faintly pink as they came to the door in the late sun. "I declare!" "Georgeâwait till I get hold of him!" "He'll bring all the champagne in Memphis! We'll be tipsy, Primrose! He'll make this little family wedding into a Saturnalian feast!
That
will show people," Aunt Jim Allen said without hearing herself.
"Bless his heart," said Aunt Primrose. "When's he coming to see us? Tell him we expect him to noon dinner day
after
tomorrow. Ellen can have him first."
"You'll be coming up to dinner," said Dabney. "Aunt Tempe and Lady Clare and Uncle Pinck will be there and dying to see you."
"Mercy! Lady Clare!" said Aunt Primrose. "Don't let her do your mother the way she did at Annie Laurie's funeral, stamp her foot and get anything she wants."
"She's grown up more and been taking music," said Dabney, "and I've made her a flower girl."
She kissed them, with both hands around her present. Now that she was so soon to be married, she could see her whole family being impelled to speak to her, to say one last thing before she waved good-bye. She would long to stretch out her arms to them, every one. But they simply never looked deeper than the flat surface of any tremendous thing, that was all there was to it. They didn't try to understand
her
at all, her love, which they were free, welcome to challenge and question. In fact, here these two old aunts were actually
forgiving
it. All the Fairchilds were indulgentâindulgence was what she couldn't stand! The night light! Uncle George they indulged too, but they could never hurt him as they could hurt herâshe
was
a little like him, only far beneath, powerless, a girl. He had an incorruptible, and hence unchallenging, sweetness of heart, and all their tender blaming could beat safely upon it, that solid wall of too much love.
"I declare I don't know how you're going to get a wedding present home on horsebackâbreakable," said Aunt Primrose rather perkily.
"Of course she can, and run out and cut those roses too, Dabney. You've got India to help carry things."
"Dabney can carry her night light home," said India. "I'll tote the little old bunch of flowers."
The others sat in the porch rockers and watched Dabney cut the red and white roses. "That's not enoughâcut them all now, or we'll be mad."
"It's not like you were going away, or out of the Delta. Things aren't going to be any different, are they?" called Aunt Jim Allen. "Put those in something, child, and carry 'em to your mother. Tell her not to kill herself."
"Yes'm."
Aunt Primrose lifted one rose out of Dabney's bouquet as she went by. "What rose is that?" she asked her sister loudly.
"Why, I don't recognize it," said Aunt Jim Allen, taking it from her. "Don't recognize it at all."
They're never going to ask Dabney the questions, India meditated. She went up to Aunt Jim Allen and worried her, clasped and unclasped her harvest-moon breastpin, watching the way her sister went just a little prissily down the hall, being sent after a vase.
They don't make me say if I love Troy or if I don't, Dabney was thinking, clicking her heels in the pantry. But by the time she came back to the porch, the flowers in a Mason jar of water, she knew she would never say anything about love after all, if they didn't want her to. Suppose they were afraid to ask her, little old aunts. She thought of how they both drew back to see her holding their night light. They would give her anything, but they wouldn't touch it again now for the world. It was a wedding present.
But, "I hope I have a baby right away," she said loudly, just as she passed in front of them. India saw Dabney's jaw drop the moment it was out, just as her own did, though she herself felt a wonderful delight and terror that made her nearly smile.
"I bet you
do
have, Dabney," said India. She came up behind her and began to pull down on her and rub her and love her.
Aunt Primrose took a little sacheted handkerchief from her bosom and touched it to her lips, and a
That
will show people," Aunt Jim Allen said without hearing herself.
"Bless his heart," said Aunt Primrose. "When's he coming to see us? Tell him we expect him to noon dinner day
after
tomorrow. Ellen can have him first."
"You'll be coming up to dinner," said Dabney. "Aunt Tempe and Lady Clare and Uncle Pinck will be there and dying to see you."
"Mercy! Lady Clare!" said Aunt Primrose. "Don't let her do your mother the way she did at Annie Laurie's funeral, stamp her foot and get anything she wants."
"She's grown up more and been taking music," said Dabney, "and I've made her a flower girl."
She kissed them, with both hands around her present. Now that she was so soon to be married, she could see her whole family being impelled to speak to her, to say one last thing before she waved good-bye. She would long to stretch out her arms to them, every one. But they simply never looked deeper than the flat surface of any tremendous thing, that was all there was to it. They didn't try to understand
her
at all, her love, which they were free, welcome to challenge and question. In fact, here these two old aunts were actually
forgiving
it. All the Fairchilds were indulgentâindulgence was what she couldn't stand! The night light! Uncle George they indulged too, but they could never hurt him as they could hurt herâshe
was
a little like him, only far beneath, powerless, a girl. He had an incorruptible, and hence unchallenging, sweetness of heart, and all their tender blaming could beat safely upon it, that solid wall of too much love.
"I declare I don't know how you're going to get a wedding present home on horsebackâbreakable," said Aunt Primrose rather perkily.
"Of course she can, and run out and cut those roses too, Dabney. You've got India to help carry things."
"Dabney can carry her night light home," said India. "I'll tote the little old bunch of flowers."
The others sat in the porch rockers and watched Dabney cut the red and white roses. "That's not enoughâcut them all now, or we'll be mad."
"It's not like you were going away, or out of the Delta. Things aren't going to be any different, are they?" called Aunt Jim Allen. "Put those in something, child, and carry 'em to your mother. Tell her not to kill herself."
"Yes'm."
Aunt Primrose lifted one rose out of Dabney's bouquet as she went by. "What rose is that?" she asked her sister loudly.
"Why, I don't recognize it," said Aunt Jim Allen, taking it from her. "Don't recognize it at all."
They're never going to ask Dabney the questions, India meditated. She went up to Aunt Jim Allen and worried her, clasped and unclasped her harvest-moon breastpin, watching the way her sister went just a little prissily down the hall, being sent after a vase.
They don't make me say if I love Troy or if I don't, Dabney was thinking, clicking her heels in the pantry. But by the time she came back to the porch, the flowers in a Mason jar of water, she knew she would never say anything about love after all, if they didn't want her to. Suppose they were afraid to ask her, little old aunts. She thought of how they both drew back to see her holding their night light. They would give her anything, but they wouldn't touch it again now for the world. It was a wedding present.
But, "I hope I have a baby right away," she said loudly, just as she passed in front of them. India saw Dabney's jaw drop the moment it was out, just as her own did, though she herself felt a wonderful delight and terror that made her nearly smile.
"I bet you
do
have, Dabney," said India. She came up behind her and began to pull down on her and rub her and love her.
Aunt Primrose took a little sacheted handkerchief from her bosom and touched it to her lips, and a
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