“Oh, the dickens! Now I’ve done it.” And he looked so guilty that Jo was down upon him like a flash.
“You’ve gone and got married!”
“Yes, please, but I never will again.” And he went down upon his knees, with a penitent clasping of hands, and a face full of mischief, mirth, and triumph.
“Actually married?”
“Very much so, thank you.”
“Mercy on us! What dreadful thing will you do next?” And Jo fell into her seat with a gasp.
“A characteristic, but not exactly complimentary, congratulation,” returned Laurie, still in an abject attitude, but beaming with satisfaction.
“What can you expect, when you take one’s breath away, creeping in like a burglar, and letting cats out of bags like that? Get up, you ridiculous boy, and tell me all about it.”
“Not a word, unless you let me come in my old place, and promise not to barricade.”
Jo laughed at that as she had not done for many a long day, and patted the sofa invitingly, as she said in a cordial tone, “The old pillow is up garret, and we don’t need it now; so, come and fess, Teddy.”
“How good it sounds to hear you say ‘Teddy’! No one ever calls me that but you.” And Laurie sat down with an air of great content.
“What does Amy call you?”
“My lord.”
“That’s like her. Well, you look it.” And Jo’s eye plainly betrayed that she found her boy comelier than ever.
The pillow was gone, but there was a barricade, nevertheless—a natural one, raised by time, absence, and change of heart. Both felt it, and for a minute looked at one another as if that invisible barrier cast a little shadow over them. It was gone directly, however, for Laurie said, with a vain attempt at dignity—
“Don’t I look like a married man and the head of a family?”
“Not a bit, and you never will. You’ve grown bigger and bonnier, but you are the same scapegracekq as ever.”
“Now, really, Jo, you ought to treat me with more respect,” began Laurie, who enjoyed it all immensely.
“How can I, when the mere idea of you, married and settled, is so irresistibly funny that I can’t keep sober!” answered Jo, smiling all over her face, so infectiously that they had another laugh, and then settled down for a good talk, quite in the pleasant old fashion.
“It’s no use your going out in the cold to get Amy, for they are all coming up presently. I couldn’t wait; I wanted to be the one to tell you the grand surprise, and have ‘first skim,’ as we used to say when we squabbled about the cream.”
“Of course you did, and spoiled your story by beginning at the wrong end. Now, start right, and tell me how it all happened. I’m pining to know.”
“Well, I did it to please Amy,” began Laurie, with a twinkle that made Jo exclaim—
“Fib number one. Amy did it to please you. Go on, and tell the truth, if you can, sir.”
“Now she’s beginning to marm it;kr isn’t it jolly to hear her?” said Laurie to the fire, and the fire glowed and sparkled as if it quite agreed. “It’s all the same, you know, she and I being one. We planned to come home with the Carrols, a month or more ago, but they suddenly changed their minds, and decided to pass another winter in Paris. But Grandpa wanted to come home; he went to please me, and I couldn’t let him go alone, neither could I leave Amy; and Mrs. Carrol had got English notions about chaperons and such nonsense, and wouldn’t let Amy come with us. So I just settled the difficulty by saying, ‘Let’s be married, and then we can do as we like.”’
“Of course you did; you always have things to suit you.”
“Not always.” And something in Laurie’s voice made Jo say hastily—
“How did you ever get Aunt to agree?”
“It was hard work, but, between us, we talked her over, for we had heaps of good reasons on our side. There wasn’t time to write and ask leave, but you all liked it, had consented to it by-and-by, and it was only ‘taking Time by the fetlock,’ as my wife says.”
“Aren’t we proud of those two words, and don’t we like to say them?” interrupted Jo, addressing the fire in her turn, and watching with delight the happy light it seemed to kindle in the eyes that had been so tragically gloomy when she saw them last.
“A trifle, perhaps, she’s such a captivating little woman I can’t help being proud of her. Well, then, Uncle and Aunt were there to play propriety; we were so absorbed in one another we were of no mortal use apart, and that charming arrangement would make everything easy all round, so we did it.”
“When, where, how?” asked Jo, in a fever of feminine interest and curiosity, for she could not realize it a particle.
“Six weeks ago, at the American consul‘s, in Paris; a very quiet wedding, of course, for even in our happiness we didn’t forget dear little Beth.”
Jo put her hand in his as he said that, and Laurie gently smoothed the little red pillow, which he remembered well.
“Why didn’t you let us know afterward?” asked Jo, in a quieter tone, when they had sat quite still a minute.
“We wanted to surprise you; we thought we we
re coming directly home, at first; but the dear old gentleman, as soon as we were married, found he couldn’t be ready under a month, at least, and sent us off to spend our honeymoon wherever we liked. Amy had once called Valrosa a regular honeymoon home, so we went there, and were as happy as people are but once in their lives. My faith! Wasn’t it love among the roses!”
Laurie seemed to forget Jo for a minute, and Jo was glad of it, for the fact that he told her these things so freely and naturally assured her that he had quite forgiven and forgotten. She tried to draw away her hand, but as if he guessed the thought that prompted the half-involuntary impulse, Laurie held it fast, and said, with a manly gravity she had never seen in him before—
“Jo, dear, I want to say one thing, and then we’ll put it by forever. As I told you in my letter when I wrote that Amy had been so kind to me, I never shall stop loving you; but the love is altered, and I have learned to see that it is better as it is. Amy and you changed places in my heart, that’s all. I think it was meant to be so, and would have come about naturally, if I had waited, as you tried to make me; but I never could be patient, and so I got a heartache. I was a boy then, headstrong and violent; and it took a hard lesson to show me my mistake. For it was one, Jo, as you said, and I found it out, after making a fool of myself. Upon my word, I was so tumbled up in my mind, at one time, that I didn’t know which I loved best, you or Amy, and tried to love both alike; but I couldn‘t, and when I saw her in Switzerland, everything seemed to clear up all at once. You both got into your right places, and I felt sure that it was well off with the old love before it was on with the new; that I could honestly share my heart between sister Jo and wife Amy, and love them both dearly. Will you believe it, and go back to the happy old times when we first knew one another?”
“I’ll believe it, with all my heart, but, Teddy, we never can be boy and girl again: the happy old times can’t come back, and we mustn’t expect it. We are man and woman now, with sober work to do, for playtime is over, and we must give up frolicking. I’m sure you feel this. I see the change in you, and you’ll find it in me. I shall miss my boy, but I shall love the man as much, and admire him more, because he means to be what I hoped he would. We can’t be little playmates any longer, but we will be brother and sister, to love and help one another all our lives, won’t we, Laurie?”