Dale quickly, "you are not a stranger. You are someone whom God has sent, and it comforts me to see your flowers there, because you understand. And there are no flowers she loved as much as those lilies of the valley."
"Thank you," he said. "I'm glad I could help a little."
And then there were sounds from downstairs of more people coming, and the young man drew back, feeling that their quiet time together was over.
"When is the service?" he asked wistfully.
"to-morrow afternoon at two o'clock," said Dale. "I wish you could be here. Grandmother arranged it all. She wanted the service to tell the story of salvation, if there should be somebody here who did not know the way."
"I shall be glad to be here," said the young man, "if I won't be intruding. I am afraid this may be my last leave before I go back overseas, but I have till midnight to-morrow night. I was hoping I might have another word or two with you before I leave, but I suppose you will be very busy."
"Not too busy to talk to you. I shall be so glad if you will come to the service, and I can give you time afterward. You will help to tide me over the first hard hours knowing that she is gone."
He looked down at her tenderly and smiled. "Thank you," he said quietly.
And then they could hear those other people coming up the stairs with Aunt Blanche's clarion voice leading them on self-consciously, as if it were entirely her funeral, glory and all, although she had not as yet come upstairs to see the grandmother.
David Kenyon put his strong, warm hand on Dale's with a quick clasp like a benediction.
"Thank you, and good-bye till to-morrow. I'll be praying for you all through the night, for I know it will be a hard one for you."
Then with a smile like a blessing he was gone, down the stairs alone, out the door, and into the street before Corliss realized that he was coming. He vanished so quickly that she looked down the darkening street in vain to see a stalwart officer, whom she had fully intended to accompany on his way to get a little better acquainted with him.
"What happened with that navy guy, Cor?" asked her brother, looking up from the funnies over which he had been straining his eyes in the fading light.
"That's what I'm wondering," answered Corliss surlily. "I thought I was watching him every minute. I was going out to speak to him, but he just came down from the porch, swung out that gate, and disappeared before I could tell he was even there. He must wear seven-leagued boots. I never saw anybody go into nothing as quick in my life. It certainly wasn't very flattering to the family, when he must have seen us all sitting here on the porch."
"Mebbe he had to catch a train," said the boy. "Say, how long is this line gonna last? I'm about fed up with it. Why can't we go to the movies somewhere?"
"No," said his mother sharply. "We've got to wait till Dale comes down and arranges for us to go to the hotel. She'll have to send for a taxi, and I do wish she'd hurry up. All these fool neighbors coming in and staying so long! I can't see any sense in it."
"Well, why can't we go and find a taxi ourselves? Can't you phone for a taxi? Ask that servant out in the kitchen. She'll know where to get a taxi."
"No," said their mother. "It's better to stay right here till I can have it out with Dale. I've got to find out about that funeral, what time it is set and when I can have the man here to see the house. I'm afraid she's going to be hard to handle about this. She seems to think the house is hers, and it isn't, I'm quite sure. I'll have to find that lawyer our Mr. Hawkins told me about and look into things to-morrow."
"When are we going home, Mom?" asked the bored boy. "I'm fed up with his funeral business, and if you are going to hang around here any longer, I'm going home by myself."
"No!" said the mother firmly. "You are not going home alone. You are not going until the rest of us go. I may need you here to carry these things through. You aren't of age of course, but there is nothing like having the family visible. We may be able to make some money out of this. You'll be glad of that, I know. And if there is any money, we don't intend to be cheated out of it. I'm quite certain that your father told me he had furnished the money to buy this house for his mother, and if that's true, the house is mine."
"But I heard Dale say it was hers."
"It doesn't matter what she said. She's probably made that story up herself, or else Grandmother has told her some fairy tales. Of course even Grandmother may not have known where she got the house. She may have thought it was from both brothers, but I've always heard that Dale's father was sort of a ne'er-do-well. I really never knew him, you know. He went overseas before we were married and just before your father went, and Dale's father never came back. He was killed, you know."
Just then there was the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, several people, and Dale's voice could be heard gently. Aunt Blanche stopped talking and sat up abruptly.
"Now, we'll see," she murmured in a low voice to her children, and promptly there was an arrogant question in the very atmosphere, so that it was almost visible to the neighbors who came slowly down the stairs and out to the porch.
The neighbors lingered several minutes on the porch, just last tender words about the woman they loved who was gone from their midst. Aunt Blanche and her children, in spite of their avid curiosity, grew more impatient before the last kindly woman said good night and went out the little white gate.
Then Aunt Blanche, without waiting for them to get beyond earshot, rose to her feet and pinned Dale with a cold glance from her unfriendly eyes. "And now, if you have got through with all the riffraff of neighbors that seem to have so much more importance in your eyes than your own blood relations, just what are you going to do with us?"
Dale turned troubled eyes toward them. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said gently. "I suppose you are tired after your journey. Would you like to go up to your rooms now?"
"No!" screamed Corliss with one of those piercing shrieks with which she had lorded it over her family since she was born. "No! I will not sleep in this house, not with a dead person here! My mother knows I won't do that! Not ever!"
"Well, in that case, what do you want to do? Go to a hotel? I didn't know you hadn't already arranged to do that. Of course you knew I wasn't able to get away just then."
"I don't see why!" said her aunt sharply. "I should think guests in your house would be of the first consideration. But I don't suppose you've had the advantage of being brought up to know good manners from bad ones and ought to be excused on that score. But how would you suppose I could do anything about a hotel? I don't know any hotels around here."
"I'm sorry," said Dale again, "but I thought you would probably ask Hattie about them. She would know, and any hotel in this region would be all right, of course, provided you could get in. You know, this region is rather full of defense workers, and most hotels and boardinghouses are full to overflowing, just now in wartime."
"So you would expect me to go to a servant for information, would you? Well, that is another evidence of your crude manners. However, now you are here, what are you going to do with us?"
"Well, what would you like me to do? Your rooms are all in readiness upstairs, of course, and since you do not choose to occupy them, I wouldn't know just what to do. Would you like me to order a taxi to take you around to the different hotels, to see if you can find a more desirable place for the night?"
"No, certainly
