impossible. Get on your hat and coat, my dear, and we’ll call up Mrs. Fremont. She has plenty of room and is always willing to help out. I’m sorry I can’t send you over in the car. It has gone to the station for the bridegroom but we’ll have a taxi here