Mrs. Red Pepper | Page 3

your heart. That's all I want."
"You're in my heart," said her husband, "so close and warm there's not
much room for anything else."
"Then don't worry about the house. It will be a dear delight to fill the
empty rooms; I've a genius for that sort of thing. Wait and see. And
meanwhile"--she smiled up into his nearing face--"say good-bye to
your bride. She's quite ready to go--and give place to your wife."
So Redfield Pepper Burns kissed his bride, with the ardour of farewell.
But the next minute, safe in the shelter of the deep-hooded top, he had
welcomed his wife with his heart of hearts upon his lips, and a few
low-spoken words in her ear which would make the
fiftieth-from-the-office mile-stone a place to remember for them both.
Then he drove on, silently, for a while, as if the little roadside
ceremony had left behind it thoughts too deep for expression. And,
quite unconsciously, his hand upon the throttle was giving the Imp
more and more power, so that the car flew past the succeeding
mile-stones at such short intervals that before the pair knew it they
were within sight of the city on the farther side of which lay the
suburban village which was their home.
"I might stop at the hospital and see how things are," said Burns as they
entered the city's outskirts. "But it would be precisely my luck to find
something to detain me, and I think I owe it to you to take you home
before I begin on anything else."

"Stop, if you want to, Red," said Ellen. "I expected you would."
"But I don't want to. I might have to send some one else to drive you
out to the house, and that would break me up. I want to see you walk in
at the door, and know that you belong there. Then, if you like, and not
till then, I'll be content to go on duty at the old job."
So he took her home. As they approached the village the ninth April
shower of the afternoon came blustering up, accompanied by a burst of
wind and considerable thunder and lightning, so that when they caught
sight of the low-lying old brick house, well back from the street, which
was Red Pepper Burns's combined home and office, after the fashion of
the village doctor, it was through a wall of rain.
But the house was not the only thing they saw. In the street before the
house stood a row of vehicles. One electric runabout, hooded and
luxurious; two "buggies," of the village type, drawn by single horses
standing dejectedly with drooping ears and tails; one farmer's wagon,
filled with boxes and barrels, its horses hitched to Burns's post by a
rope: this was the assemblage.
Red Pepper drew one long, low whistle of dismay, then he burst into a
laugh. "Confound that blundering angel, Cynthia," he ejaculated. "She's
let it out that we're coming. And Amy Mathewson--my office
nurse--not due till to-morrow, to protect us! I was prepared, in a way, to
pitch into work, but, by George, I didn't expect to see that familiar sight
to-day! Hang it all!"
"Never mind." Ellen was laughing, too. "Remember you've left the
bride behind. Your wife will soon be used to it."
"We'll run in by the Chesters' driveway, and sneak in at the back door,"
and Burns suited the action to the word by turning in at the gateway of
his next door neighbour. "I rather wonder Win or Martha didn't go over
and drive away my too-eager clientele."
"Possibly they thought it would look more like home to you with an
office full of patients."

"It certainly will, though I could dispense with them to-night without
much sorrow. But--where am I going to put you? You can get to my
room, but you won't want to stay there. The part of the house that will
be the living part for you is either empty or cluttered up with wedding
presents. By all that's crazy, Ellen, I'm just waking up to the fact that
there isn't any place to put you, when there are patients in the
house--which there ever-lastingly are--except the dining-room and
kitchen! Lord Harry! what am I going to do? And what will you think
of me? Dolt that I am!"
He had heard her laugh before. A low and melodious laugh she had,
and he had often listened to it and joined in with it, and rejoiced at the
ability she possessed to laugh where many women would cry. But he
had never heard her laugh as she was laughing now. Her understanding
of the situation which had only just struck him was complete. She knew
precisely how busy he had been in the