CHAPTER VIII

THE SPELL AND ITS WEAVING


And after the confusion, the distress and the joy of the afternoon out in
the park when she and her gift had been accepted and acclaimed, there
came days full of deep and perfect peace to Caroline Darrah Brown.

Long, strenuously delightful mornings she spent with Tempie in the
excitements of completing her most comprehensive culinary education and
the amount of badinage she exchanged upon the subject with David Kildare
occupied many of his unemployed minutes. His demands for the most
intricate and soul-trying concoctions she took a perfect joy in meeting
and his enthusiasm stimulated her to the attempting of the most difficult
feats.

His campaign was on with full force and his days were busy ones, but he
managed to drop into the kitchen at any time when he deemed it at all
certain that he would find her there and was always fully rewarded.

He often found Andrew Sevier in the library in consultation with the
major over the management of the delicate points in the campaign and
occasionally brought him into Tempie's kingdom with him. And Caroline
laughed and blushed and explained it all to them with the most beautiful
solicitude, Tempie looking on positively bridling with pride.

And there were other mornings when she took her sewing and crept in the
library to work, while the major and Andrew held consultation over the
affairs of the present or absent David.