By Thursday, Dave was sufficiently satisfied with his progress to release him from the hospital, but with the stern admonition that he get plenty of rest and not attempt to resume his normal routine for at least a month. It seemed like good advice and he did not dispute it.
Grace drove him home to the waiting Mrs. Hardesty, who had readily agreed to resume coming in on a daily basis for as long as he thought he needed her. There was a tearful, but joyful, reunion with Cassandra when she came home from school, and it was obvious that whatever grief she had experienced on her mother’s disappearance from her life, was already forgotten, as she animatedly recounted her adventures with Dana during her stay at the Adamson’s home. She also told him-sitting on his lap and leaning back against his arm, so she could study his face with the unblinking questioning innocence of her large blue eyes-how nice she thought Miss Young had been to visit him every day just so she could tell her how well he was doing, so she would not worry about him too much.
“Don’t you think that was nice of Miss Young, Daddy?” she asked ingenuously.
“I think it was very nice of Miss Young to keep you so well informed of my progress,” he assured her.”
There was a brief searching pause. Then, emphatically, she proclaimed, “I like Miss Young! Don’t you Daddy?”
He glanced at Grace who sat across from them, but received only a non-committal shrug in return. “Yes. I like Miss Young very much,” he admitted.
“Oh, I’m so glad, Daddy!” she exclaimed happily, clapping her hands. “She likes you, too! She told me so!”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“And she likes me, too.”
“Oh? Did she tell you that, too?”
“Yes. But she didn’t have to. I could tell. Just like I can tell that you and Nana like me.”
“Well.. .that’s fine, sweetheart. Then we all like one another-and that’s the way it should be.”
She nodded vigorously then, putting her arms around his neck, she grew more serious and her eyes suddenly looked much older-and wiser-than her years. “Do you think she would be a good mother for me, Daddy?”
Even though he had suspected she was leading up to something of the sort, the question took him completely by surprise. He looked across at Grace for help, but her face only reflected his own astonishment.
“Well, Cassandra, I.I really don’t know.” A shadow of disappointment clouded her face and he immediately sought to erase it. “But.yes. Yes, I believe she would. Err.why do you ask?”
“I heard Gramma Mayfield tell Nana that you should get married again so I could have a new mother, and I just know that Miss Young would be a real good mother.”
He hugged her to him, partly to smother the laughter that welled up in him, and looked questioningly over the top of her head at his own mother, who spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness as she struggled to control her own laughter.
Regaining his composure, he looked into the serious, anxious eyes of his daughter. “Well, sweetheart, if you’re really sure that you would like Miss Young to be your new mother, you have my permission to ask her yourself when she gets here. She’s coming over to have dinner with us tonight.”
He had called Elise that morning, before she left for school, to let her know he was leaving the hospital; and they had already decided that they would break the news to Cassandra-as gently and as unemotionally as possible-as soon as they were all together. Now, the child’s own perspicacity, and affection for Elise, had obviated any need for circumspection on their part, or fear of any resistance from her.
Her eyes, and mouth, opened in unison with surprised delight and she bounced excitedly up and down on his lap. “She is! Oh, Daddy! I will! I will ask her!” She threw both arms around his neck again and kissed him noisily and repeatedly, before jumping off his lap and running toward the front door.
“Where are you going?” he called after her. She stopped with her small hand trying to turn the knob. “ I have to go tell Dana that Miss Young is going to be my new mother!”
“Err.just a minute, Cassandra dear,” Grace said, quickly rising from her chair to go and lead her by the hand back into the room. “Don’t you think it would be better to wait until after you’ve asked Miss Young first?”
Cassandra gazed up at her. “Why, Nana? Don’t you think she would want to be my mother?”
“Err.no. It’s not that dear,” Grace responded, obviously disconcerted by her granddaughter’s artlessness. “I’m quite sure that Miss Young will be.very pleased that you want her to be. It’s.it’s just that it wouldn’t be.be polite to tell people before she gives you her answer herself. Do you understand, dear?”
Cassandra cupped her chin in one hand and supported her elbow with the other as she mulled over the situation for a few moments, while he and Grace exchanged resigned, knowing looks. Finally, the child reached her decision. “Yes, Nana. I guess you’re right. Besides, Daddy has to ask her to marry him first.”
Grace looked down at her in amazement. “Err.yes. Yes dear. That would be the proper way to do it, of course. Now, why don’t we go pick out one of your prettiest dresses for you to wear, so that you look your best when she arrives?”
Cassandra; who delighted in dressing up; immediately responded to the suggestion with a pleased smile. “Oh, yes, Nana! Let’s hurry before she gets here!” She tugged at Grace’s hand, and started toward the hall leading to the bedrooms-but stopped and looked back at him anxiously. “You are going to ask her, aren’t you Daddy?”
“Yes, sweetheart. I’ll ask her,” he assured her.”
“Hooray!” she cried joyously and ran off down the hall to her room. Grace paused long enough to smother another fit of laughter and followed her. She was changed and her hair brushed and shining almost as brightly as her eyes within a few minutes. Stationing herself at the large picture window facing the street, she waited impatiently for Elise to appear. Finally, after repeated requests for verification of the time she was due to arrive, and for assurances that she was really coming, she cried, “Here she is!” and ran to the door to be the first to greet her.
But after her initial welcoming exuberance had dissipated, she became strangely quiet and unnaturally reticent. While they waited for Mrs. Hardesty to complete the preparations for dinner she contented herself with watching them through wide, wondering eyes. He and Elise had greeted each other warmly but formally and, after the first few awkward minutes, gradually slipped into a first name basis which appeared to go unnoticed by their small observer.
Elise sat next to him on the sofa and casually, almost accidentally, their hands sought and found one another, which still drew only a solemn-eyed look of approval from Cassandra. Grace tried to distract her long enough so he could alert Elise to the situation, but nothing on television, in her purse or anywhere else in the house could divert her attention for more than a few seconds at a time from the two of them. During dinner; formerly possessed of an excellent appetite; she only toyed with her food until, during a momentary lull in the conversation, she was unable to contain herself any longer.
Leaning toward him, she placed one small hand confidentially beside her mouth-which did nothing to muffle the stage whisper that was plainly heard by all of them. “Daddy! Aren’t you ever going to ask Miss Young your question, so I can ask her mine?”
In the ensuing silence, he and Grace again shrugged helplessly at one another while Elise looked quizzically at both of them.
“Is there something you’re supposed to ask me, Mark?” she inquired, with an amused, expectant smile.
He put his hand on top of hers. “Yes, Elise. Cassandra and I both have a question for you but, in the order of things, I have to ask mine first.”
A hint of understanding registered in her eyes and her fingers tightened around his. “Well then, perhaps you’d better ask your question, or I’ll never know what Cassandra’s is.”
“Will you marry me, Elise?” he asked-but before she could reply, Cassandra broke the spell.
“Daddy! That’s not the way to ask! First, you have to tell her you love her!”
The three of them looked at each other hopelessly, trying futilely to conceal the mirth that shook them, while the child studied them with puzzled exasperation. Finally, he composed himself sufficiently to try again, and turn back to face Elise once more.
“My daughter is right, of course, Elise. Please forgive the oversight and allow me to rephrase the question.”
Elise, still struggling for control, was unable to reply and could only nod in agreement. He again reached for her hand and they managed to recapture a semblance of the mood of a few minutes earlier.
“I do love you, Elise and, I hope, with all my heart, that you will marry me.”
Elise blinked rapidly to hold back the tears that were threatening to overflow. She leanedtoward him, her voice husky with emotion.
“Yes! Oh, yes, Mark! In that case, and because I love you, too, I will be very, very happy to marry you, my darling.”
Then, while Cassandra looked on ecstatically and Grace wept happily and unashamedly, he rose and bent over to kiss Elise’s upturned mouth. Then, straightening up, he looked across the table at the beaming, radiant face of his daughter.
“I think it’s all right for you to ask your question now, honey.”
Cassandra’s eyes flickered to Elise, to him and back to Elise again. Then leaving her chair, she came around the table to stand beside him and grasped Elise’s hand in both of her own. “I love you too, Miss Young, and I would like very much for you to be my new mother.”
In reply, Elise wrapped both arms around her, hugging her, and murmuring over and over again, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Then Grace, with her tears streaming unabated down her face, and happy laughter welling in her throat, rose from her place to embrace him and to kneel to enfold both Elise and Cassandra in her arms-and all three of them laughed and wept together, while he looked on, fighting to control his own emotion. And Mrs. Hardesty-who, at first, had seemed to regard Elise with some disapproval, which had quickly changed to a concerned interest, then to grudging admiration and, finally, to favorable regard-now emerged from the kitchen to add her felicitations and precipitate another round of laughing and weeping.
Virtually ignored in the overlapping, non-stop confusion of female chatter, squeals and exclamations, he retired to his place at the table and finished the remains of his meal. Almost without knowing whose decision it was-and not even sure that he had been consulted-he suddenly realized that the wedding date had been set for the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. It seemed that this would not be “too soon”-nobody mentioned after what-and would allow enough time for the invitations to be mailed and for Elise to get her dress and trousseau. It would also be a good weekend for her family to get away from their various duties in order to attend. Of course, it promised to be a hectic few weeks and was obviously going to be a much larger affair than he had contemplated. But, they were all so thrilled and eager and full of plans, that he simply nodded in agreement on the few occasions that they interrupted their animated discussion to solicit his approval.
Then, Cassandra could wait no longer to tell her good news to Dana, so he left the table to phone the Adamsons and invite them over. Phil answered and seemed somewhat surprised by the invitation; and, a few minutes later when the three of them appeared solemn-faced at the door, only to be greeted by the sounds of gaiety emanating from the dining room-and Cassandra’s incredible announcement that, “Miss Young is going to marry my Daddy and be my new mother!”-they all gaped at her in complete and utter stupefaction.
Even when Grace, Elise and Mrs. Hardesty all came to join them and provide verification of Cassandra’s startling news, they seemed initially horrified and on the verge of retreating rather than become a part of, what they apparently considered, the unseemly festivity-causing him to wonder just how worldly and sophisticated they really were. He silently conceded that their shock was understandable-even expected-under the circumstances, but he was pleased to see that it was not insurmountable when they were persuaded, withouttoo much urging, to stay and share their happiness.
Following a couple of very dry, and very quickly consumed, martinis, their stunned disbelief rapidly turned to enthusiastic participation in the plans for the impending wedding. After another series of kisses, embraces, handshakes-mingled with renewed tears and laughter-Phil insisted that he would be the official photographer of the proceedings, and Sybil decided that the reception would be held in their house.
And so the remainder of the evening passed in a continuing uproar of cross-conversation with everyone, except the two children, becoming slightly and giddily inebriated. So that, by the time the final good-nights were said, none of them any longer mourned, or missed, the woman whose death had made it all possible.
Marie was dead-and buried.