Free Jerry by Jean Webster Page B

matters, a letter for Constance. The address was in a dashing, angular hand that pretty thoroughly covered the envelope. Had she not been so intent on the writing herself, she would have noted Tony's astonished stare as he passed it to her.
    'Why!' she exclaimed, 'here's a letter from Nannie Hilliard, postmarked Lucerne.'
    'Lucerne!' Miss Hazel echoed her surprise. 'I thought they were to be in England for the summer?'
    'They were--the last I heard.' Constance ripped the letter open and read it aloud.
    'DEAR CONSTANCE: You'll doubtless be surprised to hear from us in Switzerland instead of in England, and to learn further, that in the course of a week, we shall arrive at Valedolmo en route for the Dolomites. Jerry Junior at the last moment decided to come with us, and you know what a man is when it comes to European travel. Instead of taking two months comfortably to England, as Aunt Kate and I had planned, we did the whole of the British Isles in ten days, and Holland and France at the same breathless rate.
    'Jerry says he holds the record for the Louvre; he struck a six-mile pace at the entrance, and by looking neither to the right nor the left he did the whole building in forty-three minutes.
    'You can imagine the exhausted state Aunt Kate and I are in after travelling five weeks with him. We simply struck in Switzerland and sent him on to Italy alone. I had hoped he would meet us in Valedolmo, but we have been detained here longer than we expected, and now he's rushed off again--where to, goodness only knows; we don't.
    'Anyway, Aunt Kate and I shall land in Valedolmo about the end of the week. I am dying to see you; I have some beautiful news that's too complicated to write. We've engaged rooms at the Hotel du Lac--I hope it's decent; it's the only place starred in Baedeker.
    'Aunt Kate wishes to be remembered to your father and Miss Hazel.
    'Yours ever, 'NAN HILLIARD.
    'P.S.--I'm awfully sorry not to bring Jerry; I know you'd adore him.'
    She returned the letter to its envelope and looked up.
    'Now isn't that abominable?' she demanded.
    'Abominable!' Miss Hazel was scandalized. 'My dear, I think it's delightful.'
    'Oh, yes--I mean about Jerry Junior; I've been trying for six years to get hold of that man.'
    Tony behind them made a sudden movement that let out nearly a yard of rope, and the Farfalla listed heavily to starboard.
    'Tony!' Constance threw over her shoulder. 'Don't you know enough to sit still when you are holding the sheet?'
    ' Scusi ,' he murmured. The sulky look had vanished from his face; he wore an expression of alert attention.
    'Of course we shall have them at the villa,' said Miss Hazel. 'And we shall have to get some new dishes. Elizabetta has already broken so many plates that she has to stop and wash them between courses.'
    Constance looked dreamily across the lake; she appeared to be thinking. 'I wonder,' she inquired finally, 'if Jerry Junior knew we were here in Valedolmo?'
    Her father emerged from the columns of his paper.
    'Of course he knew it, and having heard what a dangerous young person you were, he said to himself, "I'd better keep out."'
    'I wish I knew. It would make the score against him considerably heavier.'
    'So there is already a score? I hadn't supposed that the game had begun.'
    She nodded.
    'Six years ago--but he doesn't know it. Yes, Dad,' her tone was melodramatic, 'for six years I've been waiting for Jerry Junior and planning my revenge. And now, when I have him almost in my grasp, he eludes me again!'
    'Dear me!' Mr. Wilder ejaculated. 'What did the young man do?'
    Had Constance turned she would have found Tony's face an interesting study. But she knew well enough without looking at him that he was listening to the conversation, and she determined to give him something to listen to. It was a salutary thing for Tony to be kept in mind of the fact that there were other men in the world.
    She sighed.
    'He was the first man I ever loved, father, and he spurned me. Do you