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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16373-8.txt b/16373-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2f18db --- /dev/null +++ b/16373-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8981 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Red Pepper, by Grace S. Richmond + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mrs. Red Pepper + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. RED PEPPER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Mrs. Red Pepper + + By Grace S. Richmond + +Author of "Red Pepper Burns," "The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet +in England," "Strawberry Acres," Etc. + + 1913 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. Wholly Given Over to Sentiment + + II. The Way to Attain an End + + III. Burns Does His Duty + + IV. A Red Head + + V. More Than One Opinion + + VI. Broken Steel Wires + + VII. Points of View + + VIII. Under the Apple Tree + + IX. A Practical Artist + + X. A Runaway Road + + XI. After Dinner + + XII. A Challenge + + XIII. A Crisis + + XIV. Before the Lens + + XV. Flashlights + + XVI. In February + + XVII. From the Beginning + +XVIII. The Country Surgeon + + + + +MRS. RED PEPPER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHOLLY GIVEN OVER TO SENTIMENT + + +The Green Imp, long, low and powerful, carrying besides its two +passengers a motor trunk, a number of bulky parcels, and a full share +of mud, drew to one side of the road. The fifth April shower of the +afternoon was on, although it was barely three o'clock. + +Redfield Pepper Burns, physician and surgeon, descended from the car, a +brawny figure in an enveloping gray motoring coat. He wore no hat upon +his heavy crop of coppery red hair--somewhere under the seat his cap was +abandoned, as usual. His face was brown with tan--a strong, fine face, +with dark-lashed hazel eyes alight under thick, dark eyebrows. From head +to foot he was a rather striking personality. + +"This time," said he, firmly, "I'm going to leave the top up. It's +putting temptation in the way of something very weak to keep lowering the +top. We'll leave it up. There'll be one advantage." He looked round the +corner of the top into the face of his companion, as his hands adjusted +the straps. + +"When we get to the fifty-miles-from-the-office stone, which we're going +to do in about five minutes, I can take leave of my bride without having +to observe the landscape except from the front." + +"So you're going to take leave of her," observed his passenger. She did +not seem at all disturbed. As the car moved on she drew back her veil +from its position over her face, leaving her head covered only by a +close-fitting motoring bonnet of dark green, from within which her face, +vivid with the colouring born of many days driving with and without +veils, met without flinching the spatter of rain the fitful April wind +sent drifting in under the edge of the top. Her black eyelashes caught +the drops and held them. + +"Yes, I'm going to say good-bye to her at that stone," repeated Burns. +"She's been the joy of my life for two weeks, and I'll never forget her. +But she couldn't stand for the change of conditions we're going to find +the minute we strike the old place. It's only my wife who can face +those." + +"If the bride is to be left behind, I suppose the bridegroom will stay +with her? Together, they'll not be badly off." + +Burns laughed. "Ye gods! Is that what I've been--a bridegroom? I'm glad +I didn't realize it; it would have made me act queerer than I have. Well, +it's been a happy time--a gloriously happy time, but--" + +He paused and looked down at her for an instant, rather as if he +hesitated to say what was in his mind. He did not know that he had +already said it. + +But she knew it, and she smiled at him, understanding--and sympathizing. +"But you are glad you are on your way back to your work," said she. "So +am I." + +He drew a relieved breath. "Bless you," said he. "I'm glad you are--if +it's true. It's only that I'm so refreshed by this wonderful fortnight +that I--well--I want to go to work again--work with all my might. I feel +as if I could do the best work of my life. That doesn't mean that I don't +dread to see the first patient, for I do. Whoever he is, I hate the sight +of him! Can you understand?" + +She nodded. "It will be like the first plunge into cold water. But once +in--" + +"That's it. Of course, if he happened to be lying on my lawn, all mangled +up and calling for me to save his life, I'd welcome the sight of him, +poor chap. But he won't be interesting, like that. He'll be a victim of +chronic dyspepsia. Or worse--she'll be a woman who can't sleep without a +dope. I have to get used to that kind by degrees, after a vacation; I +don't warm up to 'em, on sight." + +"Yet they're very miserable, some of those patients who are quite able to +walk to your office, and very grateful to you if you relieve them, aren't +they?" + +Red Pepper chuckled. "I can foresee," he said, "that you're going to take +the side of the unhappy patient, from the start--worse luck for me! Yes, +they're grateful if I can relieve them, but the trouble is I can't +relieve them--not the particular class I have in mind. They won't do as I +order. And as long as I can't get them comfortably down in bed, where the +nurse and I have the upper hand, they'll continue to carry out half of my +directions--the half they approve, and neglect the other half--the really +important half, and then come round and tell me I haven't helped them +any--and why not? Oh, well--far be it from me to complain of the routine +work, much as I prefer the sort which calls for all the skill and +resource I happen to possess. And the dull part is going to take on a new +interest, now, when I can escape from the office into my wife's quarters, +between times, where no patient can follow me." + +She smiled, watching a big cloud, low on the horizon before them, break +into fragments and dissolve into blue sky and sunshine. "I hope," said +she, "to be able to make those quarters attractive. You remember I +haven't seen them yet--not even the bare rooms." + +"That's bothered me a good deal, in spite of the assurance you gave me, +when we discussed it by letter. If I hadn't been so horribly busy, and +had had the faintest notion of what to do with them--or if you had wanted +Martha and Winifred to put them in shape for you--" + +"But I didn't! It's going to be such fun to work it out, you and I +together." + +He shook his head. "Don't count on me, dear. I probably shan't +have time to do more than take you in to town and drop you in the +shopping district. You'll have to do it all. You've married a doctor, +Ellen--that's the whole story. And it's the knowledge of that fact +that makes me realize that I may as well leave my bride at the +fifty-mile-stone. It'll take my wife that fifty miles to prepare herself +for the thing that's going to strike her the minute we are home. And, by +the fates, I believe that's the stone, ahead there, at the curve of the +road!" + +He brought the Green Imp's pace down until it was moving very slowly +toward the mile-stone. Then he turned and looked steadily down into the +face beside him. "Shall you be sorry to get there?" he asked. + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because I don't want to be a bride. They are useless persons. And I +don't care much for bridegrooms, either. I prefer a busy husband. And +I shall enjoy getting those rooms in order, quite by myself. To tell the +truth I'm not at all sure I don't prefer to do them alone. I've had one +enlightening experience, shopping with you, you know." + +"So you have." He laughed at the remembrance. "Yet I thought I was pretty +meek, that day. Well, so you don't mind getting to the mile-stone?" + +"Not a bit." + +They were beside it now. Burns stopped the car. It was a country road, +although it was the main highway between two large cities, and on this +April afternoon it was deserted by motorists. Only in the distance could +be discerned anything in the nature of a vehicle, and that was headed the +other way. + +"I suppose I'm a sentimental chap," he observed. "But in one way I've +been rather dreading getting home, for your sake. It's come over me, +since we turned our faces this way, that not a thing has been done to +make my shabby old place fit for you--except to clean it thoroughly. +Cynthia's seen to that. Does it seem as if I hadn't cared to give you +a fit welcome home?" + +His eyes were a little troubled, as they searched hers. But they +grew light again as they read in her serene glance that she did not +misunderstand him. + +"Red," said she--and her hand slipped into his--"I like best to come into +your house, just as it is. Take me in--that's all I ask--and trust me to +make my own home there--and in your heart. That's all I want." + +"You're in my heart," said her husband, "so close and warm there's not +much room for anything else." + +"Then don't worry about the house. It will be a dear delight to fill the +empty rooms; I've a genius for that sort of thing. Wait and see. And +meanwhile"--she smiled up into his nearing face--"say good-bye to your +bride. She's quite ready to go--and give place to your wife." + +So Redfield Pepper Burns kissed his bride, with the ardour of farewell. +But the next minute, safe in the shelter of the deep-hooded top, he had +welcomed his wife with his heart of hearts upon his lips, and a few +low-spoken words in her ear which would make the fiftieth-from-the-office +mile-stone a place to remember for them both. + +Then he drove on, silently, for a while, as if the little roadside +ceremony had left behind it thoughts too deep for expression. And, quite +unconsciously, his hand upon the throttle was giving the Imp more and +more power, so that the car flew past the succeeding mile-stones at such +short intervals that before the pair knew it they were within sight of +the city on the farther side of which lay the suburban village which was +their home. + +"I might stop at the hospital and see how things are," said Burns as they +entered the city's outskirts. "But it would be precisely my luck to find +something to detain me, and I think I owe it to you to take you home +before I begin on anything else." + +"Stop, if you want to, Red," said Ellen. "I expected you would." + +"But I don't want to. I might have to send some one else to drive you out +to the house, and that would break me up. I want to see you walk in at +the door, and know that you belong there. Then, if you like, and not till +then, I'll be content to go on duty at the old job." + +So he took her home. As they approached the village the ninth April +shower of the afternoon came blustering up, accompanied by a burst of +wind and considerable thunder and lightning, so that when they caught +sight of the low-lying old brick house, well back from the street, which +was Red Pepper Burns's combined home and office, after the fashion of the +village doctor, it was through a wall of rain. + +But the house was not the only thing they saw. In the street before +the house stood a row of vehicles. One electric runabout, hooded and +luxurious; two "buggies," of the village type, drawn by single horses +standing dejectedly with drooping ears and tails; one farmer's wagon, +filled with boxes and barrels, its horses hitched to Burns's post by a +rope: this was the assemblage. + +Red Pepper drew one long, low whistle of dismay, then he burst into a +laugh. "Confound that blundering angel, Cynthia," he ejaculated. "She's +let it out that we're coming. And Amy Mathewson--my office nurse--not due +till to-morrow, to protect us! I was prepared, in a way, to pitch into +work, but, by George, I didn't expect to see that familiar sight to-day! +Hang it all!" + +"Never mind." Ellen was laughing, too. "Remember you've left the bride +behind. Your wife will soon be used to it." + +"We'll run in by the Chesters' driveway, and sneak in at the back door," +and Burns suited the action to the word by turning in at the gateway of +his next door neighbour. "I rather wonder Win or Martha didn't go over +and drive away my too-eager clientele." + +"Possibly they thought it would look more like home to you with an office +full of patients." + +"It certainly will, though I could dispense with them to-night without +much sorrow. But--where am I going to put you? You can get to my room, +but you won't want to stay there. The part of the house that will be +the living part for you is either empty or cluttered up with wedding +presents. By all that's crazy, Ellen, I'm just waking up to the fact +that there isn't any place to put you, when there are patients in the +house--which there ever-lastingly are--except the dining-room and +kitchen! Lord Harry! what am I going to do? And what will you think +of me? Dolt that I am!" + +He had heard her laugh before. A low and melodious laugh she had, and he +had often listened to it and joined in with it, and rejoiced at the +ability she possessed to laugh where many women would cry. But he had +never heard her laugh as she was laughing now. Her understanding of the +situation which had only just struck him was complete. She knew precisely +how busy he had been in the weeks preceding the wedding, and how +thankfully he had accepted her suggestion that she come to his home just +as it was, and plan for herself what disposal she would make of the empty +rooms in a house of which he had used only the wing. Until he had seen +that row of vehicles before the gate he had not comprehended the fact +that almost the entire furnished portion of the house was the public +property of his patients whenever they chose to come. And they were there +now! + +The car stopped behind the house, close by the French window opening upon +a small rear porch. The window led to the large, low-ceiled room which +was Burns's own, leading in turn to his offices, and having only these +two means of entrance. Burns looked down at his wife, her expressive face +rosy with her laughter. + +"I'm glad you see it that way," said he. "That sense of humour is going +to help you through a lot, tied up to R.P. Burns, M.D. Will you go into +my room, by this window? Or will you accept Cynthia's hospitality in the +dining-room? Or--maybe that's the best plan--will you just run over to +Martha's? I remember she begged us to come there, and now I see why. Want +to stay there a couple of weeks, till we can get your living-rooms +straightened out?" + +She shook her head. "I've come to your home, Red," said she. "I'm not +going to be sent away! Go in and see your patients, and don't bother +about me. Cynthia and I will discover a place for me." + +His face very red with chagrin, Burns took her in. The downpour of +rain had covered all sounds of the car's approach, so that neither the +Macauleys on the one side, the Chesters on the other, nor the housekeeper +herself, were aware of the arrival of the pair. + +"For mercy's sake, Doctor!" cried Cynthia, and hurried across the neat +and pleasant kitchen to meet them. "I wasn't expecting you yet for an +hour. Mrs. Macauley and Mrs. Chester wasn't either. They was over here +ten minutes ago, planning how to get rid o' the folks in there that's +insisting on setting and waiting for you to come." + +"Never mind them, Cynthia," said her new mistress, shaking hands. "The +Doctor will see them and I will stay with you. I've so much to plan +with you. What a pleasant kitchen! And how delicious something smells! +Cynthia, I believe I'm hungry!" + +"Well, now, you just come and set right down in the dining-room and I'll +give you something," cried the housekeeper, delighted. + +"That's right, Cynthia," approved Burns, much relieved. "Look after her +till I'm free." And he vanished. + +"I reckon that'll be a pretty steady job," Cynthia declared, "if I'm to +do it 'till he's free.' He won't be free, Mrs.--Burns, till the next time +you get him out of town." + +She led the way into the dining-room. + +"Mrs. Macauley wanted to have you come to dinner there, to-night, and +Mrs. Chester wanted you, too. But Mr. Macauley said this was the place +for you to have your first dinner in--your own home, and he made the +women folks give in. So the table's all set, and I can hurry up dinner +so's to have it as soon as the Doctor gets those folks fixed up--if there +ain't a lot more by that time. Since Miss Mathewson went I've been +answering the telephone, and it seems 'sif the town wouldn't let him have +his honeymoon out, they're so crazy to get him back. Now--will you set +down and let me give you a bit o' lunch? It's only five o'clock, and I've +planned dinner for half-past six." + +"It would be a pity to spoil this glorious appetite, Cynthia, though I'm +sorely tempted. I think I'll use the time getting freshened up from my +long drive--we've come a hundred and sixty miles to-day, through the mud. +Then I'll find Bob and be ready to have dinner with the Doctor." + +"I'll have to take you round by the porch to get to the Doctor's +room--you wouldn't want to go through the office, with such a raft of +folks." + +Ellen's bag in hand, Cynthia led the way. In at the long window she +hurried her, out of the rain which was dashing against it. + +"I expect you'll think it smells sort o' doctorish," she said, +apologetically. "Opening out of the office, so, it's kind o' hard to keep +it from getting that queer smell, 'specially when he's always running in +to do things to his hands. But, land! his windows are always open, night +and day, so it might be worse." + +"I think it's beautifully fresh and pleasant here. Oh, what a bunch of +daffodils on the dressing-table! Did you put them there?" + +"I did--but 'twas Mrs. Macauley sent 'em over. You'll find clean towels +in the bathroom. Oh, and--Mrs. Burns,"--Cynthia hesitated,--"the Doctor +forgot to say anything about it, but I've fixed up this little room off +his for Bobby. He used to have the little boy sleep right next him, +in a crib, but I knew--of course,"--her face crimsoned,--"you wouldn't +want--" She paused helplessly. + +But Ellen helped her with quick assent. "I'm so glad the little room is +so near. Bob won't be lonely, and I shall love to have him there. I can +hardly wait to see him." + +Cynthia went away, rejoicing that her arrangements were approved. She was +devotedly fond of little Bob, Burns's six-year-old protégé, by him +rescued, a year before, from an impending orphan asylum, and now the +happy ward of a guardianship as kind as an adoption. She had been +somewhat anxious over the child's future status with her employer's wife, +but was now quite satisfied that he was not to be kept at arm's length. + +"Some would have put him off with me," she said to herself, as she +returned to her kitchen, "though I didn't really think it of her that +took so much notice of him before. She's a real lady, Mrs. Burns is--and +prettier than ever since she married the Doctor, as why shouldn't she be, +with him to look pretty for?" + +Left alone Ellen looked about her. Yes, this was the room in which he +had lived the sleeping portion of his bachelor's life, so long. It gave +her an odd sense of what a change it was for him, this having a woman +come into his life, share his privacy,--he had so little privacy in his +busy days and nights,--and occupy this room of his, this big, square, +old-fashioned room with its open windows, the one spot which had been his +unassailable place of retreat. She felt almost as if she ought to go and +find some other room at once, ought not to take even temporary possession +of this, or strew about it her feminine belongings. + +The room was somewhat sparsely furnished, containing but the necessary +furniture; no draperies at the open windows, few articles on the high old +mahogany bureau, an inadequate number of nearly threadbare rugs on the +waxed floor, and but three pictures on the walls. She studied these +pictures, one after another. One was a little framed photograph of +Burns's father and mother, taken sitting together on their vine-covered +porch. One was a colour drawing of a scene in Edinburgh, showing a view +of Princes Street and the Castle,--one which must have become familiar to +him from a residence of some length during the period of his studies +abroad. The third picture--it surprised and touched her not a little to +find it here--was a fine copy of a famous painting, showing the Christ +bending above the couch of a sick man and extending to him his healing +touch. The face was one of the best modern conceptions of the Divine +personality. She realized that the picture might have meant much to him. + +She could hear his voice, as she set about her dressing. He was in his +private office, talking with a patient whose deafness caused him to raise +his own tones considerably; the closed door between could not keep out +all the sound. She felt her invasion of his life more keenly than ever +as she realized afresh how close to him her own life was to be lived. +Marrying a village doctor, whose home contained also his place of +business, was a very different matter from marrying a city physician with +a downtown office and a home into which only the telephone ever brought +the voice of a patient. It was to be a new and strange experience for +them both. + +She sat before the dressing-table, having slipped into a little lilac and +white negligée. The half-curling masses of her black hair covered her +shoulders as she brushed them out--slowly, because she was thinking so +busily about it all, and had forgotten to make haste. Suddenly the door +leading into the office flew open--and closed as quickly. Steps behind +her, pausing, made her turn, to meet her husband's eyes. + +He came close. An unmistakably "doctorish" odour accompanied him--an +odour not disagreeable but associated with modern means for securing +perfect cleanliness. He wore his white jacket, fresh from Cynthia's +painstaking hands. His eyes were very bright, his lips were smiling. + +His arms came about her from behind, his head against hers gently forced +it back to face the mirror. In it the two pairs of eyes met again, hazel +and black. + +"To think that I should see _that_ reflected from my old glass!" +whispered Red Pepper Burns. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE WAY TO ATTAIN AN END + + +Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns stood in the doorway of her living-room and +studied it with a critical eye. Within the room, on either side, stood +her sister Martha, Mrs. James Macauley, and her friend Winifred, Mrs. +Arthur Chester. In precisely these same relative positions were they +also her neighbours as to their own homes. Their husbands were Red +Pepper's best friends, outside those of his own profession. It was +appropriate that they should have stood by her during the period of +fitting and furnishing that part of the old house which her husband had +termed her "quarters." + +"It's the loveliest room in this town," declared Winifred Chester, "and +I'm going to have all I can do not to be envious." + +"I doubt if very many people in this little town will think it the +loveliest," said Ellen's sister. "Its browns and blues will be too dull +for them, and Ellen's old Turkey carpet too different from their polished +floors and 'antique' rugs. By the way, Ellen, how old do you suppose that +carpet is, anyhow?" + +"It's been on Aunt Lucy's floors since before the Civil War. Isn't it +beautifully faded?--it furnishes the keynote of the whole room. Isn't it +fortunate that the room should be so long and low, instead of high and +square? Is it a restful room, girls? That's what I'm after." + +"Restful!" Mrs. Chester clasped her hands in a speaking gesture. "Red +will forget every care, the minute he steps into it. When are you going +to show it to him?" + +"To-night, when the fire is lighted and evening office-hours are over. If +he hadn't been so busy it would have been hard to keep him away, but he +hasn't had an hour to spare even for guessing what I've been doing." + +"I hope he'll have an hour to spare, to stay in it with you. How you both +will hate the sound of the office-bell and the telephones!" + +"I'm going to try hard not to, but I suppose I shall dread them, in spite +of myself," Ellen owned. + +"This great couch, facing the fire, with all these lovely blue silk +pillows, is certainly the most comfortable looking thing I ever saw," +sighed Winifred Chester, casting her plump little figure into the +davenport's roomy depths and clasping her hands under her head in an +attitude of repose. + +"If Red doesn't send out word that he's not at home and can't be found, +when a call finds him stretched out here, he's a stronger character than +I think him." + +"Now let's go up and look at the guest-rooms." Ellen led the way, an +engaging figure in a fresh white morning dress, her cheeks glowing with +colour like a girl's. + +"If you didn't know, would you ever dream she had been wife and widow, +and had lost her little son?" murmured Winifred in Martha's ear. + +Martha Macauley shook her head. "She seems to have gone back and begun +all over again. Yet there's a look--" + +Winifred nodded. "Of course there is--a look she wouldn't have had if she +hadn't gone through so much. It's given her such a rich sort of bloom." + +The guest-rooms were airy, attractive, chintz-hung rooms, one large, one +somewhat smaller, but both wearing a hospitable look of readiness. + +"I like the gray-and-rose room best," announced Winifred, after a +critical survey, as if she were inspecting both rooms for the first time +instead of the fortieth. She had made the gray-and-rose chintz hangings +herself, delighting in each exquisite yard of the fine imported material. + +"I prefer the green-leaf pattern, it looks so cool and fresh." Martha +eyed details admiringly. "This is your bachelor's room, you say, Ellen? +Oh, you've put a desk in it! The bachelor will want to stay forever. Who +do you suppose he will be?" + +"The first friend of Red's who comes. He says he's always wanted to ask +certain ones, and never had a place to put them, except at the hotel." + +"He'd better be careful whom he asks--now. They'll all fall in love with +you. By the way, do you know Red has a terribly jealous streak?" Winifred +glanced quickly at Ellen as she spoke. + +"No--what nonsense! How do you like my idea of a book-shelf by the bed, +and a drop-light?" + +"Pampering--pure pampering of your bachelors. You'll never be rid of +them. But he can be jealous, Ellen." + +"What makes you think so? I never saw a trace of it," cried Martha +Macauley. + +"It's there--you mark my words. He couldn't help it--with his hair and +eyes." + +Ellen laughed. "Hair and eyes! What about my black locks and eyes? Shall +I not make a trustful wife, because I happen to have them? Oh!"--she ran +to the window--"there comes the Imp! You'll excuse me if I run down? +Red's been away all night and all morning." + +She disappeared as the Green Imp's horn vociferated a signal of greeting +from far down the road. + +"They'll never get time to grow tired of each other," commented Martha, +as the two friends descended the old-time winding staircase. "Isn't this +old hall delightful, now? I never realized the possibilities of the +house, with this part closed so long." + +"One more peep at the living-room, and then we'll go. Isn't it just like +Ellen? Such a charming, quiet room, without the least bit of ostentation, +yet simply breathing beauty and refinement. She is the most wonderful +shopper I know. She made every dollar Red furnished go twice as far as I +could. I don't suppose he would let her spend a penny of her own on this +house." + +"He's too busy to know or care what she does--till he sees it. I'll +venture she has slipped in a penny or two. That magnificent piano +is hers, you know,--and two or three pieces of furniture. All he'll +realize is that it's delightful and that she's in it. It's all so funny, +anyhow,--this bringing home a bride and having her fall to work to +furnish her own nest." + +"She's enjoyed it. I'd like to be on the scene to-night, when she shows +it to him." + +"No chance of that. When Red does get her to himself for ten minutes he +quite plainly prefers to have the rest of us depart. Have you noticed?" + +"Yes, indeed. I only hope that state of things will last." And Winifred +smiled and sighed at once, as if she were skeptical concerning of the +permanency of married bliss. + +Office-hours were full ones that evening, and it was quite nine o'clock +before R.P. Burns, M.D. closed the door on the last of his patients. The +moment he was free he turned to Miss Mathewson, his office nurse, with a +deep breath of relief. + +"Let's put out the lights and call it off," he said. "Run home and get an +hour to yourself before bedtime, and never mind finishing the books. Do +you know,"--he was smiling down at her, where she sat, a trim white +figure at her desk, an assistant who had been his right hand for nine +years, and who perhaps knew his moods and tempers better than anybody in +the world, though he did not at all realize this,--"do you know, I find +it harder to settle down to work again than I thought I should? Curious, +isn't it?" + +"Not at all curious, Doctor Burns." Miss Mathewson spoke in her usual +quiet tone, smiling in return. "It is distracting, even to me, to know +that a person so lovely as your wife is under the same roof." + +This was much for this most reserved associate of his to say, and Burns +recognized it. He regarded her with interested astonishment. "So she's +got you, too!" he ejaculated. "I'm mighty glad of that, for it will tend +to make you sympathetic with my wish to have an hour to myself--and +her--now and then. I'm to see my home to-night, for the first +time,--if--" + +Steps sounded upon the office porch. Burns made a flying leap for the +door into his private office, intent on getting to his room and +exchanging his working garb for one suited to the evening he meant +to spend with Ellen. When he had swiftly but noiselessly closed the door, +Miss Mathewson answered the knock. + +A tall countryman loomed in the doorway. + +"Doctor in?" + +"He is in," said the office nurse, who would tell lies to nobody, "but he +is engaged. Office-hours are over. Please give me any message for him." + +"I'd like to see him," said the countryman, doggedly. + +"I don't wish to disturb him unless it is quite necessary," explained +Miss Mathewson. + +"I call it necessary," said the countryman, "when a fellow has a broken +leg. Got him out here in the wagon. Now will you call the Doctor?" + +"I surely will," and Miss Mathewson smiled sympathetically. + +She called her employer, who came out, frowning, still in his white coat. + +"Confound you, Jake," said he, "don't you know it's against the law to +break legs or mend them after office-hours?" + +Miss Mathewson, in the brief interval consumed by the men in bringing the +injured man in from the street, slipped across the hall. + +"It will be another hour, Mrs. Burns," said she, at the door of the +living-room. "But after that I shall not be here to answer the door or +the telephone, and the Doctor can ignore them, if he will." + +Ellen rose, smiling, and came across the room to her. The two +figures, one in the severe white of a uniform, the other in the filmy, +lace-bordered white of a delicate house gown, met in the doorway. + +"You dear, kind little person," said Red Pepper's wife, with her warm +hand on the nurse's arm, "how good it is of you to care! But I can wait. +Can't you stay in here with me, while the Doctor sees his patient?" + +"I must help him. It's a broken leg, and I must go this minute," said +Miss Mathewson. But she paused for an instant more, looking at Ellen. +The nurse was the taller, and looked the older of the two, but the +affectionate phrase "little person" had somehow touched a heart which was +lonelier even than Ellen guessed--and Ellen guessed much more than Red +Pepper had ever done. Red Pepper's wife leaned forward. + +"You and I must be good friends," said she, and Miss Mathewson responded +with a flush of pleasure. Then the nurse flew back to the office, while +Ellen, after listening for a little to the sounds of footsteps in the +office, turned back to the fire. + +"How does it happen," said she musingly to herself, as she stood looking +down into the depths of the glowing heart of it, "that one woman can be +so rich and one so poor--under the same roof? She sees more of him than +I,--lives her life closer to him, in a way,--and yet I am rich and she is +poor. How I wish I could make her happy--as happy as she can be without +the one thing that would have made her so. O Red!--and you never saw it!" + +The hour went by. The broken leg was set and bandaged, the injured man +was conveyed back to the wagon which had brought him; and Red Pepper +Burns took a last look at his patient, in the light of the lantern +carried by the countryman. + +"You've been game as any fighting man, Tom," said he, cheerily. "The +drive home'll be no midsummer-night's-dream, but I see that upper lip of +yours is stiff for it. Good-night--and good luck! We'll take care of the +luck." + +As he turned back up the path the front door of his house swung open. It +was a door he had never entered more than once, his offices being in the +wing, and the upright portion having been totally unused since he had +owned the place. With an exclamation he was up the steps in two leaps, +and standing still upon the threshold. + +"Come in a little farther, please, dear," said a voice from behind the +door, "so I can close it." + +Burns shut the door with a bang, and turned upon the figure in the +corner. But his extended arm kept his wife away from him. "Let me go and +refresh," he begged. "I can't bear to touch you after handling that +unwashed lumberjack. Just five minutes and I'll be back." + +He was as good as his word. In five minutes he was no longer a busy +professional man, but a gentleman of leisure, with hands cleaner than +those of any fastidious clubman, and clothes which carried no hint of +past usage in other places less chaste than his wife's private +living-rooms. + +"Now I'm ready for you," he announced, returning. "And I'll be hanged if +I'll see another interloper to-night. A man has some rights, if he is a +doctor. Morgan, up the street there, is the new man in town, and he has a +display of electric lights in front of his office which fairly yells +'come here!' Let 'em go there! I stay here." + +He took his wife in his arms and kissed her hungrily, then stood holding +her close, his cheek against her hair, in absolute contentment. He seemed +to see nothing of the new quarters, though he was now just outside the +living-room door, in the hall which ran between the two parts of the +house. Presently she drew him into the room. + +"Look about you," said she. "Have you no curiosity?" + +"Not much, while I have you. Still--by George! Well!" + +He stood staring about him, his eyes wide open enough now. From one +detail to another his quick, keen-eyed glance roved, lingering an instant +on certain points where artful touches of colour relieved the more +subdued general tone of the furnishings. The room suggested, above all +things, quiet and repose, yet there was a soft and mellow cheer about +it which made it anything but sombre. Its browns and blues and ivories +wrought out an exquisite harmony. The furniture was simple but solid, the +roomy high-backed davenport luxurious with its many pillows. The walls +showed a few good pictures--how good, it might not be that Red Pepper +fully understood. But he did understand, with every sense, that it was +such a room as a man might look upon and be proud to call his home. + +But he was silent so long that Ellen looked up at him, to make sure that +there was no displeasure in his face. Instead she found there deeper +feeling than she expected. He returned her look, and she discovered that +he was not finding it easy to tell her what he thought of it all. She led +him to the couch and drew him down beside her. He put his arm about her, +and with her head upon his shoulder the pair sat for some time in a +silence which Ellen would not end. But at length, looking into the fire, +his head resting against hers, Burns broke the stillness. + +"I suppose I'm an impressionable chap," he said, "but I wasn't prepared +for just this. I knew it would be a beautiful room, if you saw to it, but +I had no possible notion how beautiful it would be. There is just one +thing about it that breaks me up a bit. Perhaps you won't understand, but +I can't help wishing I could have done the work for you instead of you +for me. It isn't the work, either, it's the--love." + +"And you couldn't have spared enough of that to furnish a room with?" + +He laughed, drawing her even closer then he had held her before. "I'll +trust you to corner me, every time," he said. "Yes, I could have spared +love enough--no doubt of that. But it seems as if it were the man who +should put the house in order for the woman he brings home." + +"You have excellent taste," said she demurely, "but I never should +credit you with the discriminations and fastidiousnesses of a decorator. +And why should you want to take away from me the happiness of making my +own nest? Don't you know it's the home-maker who finds most joy in the +home? Yet--it's the home-comer I want to have find the joy. Do you think +you can rest in this room, Red?" + +He drew a deep, contented breath. "Every minute I am in it. And from +the time I first begin to think about it, coming toward it. Home! It's +Paradise! This great, deep, all-embracing blue thing we're sitting in--is +it made of down and velvet?" + +"Precisely that. Velvet to cover it, down in the pillows. I hope you'll +have many a splendid nap here." + +"You'll spoil me," he declared, "if you let me sleep here. I'm used to +catching forty winks in my old leather chair in the office, while I wait +for a summons." + +Her face grew very tender. "I know. James Macauley has told me more than +one tale of hours spent there, when you needed sounder sleep. It's a hard +life, and it's going to be my delight to try to make it easier." + +Red Pepper sat up. "It's not a hard life, dear,--it's one of many +compensations. And now that I have one permanent compensation I'm +never going to think I'm being badly used, no matter what goes wrong. +Come, let's stroll about. I want to look at every separate thing. This +piano--surely the sum I gave you didn't cover that? It looks like one of +the sort that are not bought two-for-a-quarter." + +"No, Red, that was mine. It came from my old home with Aunt Lucy--that +and the desk-bookcase, and two of the chairs. And Aunt Lucy gave me this +big rug, made from the old drawing-room carpet. I built the whole room on +the rug colourings. You don't mind, do you, dear?--my using these few +things that belonged to me in my girlhood, in South Carolina?" + +"In your girlhood? Not--in your Washington life?" + +"No, Red." + +She looked straight up into his eyes, reading in the sudden glowing of +them under their heavy brows the feeling he could not conceal that he +could bear to have about his house no remote suggestion of her former +marriage. + +"All right, dearest," he answered quickly. "I'm a brute, I know, +but--you're mine now. Will you play for me? I believe I'm fond of music." + +"Of course you are. But first, let's go upstairs. I'm almost as proud of +our guest-rooms as of this." + +"Guest-rooms?" repeated Burns, a few minutes later, when he had examined +everything in the living-room and pronounced all things excellent. "We're +to have guests, are we? But not right away?" + +"I thought you'd be eager to entertain those bachelor friends you +mentioned, so I lost no time in getting a second room ready for them." + +"Well, I don't know." Burns was mounting the stairs, his arm about his +wife's shoulders. "By the way, Ellen, I don't believe I ever went up +these stairs before. Comfortable, aren't they? I'm glad there's covering +on them. I never like to hear people racketing up and down bare stairs, +be they never so polished and fine. That comes of my instincts for quiet +on my patients' account, I suppose. About the guests--we don't need to +have any for a year or two, do we?" + +"Why, Red!" Ellen began to laugh. "I thought you were the most hospitable +man in the world." + +"All in good time," agreed her husband, comfortably. He looked in at the +door of the gray-and-rose room, as he spoke. "Well, well!" he ejaculated. +"Well, well!" + +And again he was silent, staring. When he spoke: + +"Would you mind going over there and sitting down in that willow chair +with the high back?" he requested. + +His wife acceded, and crossing the room smiled back at him from the +depths of the white willow chair, her dark head against its cushioning of +soft, mingled tints of pale gray and glowing rose. Red Pepper nodded at +her. + +"I thought so," said he. "This is no guest-room. This is your room." + +"Oh, no, dear. My place is downstairs, with you--unless--you don't want +me there." + +He crossed the room also and stood before her, his hands thrust into his +pockets. "This is your room," he repeated. "It's easy enough to recognize +it. It looks just like you. I've been uncomfortable about you downstairs, +whenever I had to leave you. You'll be safe here, with every window wide +open." + +She looked up at him, mutely smiling, but something in her eyes told him +that all was not yet said. Red Pepper leaned still lower and kissed her. + +"It will be easy enough to have an extension of the telephone brought up +here," he added--and found her arms about his neck. But she shook her +head. "Don't settle it so quickly," she urged. + +"You said there was another guest-room," he reminded her presently. "The +bachelor's room. Is it next door?" + +They went together to look at the bachelor's room. Burns surveyed it with +satisfaction. + +"The jolliest room for the purpose I ever saw," he confessed. "And I know +the bachelor who will sleep in it. He's downstairs now, in the small room +out of ours." + +"Bob? Why, Red--" + +"We'll have a door cut through. The telephones shall be in there, then +they won't disturb you. They won't bother Bob a minute. And when I come +in at 2 a.m. I can slip in here, shove the boy over against the wall, and +be asleep in two minutes." + +"Red! All my preparations for the bachelor! The desk,--the reading-light +by the bed--" + +"They suit me admirably. I never saw a better arrangement. The two rooms +together make a perfect suite--when the door is cut through." + +"And where will you put our guests? There's only one more room on this +floor, of any size." + +"Let's go and see." + +Catching up a brass candlestick from the bachelor's desk, Burns lit it +and proceeded to explore, Ellen following. There were dancing lights in +her eyes as she watched him. + +"Here's your fourth room," said he, throwing open a door at the back of +the hall. + +"This box? It can't be made a really comfortable room, even if I do my +best with it. Your bachelor will not stay long." + +"Best not make him too comfortable. Nobody wants him to stay long." And +Red Pepper closed the door again, with an air of having settled the +matter to his entire satisfaction. "Besides," he added, "if he's really a +desirable chap, and we want him around more than a day or two, he can +bunk in my old room downstairs. When he's not there I'll use it for an +annex to my offices. Somebody's always needing to be put to bed for an +hour or two. Amy Mathewson will revel in that extra space. Her long suit +is making people comfortable, and smoothing the upper sheet under their +chins." + +"Redfield Pepper, please consider this carefully," said his wife, as they +returned to the gray-and-rose room. "Remember how long you have had that +downstairs room,--you are attached to it, perhaps, more than you think. +You have been a bachelor yourself a good while--" + +"And am supposed to be old and set in my ways," interpolated her +listener. He stood before her with folded arms, a judicial expression on +his brow. Beneath his coppery hair his black eyebrows drew together a +little above a pair of hazel eyes which sparkled with a whimsical light +which somewhat impaired the gravity of the expression. + +"You are wonted to your ways--naturally," Ellen pursued. "It will not be +so convenient for you, having your rooms up here. I am quite contented +there, with you, and not in the least afraid with Cynthia sleeping down +there too--and the little bachelor. Think twice, Red, before you decide +on this arrangement." + +He glanced at the wall between the two rooms. "Where would be a good +place to have the door cut through? What's behind that curtain? A +clothes-press?" + +He advanced to the curtain and swept it aside. It hung in a doorway, and +was of a heavy gray material, with an applied border of the gray-and-rose +chintz. As he moved it light burst through from the other side of the +wall, and Burns found himself looking into the "bachelor's room" next +door. + +He turned, with a shout of laughter. "You witch!" he cried, and returning +to his wife laid a hand on either richly colouring cheek, gently forcing +her face upward, so that he could look directly into it. "You meant it, +all the while!" + +"Don't be too sure of that. If this room looks like me, the one +downstairs certainly looks like you. I don't want to take you out +of your proper environment." + +"My environment!" he repeated, and laughed. "What is it, now, do you +think? Not bachelor apartments, still?" + +But she persisted, gently. "Keep the downstairs room, dear, just as it +is. Don't make it a public room, except for necessity. Sometimes you'll +be glad to take refuge there, just as you're used to doing. Leave those +three pictures on your walls, and look at them often, as you've always +done. And be sure of this, Red: I shall never be hurt when you show me +that you want to fight something out alone, there. It must be your own +and private place, just as if I hadn't come." + +Sober now, he stood looking straight down into her eyes, which gave him +back his look as straightly. After a minute he spoke with feeling: + +"Thank you, dearest. And bless you for understanding so well. At the same +time I'm confident you understand one thing more: That by leaving a man +his liberty you surely hold him tightest!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BURNS DOES HIS DUTY + + +"Excuse me for coming in on you at breakfast," Martha Macauley, Ellen's +sister and next-door neighbour, apologized, one morning in late May. "But +I wanted to catch Red before he got away, and I saw, for a wonder, that +there was no vehicle before the door." + +"Come in, come in," urged Burns, while Ellen smiled a greeting at her +sister, a round-faced, fair-haired, energetic young woman, as different +as possible from Ellen's own type. "Have a chair." He rose to get it for +her, napkin in hand. "Will you sit down and try one of Cynthia's +magnificent muffins?" + +"No, thank you. And I'll plunge into my errand, for I know at any minute +you may jump up and run away. You may, anyway, when you hear what I want! +Promise me, Red, that you won't go until you've heard me out." + +"What a reputation I have for speed at escape!" But Burns glanced at his +watch as he spoke. "Fire away, Martha. Five minutes you shall have--and +I'm afraid no more. I'm due at the hospital in half an hour." + +"Well, I want to give a reception for you." Martha took the plunge. "I +know you hate them, but Ellen doesn't,--at least, she knows such things +are necessary, no matter how much you may wish they weren't. I don't mean +a formal reception, of course. I know how you both feel about trying to +ape city society customs, in a little suburban village like this. But I +do think, since you had such a quiet wedding, you ought to give people a +chance to come in and greet you, as a newly married pair." + +Burns's eyes met his wife's across the table. There was a comical look of +dismay in his face. "I thought," said he, "you and I agreed to cut out +all that sort of thing. As for being a newly married pair--we aren't. +We've been married since the beginning of time. I can't conceive of +existence apart from Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns, nor recall any period +of my life when she wasn't a part of it." + +"You've been married just seven weeks and three days, however," retorted +his sister-in-law, with a touch of impatience, though she smiled, "and +not a quarter of the people in town have ever met Ellen. You'll find that +it's not the same, now that you're married. They won't flock to your +office, just out of admiration for you, unless you show them some +attention." + +Burns chuckled. "Won't they? By George, I wish they wouldn't! Then I +could find time to spend an uninterrupted hour with my wife, at least +once a day." + +"Do be reasonable, Red. Ellen, will you make him see it's a very simple +thing I'm asking of him? Just to stand by you and shake hands for a +couple of hours. Then he can go out and stand on his head on the lawn, +if he wants to." + +"To relieve the tension?" her victim suggested. "That's an excellent +idea--real compensation. But as the blood will be all at the top, anyway, +after two hours' effort at being agreeable, saying the same idiotic +things over and over, and grinning steadily all the time, I think I'd +prefer soaking my head under a pump." + +"Do what pleases you, if you'll only let me have my way." + +Burns looked at Ellen again. "What do you say, dear? Must these things +be? Do you want to be 'received'?" + +"Martha has set her heart on it," said she, gently, "and it's very dear +of her to want to take the trouble. She promises really to make it very +informal." + +"Informal! I wish I knew what that word meant. Don't I have to wear my +spike-tail?" + +"I'm afraid you do--since Martha wants it in the evening. The men in a +place like this are not available for afternoon affairs." + +"If I must dress, then I don't see what there is informal about it," +argued her husband, with another glance at his watch. "My idea of +informality is not a white necktie and pumps. But I suppose I'll have +to submit." + +He came around the table, and Ellen rose to receive his parting kiss. +With his arm about her shoulder, and his chin--that particularly resolute +chin--touching her hair, he looked at Martha. "Go on with your abominable +society stunt," said he. "I'll agree to be there--if I can." + +His eyes sparkled with mischief, as Martha jumped up, crying anxiously: + +"Oh, that's just it, Red! You _must_ be there! We can't have any excuses +of operations or desperately sick patients. We never yet had you at so +much as a family dinner that you didn't get up and go away, or else +weren't even there at all. Even your wedding had to be postponed three +hours. That won't do at this kind of an affair. Ellen can't be a bridal +pair, all by herself!" + +"Can't she?" His arm tightened about his wife's shoulders. "Well, I'll +tell you what I'll do. If I have to leave suddenly I'll take her with me. +That'll make it all right and comfortable. If you and Jim will retire +too, the company can have a glorious time talking us over." + +He stooped, whispered something in Ellen's ear, laughing as he did so, +then kissed her, nodded at Martha, and departed. From the other side of +the closed door came back to them a gay, whistled strain from a popular +Irish song. + +"He's just as hopeless as ever," Martha complained. "I thought you would +have begun to have some effect on him, by this time. The trouble is, he's +been a bachelor so long and has got into such careless notions of having +his own way about everything, you're going to have a bad time getting him +just to behave like an ordinary human being." + +"What an outlook!" Ellen laughed, coming over to her sister, and stopping +on the way to help little Bob insert a refractory napkin in its silver +ring. "Perhaps I'd better not waste much time trying to make him over. He +really suits me pretty well, as he is,--and it doesn't strike me he's so +different from the average man, when it comes to receptions. Is Jim +enthusiastic over this one?" + +"Oh, Jim isn't making any fuss about it," evaded Martha. "He'll be good +and amiable, when the time comes. Of course, any man likes better just +having a group of men smoking round the fire, or sitting down to a stag +dinner, but Jim understands the necessity of doing some things just +because they're expected. I really think that having a perfectly informal +affair of this sort is letting them off easily. They might have had to +stand a series of 'At Homes.'" + +"Not in this little place. Everybody would have come to the first one, +and there would have been nobody left for the rest. As it is, you will +have a houseful, won't you? It's lovely of you to do it, Martha dear, and +Red and I will be good, and stand in line as long as you want us." + +"And you won't let him get away?" + +"He won't try,--though if an urgent call comes, it's not I who can keep +him. But don't worry about that. It doesn't always happen, I suppose." + +"Pretty nearly always. But I'll hope for the best." + +Mrs. Macauley went away with her head full of plans for the success of +the affair she was so sure ought to take place. It was difficult for her +to understand how Ellen, who had known so much of the best social life in +a city where there is no end to the round of formal entertaining, could +be now as indifferent as Martha understood she really was to all +experience of the sort. It was association with Redfield Pepper Burns +which had done it, Martha supposed. But was he to do all the influencing, +and Ellen to do none? It looked like it--to Martha. + +Left alone with Bob, Ellen made him ready for the little village +kindergarten which he had lately begun to attend. Before he went he put +up both arms, and she bent to him. + +"I'm going to be a pretty good boy to-day, Aunt Ellen," said he. "I +promised Uncle Red I would. But I don't like to skip in the circle with +girls. Why need I?" + +"Would you rather skip with boys, dear?" + +"Lots rather. But the girls keep asking me. Why do they, when I don't ask +them?" + +Ellen smiled down into the questioning little face, its dark eyes looking +seriously up into hers through long and curly lashes. Bob was undoubtedly +a handsome little lad, and the reason why the girls--discerning small +creatures, true to their femininity--should be persistent in inviting him +to be their partner was obvious enough. + +"Because that's part of the skipping game, Bobby. I'd ask the girls +sometimes--and, do you know, I think it would be fine to ask some of +the little girls whom the other boys don't ask. Do you know any?" + +Bob considered. "I guess I do. But why do I have to ask them?" + +"Because they're not having as much fun as the others. You wouldn't like +never to be asked by anybody, would you?" + +"I don't care 'bout any girls ever asking me," Bob insisted stoutly. "I +like boy games better--'circus' and 'grandfather's barn.' Only they let +the girls play those too," he added, disgustedly. + +He started away. But he came back again to say, soberly, "I'll ask Jennie +Hobson, if you want me to, Aunt Ellen. She's some like a boy, anyway. Her +hair's cut tight to her head--and her eyes are funny. They don't look at +you the same." + +"Do ask her, Bob. And tell me how she liked it." And Ellen looked +affectionately after the small, straight little figure trudging away +down the street. + +Martha's plans for her reception went on merrily. On the day set she came +hurrying over before breakfast, to administer to her brother-in-law a +final admonition concerning the coming evening. + +"I hope this isn't going to be the busiest day of your life?" she urged +Burns. + +"It's bound to be,--getting things clear for to-night," he assured her, +good-humouredly. + +"Promise me you won't let anything short of a case of life or death keep +you away?" + +"It's as serious as that, is it? All right, I'll be on hand, unless the +heavens fall." + +He was good as his word, and at the appointed hour his hostess, keeping +an agitated watch on her neighbour's house, saw him arrive, in plenty of +time to dress. She drew a relieved breath. + +"I didn't expect it," she said to James Macauley, her husband. + +"Oh, Red's game. He won't run away from this, much as he hates it. Like +the rest of us married men, he knows when dodging positively won't do," +and Macauley sighed as he settled his tie before the reception-room +mirror, obtaining a view of himself with some difficulty, on account of +the towering masses of flowers and foliage which obscured the glass. + +When Burns and Ellen came across the lawn, Martha flew to meet them. + +"You splendid people! Who wouldn't want to have a reception for such a +pair?" + +"We flatter ourselves we do look pretty fine," Burns admitted, eying his +wife with satisfaction. "That gauzy gray thing Ellen has on strikes me as +the bulliest yet. If I could just get her to wear a pink rose in her hair +I'd be satisfied." + +"A rose in her hair! Aren't you satisfied with that exquisite coral +necklace? That gives the touch of colour she needs. The rose would overdo +it--and wouldn't match, besides." Martha spoke with scorn. + +"Yes, a rose would be maudlin, Red; can't you see it?" James Macauley +gave his opinion with a wink at his friend. "With the necklace your wife +is a dream. With a rose added she'd be a--waking up! Trust 'em, that's my +advice. When they get to talking about a 'touch of' anything, that's the +time to leave 'em alone. A touch of colour is not a daub." + +"Who's lecturing on art?" queried Arthur Chester, from the doorway. + +His wife, Winifred, entering before him, cried out at sight of the pale +gray gauze gown. + +"O Ellen! I thought I looked pretty well, till I caught sight of you. Now +I feel crude!" + +"Absurd," said Ellen, laughing. "You are charming in that blue." + +"There they go again," groaned Macauley to Burns. "Winifred feels crude, +when she looks at Ellen. Why? I don't feel crude when I look at you or +Art Chester. Neither of you has so late a cut on your dress-coat as I, +I flatter myself. I feel anything but crude. And I don't want a rose in +my hair, either." + +"You're a self-satisfied prig," retorted Burns. "Hullo! Somebody's +coming. Tell me what to do, Martha. Do I run to meet them and rush them +up to Ellen, or do I display a studied indifference? I never 'received' +at a reception in my life." + +"Get in line there," instructed Macauley. "Martha and I'll greet them +first and pass them on to you. Don't look as if you were noting symptoms +and don't absent-mindedly feel their pulses. It's not done, outside of +consulting rooms." + +"I'll try to remember." R.P. Burns, M.D. resignedly took his place, +murmuring in Ellen's ear, as the first comers appeared at the door, +"Promise you'll make this up to me, when it's over. I shall have to blow +off steam, somehow. Will you help?" + +She nodded, laughing. He chuckled, as an idea popped into his head; then +drew his face into lines of propriety, and stood, a big, dignified +figure--for Red Pepper could be dignified when the necessity was upon +him--beside the other graceful figure at his side, suggesting an +unfailing support of her grace by his strength to all who looked at them +that night. He had declared himself ignorant of all conventions, but +neither jocose James Macauley nor fastidious Arthur Chester, observing +him, could find any fault with their friend in this new rôle. As the +stream of their townspeople passed by, each with a carefully prepared +word of greeting, Burns was ready with a quick-wittedly amiable +rejoinder. And whenever it became his duty to present to his wife those +who did not know her, he made of the act a little ceremony which seemed +to set her apart as his own in a way which roused no little envy of her, +if he had but known it, in the breasts of certain of the feminine portion +of the company. + +"You're doing nobly. Keep it up an hour longer and you shall be let off," +said Macauley to Burns, at a moment when both were free. + +"Oh, I'm having the time of my life," Burns assured him grimly, mopping +a warm brow and thrusting his chin forward with that peculiar masculine +movement which suggests momentary relief from an encompassing collar. +"Why should anybody want to be released from such a soul-refreshing +diversion as this? I've lost all track of time or sense,--I just go on +grinning and assenting to everything anybody says to me. I couldn't +discuss the simplest subject with any intelligence whatever--I've none +left." + +"You don't need any. Decent manners and the grin will do. Had anything to +eat yet?" + +"What's got to be eaten?" Burns demanded, unhappily. + +"Punch, and ices--and little cakes, I believe. Cheer up, man, you don't +have to eat 'em, if you don't want to." + +"Thanks for that. I'll remember it of you when greater favours have been +forgotten. Martha has her eye on me--I must go. I'll get even with Martha +for this, some time." And the guest of honour, stuffing his handkerchief +out of sight and thrusting his coppery, thick locks back from his +martyred brow, obeyed the summons. + +The next time Macauley caught sight of him, he was assiduously supplying +a row of elderly ladies with ices and little cakes, and smiling at them +most engagingly. They were looking up at him with that grateful +expression which many elderly ladies unconsciously assume when a handsome +and robust young man devotes himself to them. Burns found this task least +trying of all his duties during that long evening, for one of the row +reminded him of his own mother, to whom he was a devoted son, and for her +sake he would give all aging women of his best. Something about this +little group of unattended guests, all living more or less lonely lives, +as he well knew them in their homes, touched his warm heart, and he +lingered with them to the neglect of younger and fairer faces, until his +host, again at his elbow, in a strenuous whisper admonished him: + +"For heaven's sake, Red, don't waste any more of that rare sweetness on +the desert air. Go and lavish your Beau Brummel gallantry on the wives +of our leading citizens. Those new Winterbournes have sackfuls of +money--and a chronic invalid or two always in the family, I'm told. A +little attention there--" + +"Clear out," Burns retorted shortly, and deliberately sat down beside the +little, white-haired old lady who reminded him of his mother. As he had +been standing before, this small act was significant, and Macauley, with +a comprehending chuckle, moved away again. + +"Might have known that wouldn't work," he assured himself. He strolled +over to Ellen, and when, after some time, he succeeded in getting her +for a moment to himself, he put an interested question. + +"What do you think of your husband as a society man? A howling success, +eh? He's been sitting for one quarter of an hour by the side of old Mrs. +Gillis. And a whole roomful of devoted patients, past and future, looking +daggers at him because he ignores them. How's that for business policy, +eh? Can't you bring him to his senses?" + +"Are you sure they're looking daggers? I passed Mrs. Gillis and Red just +now, and thought they made a delightful pair. As for business policy, +Jim,--a man who would be good to an old lady would be good to a young +one. Isn't that the natural inference,--if you must think about business +at all at such an affair. I prefer not to think about it at all." + +"You may not be thinking about it, but you're capturing friends, right +and left. I've been watching you, and knew by the expression on the faces +of those you were talking to that you were gathering them in and nailing +them fast. How does a woman like you do it?--that's what I'd like to +know!" + +"Go and do your duty like a man, Jimmy. Flattering the members of your +own family is not a part of it." Dismissing him with a smile which made +him more than ever eager for her company, she turned away, to devote +herself, as her husband was doing, to the least attractive of the guests. + +The evening wore away at last, and at a reasonably early hour the hosts +were free. The last fellow citizen had barely delivered his parting +speech and taken himself off when Red Pepper Burns turned a handspring +in the middle of the deserted room, and came up grinning like a fiend. + +"Good-bye--good-bye--'tis a word I love to speak," he warbled, and +seizing his wife kissed her ardently on either cheek. + +"Hear--hear!" applauded James Macauley, returning from the hall in time +to see this expression of joy. "May we all follow your excellent +example?" + +"You may not." Red Pepper frowned fiercely at Mr. Macauley, approaching +with mischievous intent. "Keep off!" + +"She's my sister-in-law," defended Macauley, continuing to draw near, and +smiling broadly. + +"All the more reason for you to treat her with respect." Burns's arm +barred the way. + +Macauley stopped short with an unbelieving chuckle. Arthur Chester, +Winifred, his wife, and Martha Macauley, coming in from the dining-room +together, gazed with interest at the scene before them. Ellen, herself +smiling, looked at her husband rather as if she saw something in him she +had never seen before. For it was impossible not to perceive that he was +not joking as he prevented Macauley from reaching his wife. + +"Great snakes! he's in earnest!" howled Macauley, stopping short. "He +won't let me kiss his wife, when I'm the husband of her sister. Go 'way, +man, and cool that red head of yours. Anybody'd think I was going to +elope with her!" + +"Think what you like," Burns retorted, coolly, "so long as you keep your +distance with your foolery. You or any other man." + +"Red, you're not serious!" This was Martha. "Can't you trust Ellen to +preserve her own--" + +"Dead line? Yes--in my absence. When I'm on the spot I prefer to play +picket-duty myself. I may be eccentric. But that's one of my notions, +and I've an idea it's one of hers, too." + +"Better get her a veil, you Turk." + +Macauley walked away with a very red face, at which Burns unexpectedly +burst into a laugh, and his good humour came back with a rush. + +"Look here, you people. Forget my heroics and come over to our house. +I'll give you something to take the taste of those idiotic little cakes +out of your hungry mouths. No refusals! I'm your best friend, Jim +Macauley, and you know it, so come along and don't act like a small boy +who's had his candy taken away from him. You've plenty of candy of your +own, you know." + +He was his gay self again, and bore them away with him on the wave of his +boyish spirits. Across the lawn and into the house they went, the six, +and were conducted into the living-room and bidden settle down around the +fireplace. + +"Start a fire, Jim, and get a bed of cannel going with a roar. You'll +find the stuff in that willow basket. Open all the windows, Ches. Then +all make yourselves comfortable and await my operations. I promise you +a treat--from my point of view." + +And he rushed away. + +"It's my private opinion," growled Macauley, beginning sulkily to lay +the fire, "that that fellow is off his head. He always did seem a trifle +cracked, and to-night he's certainly dippy. What's he going to do with a +fire, at 11 P.M., on a May evening, I'd like to know?" + +"Whatever it is, it will be refreshing." Winifred Chester, reckless of +her delicate blue evening gown, curled herself up in a corner of the big +davenport and laid her head luxuriously down among the pillows. "Oh, I'm +so tired," she sighed. "Seems to me I never heard so many stupid things +said, in one evening, in my life." + +Arthur Chester, having thrown every window wide--though he discreetly +drew the curtains over those which faced the street--sat down in a great +winged chair of comfortable cushioning, and stretched his legs in front +of him as far as they would go, his arms clasped behind his head. He also +drew a deep sigh of content. + +"I don't recall," said he, wearily, "that I have sat down once during the +entire evening." + +"How ridiculous!" cried Martha Macauley, bristling. "If you didn't, it +was your own fault. I took away hardly any chairs, and I arranged several +splendid corners just on purpose for those who wished to sit." + +"As there were a couple of hundred people, and not over a couple of dozen +chairs--" began Chester, dryly. + +But Martha interrupted him. "I never saw such a set. Just as if you +hadn't been going to affairs like this one all your lives,--and Ellen, +especially, must have been at hundreds of them in Washington,--and now +you're all disgusted with having to bear up under just one little +informal--" + +"Cheer up, my children," called Burns, reentering. He was garbed in +white, which his guests saw after a moment to be a freshly laundered +surgical gown, covering him from head to foot, the sleeves reaching only +to his elbows, beneath which his bare arms gleamed sturdily. He bore a +wire broiler in one hand, and a platter of something in the other, and +his face wore an expression of content. + +"Beefsteak, by all that's crazy!" shouted James Macauley, eying the +generous expanse of raw meat upon the platter with undisguised delight. +He forgot his sulkiness in an instant, and slapped his friend upon the +back with a resounding blow. "Bully for Red!" he cried. + +"Well, well! Of all the wild ideas!" murmured Arthur Chester. But he sat +up in his chair, and his expression grew definitely more cheerful. + +Winifred laughed out with anticipation. "Oh, how good that will taste!" +she exclaimed, hugging herself in her own pretty arms. "It is just what +we want, after wearing ourselves out being agreeable. Who but Red would +ever think of such a thing, at this time of night?" + +"I believe it will taste good," and Martha Macauley laid her head back at +last against the encompassing comfort of the chair she sat in, and for +the first time relaxed from the duties of hostess and the succeeding +defence of her hospitality. + +"Don't you want my help, Red?" his wife asked him, at his elbow. + +He turned and looked at the gray gauze gown. "I should say not," said he. +"Lie back, all of you, and take your ease, which you have richly earned, +while I play _chef_. Nothing will suit me better. I'm boiling over with +restrained emotion, and this will work it off. Lie back, while I imagine +that it's one of the male guests who bored me whom I'm grilling now. I'll +do him to a turn!" + +He proceeded with his operations, working the quick fire of cannel which +Macauley had started into a glowing bed of hot coals. He improvised from +the andirons a rack for his broiler, and set the steak to cooking. While +he heated plates, sliced bread, and brought knives, forks, and napkins, +he kept an experienced eye upon his broiler, and saw that it was +continually turned and shifted, in order to get the best results. And +presently he was laying his finished product upon the hot platter, +seasoning it, applying a rich dressing of butter, and, at last, preparing +with a flourish of the knife to carve it. + +It was at this to-be-expected moment that the office-bell rang. Miss +Mathewson summoned her employer, and Burns stayed only to serve his +guests, before he left them hungrily consuming his offering and bewailing +his departure. + +"Only," Martha Macauley said, "we ought to be thankful that for once he +got through an evening without being called out." + +Ellen had placed her husband's portion where it would keep hot for him, +and the others had nearly finished consuming their own, when Burns came +in. He made for the fire, amid the greetings and praises of his guests, +and served his own plate with the portion remaining on the platter, +covering it liberally with the rich gravy. Then he cut and buttered two +thick slices of bread and laid them on the plate. + +"Sit down, sit down, man!" urged Macauley, as his host rose to his feet. +"We're waiting to see you enjoy this magnificent result of your cookery. +It's the best steak I've had in a blue moon." + +"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take mine in the office," Burns +explained. "Can't leave my patient just yet." And he went away again, +carrying his plate, napkin over his arm. + +Five minutes later Macauley, putting down his empty plate, got up and +strolled out into the hall. A moment afterward he was heard abruptly +closing the office door, saying, "Oh, I beg pardon!" Then he returned to +the company. He was whistling softly as he came, his hands in his pockets +and his eyebrows lifted. + +"He _is_ dippy," he said, solemnly. "No man in his senses would act like +that." + +"You eavesdropper, what did you see?" Winifred Chester looked at him +expectantly. + +"I saw the worst-looking specimen of tramp humanity who has come under my +observation for a year, with a bandage over one eye. He is sitting in +that big chair with a plate and napkin in his lap, and his ugly mouth is +full of beefsteak." + +"And isn't Red having any?" cried Martha, with a glance at the empty +platter. + +"Not a smell. He's standing up by the chimney-piece, looking the picture +of contentment--the idiot. But he modified his benevolent expression +long enough to give me a glare, when he saw me looking in. That's the +second glare I've had from him to-night, and I'm going home. I can't +stand incurring his displeasure a third time in one day. Come, Martha, +let's get back to our happy home--what there is left of it after the +fray. We'll send over a plate of little cakes for the master of the +house. A couple of dozen of them may fill up that yawning cavity of his. +Of all the foolishness!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A RED HEAD + + +"Marriage," said James Macauley, looking thoughtfully into his coffee +cup, as he sat opposite his wife, Martha, at the breakfast-table, "is +supposed to change a man radically. The influence of a good and lovely +woman can hardly be overestimated. But the question is, can the temper +of a red-headed explosive ever be rendered uninflammable?" + +"What are you talking about?" Martha inquired, with interest. "Ellen and +Red? Red _is_ changed. I never saw him so dear and tractable." + +"Dear and tractable, is he? Have you happened to encounter him in the +last twenty-four hours?" + +"No. What's the matter? He and Ellen can't possibly have had +any--misunderstanding? And if they had, they wouldn't tell you about it." + +"Well, they may not have had a misunderstanding, but if Ellen succeeds in +understanding him through the present crisis she'll prove herself a +remarkable woman. As near as I can make it out, Red is mad, fighting mad, +clear through, with somebody or something, and he can no more disguise +it than he ever could. I don't suppose it's with anybody at home, of +course, but it makes him anything but an angel, there or anywhere else." + +"Where did you see him? Hush--Mary's coming!" + +Macauley waited obediently till the maid had left the room again. Then he +proceeded. He had not begun upon the present subject until the children +had gone away, leaving the father and mother alone together. + +"I ran into his office last night, after those throat-tablets he gives +me, and heard him at the telephone in the private office. Couldn't help +hearing him. He was giving the everlasting quietus to somebody, and I +thought he'd burn out the transmitter." + +"Jim! Red doesn't swear any more. He surely hasn't taken it up again?" + +"He didn't do any technical swearing, perhaps, but he might as well. He +can put more giant-powder into the English language without actually +breaking any commandments than anybody I ever heard. When he came out he +had that look of his--you know it of old--so that if I'd been a timid +chap I'd have backed out. He gave me my throat-tablets without so much as +answering my explanation of how I came to be out of them so soon. Then I +got away, I assure you. He had no use for me." + +"He's probably all right this morning. Ellen could quiet him down." + +"She didn't get the chance. The light in his old room burned all +night,--and you know he's not sleeping there now." + +"Well, I'm sorry for her." Martha rose, her brow clouded. "But I'd never +dare to ask her what the trouble was, and she'll never tell, so there it +is." + +"It certainly is--right there. Oh, well, he'll get over it, if you give +him time. Queer, what a combination of big heart and red head he is." + +At the moment of this discussion the red head was still in the +ascendency. R.P. Burns, M.D., had come out of his old quarters downstairs +that morning with lips set grimly together, heavy gloom upon his brow. He +met his wife at the breakfast-table with an effort at a smile in response +to her bright look, and kissed her as tenderly as usual, but it was an +automatic tenderness, as she was quick to recognize. He replied +monosyllabically to her observations concerning matters usually of +interest to him, but he evidently had no words to spare, and after a +little she gave over all effort to draw him out. Instead, she and Bob +held an animated discussion on certain kindergarten matters, while Red +Pepper swallowed his breakfast in silence, gulped down two cups of strong +coffee, and left the table with only a murmured word of apology. + +"Red,--" His wife's voice followed him. + +He turned, without speaking. + +"Do you mind if I drive into town with you this morning?" + +He nodded, and turned again, striding on into his office and closing the +door with a bang. She understood that his nod meant acquiescence with her +request, rather than affirmation as to his objecting to her company. She +kept close watch over the movements of the Green Imp, suspecting that in +his present mood Burns might forget to call her, and when the car came +down the driveway she was waiting on the office steps. + +It would have been an ill-humoured man indeed, whose eyes could have +rested upon her standing there and not have noted the charm of her +graceful figure, her face looking out at him from under a modishly +attractive hat. Ellen's smile, from under the shadowing brim, was as +whole-heartedly sweet as if she were meeting the look of worshipful +comradeship which usually fell upon her when she joined her husband on +any expedition whatever. Instead, she encountered something like a glower +from the hazel eyes, which did, however, as at breakfast, soften for an +instant at the moment of meeting hers. + +"Jump in! I'm in a hurry," was his quite needless command, for she was +ready to take her place the instant the car drew to a standstill, and the +delay she made him was hardly appreciable. + +In silence they drove to town, and at a pace which took them past +everything with which they came up, from lumbering farm-wagon to +motor-cars far more powerful and speedy than the Imp. Ellen found herself +well blown about by the wind they made, though there was none stirring, +and wished she had been dressed for driving instead of for shopping. But +the trip, if breezy, was brief, though it did not at once land her at her +destination. + +Drawing up before a somewhat imposing residence, on the outskirts of the +city, Burns announced: "Can't take you in till I've made this call," and +stopped his engine with a finality which seemed to indicate that he +should be in no haste to start it again. + +"It doesn't matter in the least. I shall enjoy sitting here," his wife +responded, still outwardly unruffled by his manner. She looked in vain +for his customary glance of leave-taking, and watched him stride away up +the walk to the house with a sense of wonder that even his back could +somehow look so aggressive. + +She had not more than settled herself when a handsome roadster appeared +rushing rapidly down the road from the direction of the city and came to +a stop, facing her, before the house. She recognized in the well-groomed +figure which stepped out, case in hand, one of the city surgeons with +whom her husband was often closely associated in his hospital work, Dr. +Van Horn. He was a decade older than Red, possessed a strikingly +impressive personality, and looked, to the last detail, like a man +accustomed to be deferred to. + +Descending, he caught sight of Ellen, and came across to the Imp, hat in +hand, and motoring-glove withdrawn. + +"Ah, Mrs. Burns,--accompanying your husband on this matchless morning? He +is a fortunate man. You don't mind the waiting? My wife thinks there is +nothing so unendurable,--she has no patience with the length of my +calls." + +"I've not had much experience, as yet," Ellen replied, looking into the +handsome, middle-aged face before her, and thinking that the smile under +the close-clipped, iron-gray moustache was one which could be cynical +more easily than it could be sympathetic. "But, so far, I find the +waiting, in such weather, very endurable. I often bring a book, and then +it never matters, you know." + +"Of course not. You are familiar with Balzac's 'Country Doctor'? There's +a tribute to men like your husband, who devote their lives to the humble +folk." He glanced toward the house. "I mustn't keep my colleague waiting, +even for the pleasure of a chat with you. He's not--you'll pardon me--so +good a waiter as yourself!" + +He went away, smiling. Ellen looked after him with a little frown of +displeasure. From the first moment of meeting him, some months ago, she +had not liked Dr. James Van Horn. He was the city's most fashionable +surgeon, she knew, and had a large practice among folk the reverse of +"humble." She had seen in his eyes that he liked to look at her, and knew +that in the moment he had stood beside her he had lost no detail of her +face. He had also, after some subtle fashion, managed to express his +admiration by his own look, though with his smoothly spoken words he had +not hesitated to say a thing about her husband which was at once somehow +a compliment and a stab. + +"I can't imagine Dr. Van Horn taking much pains with 'humble folk,'" +Ellen said to herself. "Yet he's evidently consulting with Red at this +house, which doesn't seem exactly a 'humble' abode. I wonder if they get +on well together. They're certainly not much alike." + +The wait proved to be a long one. Ellen had studied her surroundings with +thoroughness in every direction before the house-door opened at last, and +the two men came down the walk together. They were talking earnestly as +they came, and at a point some yards away they ceased to advance, and +stood still, evidently in tense discussion over the case just left. They +spoke in the low tones customary with men of their profession, and their +words did not reach Ellen's ears. But it was not difficult to recognize, +as she watched their faces, that they were differing, and differing +radically, on the matter in hand. + +They had turned to face each other, and neither looked her way, so +it was possible for Ellen to study the two without fear of intrusion. +They made an interesting study, certainly. Dr. Van Horn's face was +impassive as to the play of his features, except that he smiled, from +time to time,--a smile which bore out Ellen's previous feeling concerning +its possibilities for cynicism rather than sympathy. His eyes, however, +steely blue and cold in their expression, told more than his face of +antagonism to the man with whom he spoke. But his command of manner, to +the outward observer, who could not hear his words, was perfect. + +As for R.P. Burns, M.D., there was no disguising the fact that he was +intensely angry. That he strove, and strove hard, to control his manner, +if not his anger, was perfectly evident to his wife, but that he was +succeeding ill at the task was painfully apparent. His colour was +high--it nearly matched his hair; his eyes burned like consuming fires +under their dark brows; his lips spoke fast and fiercely. He kept his +voice down--Ellen was thankful for that--and his gestures, though +forceful, were controlled; but she feared at every moment that he would +break out into open show of temper, and it seemed to her that this she +could not bear. + +She had never before seen Red Pepper really angry. She had been told, +again and again since her first meeting with him, by her sister and her +sister's husband, and by the Chesters, that Burns was capable of getting +into a red rage in which nobody could influence or calm him, and in which +he could or would not control himself. They invariably added that these +hot exhibitions of high temper were frequently over as suddenly as they +had appeared, and usually did nobody any harm whatever. But they hinted +that there had been times in the past when Red had said or done that +which could not be forgiven by his victims, and that he had more than +once alienated people of standing whose good-will he could not afford to +lose. + +"He keeps a woodpile back of the house," James Macauley had told her +once, laughingly, in the last days before she had married Burns, "where +he works off a good deal of high pressure. If you catch a glimpse of +him there, at unholy hours, you may know that there's murder in his +heart--for the moment. Art Chester vows he's caught him there at +midnight, and I don't doubt it in the least. But--a woodpile isn't always +handy when a man is mad clear through, and when it isn't, and you happen +to be the one who's displeased His Pepperiness, look out! I give you fair +warning, smiles and kisses won't always work with him, much as he may +like 'em when he's sane!" + +"I'm not afraid, thank you, Jim," Ellen had answered, lightly. "Better a +red-hot temper than a white-cold one." + +She thought of the words now, as she saw her husband suddenly turn away +from Dr. Van Horn, and march down the walk, ahead of him. The action +was pretty close to rudeness, for it left the elder man in the rear. +Evidently, in spite of his irritation, Burns instantly realized this, for +he turned again, saying quickly: "I beg your pardon, Doctor, but I've got +a lot of work waiting." + +"Don't apologize, Doctor," returned the other, with perfect courtesy. "We +all know that you are the busiest man among us." + +His face, as he spoke, was as pale as Burns's was high-coloured, and +Ellen recognized that here were the two sorts of wrath in apposition, the +"red" sort and the "white." And looking at Dr. Van Horn's face, it seemed +to her that she still preferred the red. But as his eyes met hers he +smiled the same suave smile which she had seen before. + +"Not tired of waiting yet, Mrs. Burns?" he said, as he passed her. "You +must be a restful companion for a man harassed by many cares." + +She smiled and nodded her thanks, with a blithe word of parting,--so +completely can her sex disguise their feelings. She was conscious at the +moment, without in the least being able to guess at the cause of the +friction between the two men, of an intense antipathy to Dr. James Van +Horn. And at the same moment she longed to be able to make her husband +look as cool and unconcerned as the other man was looking, as he drove +away with a backward nod--which Red Pepper did not return! + +It was not the time to speak,--she knew that well enough. Besides, though +she was not the subject of his resentment, she did not care to incur any +more of the results of it than could be helped. She let Burns drop her at +a corner near the shopping district without asking him to take her to the +precise place she meant to visit first, and left him without making any +request that he return for her,--a courtesy he was usually eager to +insist upon, even though it took him out of his way. + +At night, when he returned, she met him with the hope that he would be +able to spend the evening with her,--a thing which had not happened for +a week. Her arms were about his neck as she put the question, and he +looked down into her face with again a slight softening of his austere +expression. She had seen at the first glance that he was not only still +unhappy, he was suffering profound fatigue. + +"No, I've got to go back to that infernal case." It was the first time he +had disclosed even a hint as to what was the matter. + +"The one where I stopped with you this morning?" + +"Yes. Each time I go I vow I'll not go again. To-night, if I find things +as they were two hours ago, I'll discharge myself, and that will end it." + +"Red, you're just as tired and worn as you can be. Come in to the big +couch, and let me make you comfortable, until dinner. You'll eat the +better for it--and you need it." + +He yielded, reluctantly,--he who was always so willing to submit to her +ministrations. But he threw himself upon the couch with a long sigh, and +let her arrange the pillows under his head. She sat down beside him. + +"Can't you tell me something about it, dear?" she suggested. "Nothing I +ought not to know, of course, but the thing which makes you so miserable. +It can't be because the case is going wrong,--that wouldn't affect you +just as this is doing." + +"You've seen it, I suppose. I thought I'd kept in, before you." Burns +shut his eyes, his brows frowning. + +She could have smiled, but did not. "You have--only of course I have seen +that something was wearing you--keeping you on a tension. You've not been +quite yourself for several days." + +"I am myself. I'm the real fellow--only you haven't known him before. The +other is just--the devil disguised in a goodly garment, one that doesn't +belong to him." + +"Oh, no!" + +"No question of it. I'm so swearing mad this minute I could kill +somebody,--in other words, that foul fiend of a James Van +Horn--smooth-tongued hypocrite that he is!" + +"Has he injured you?" + +"Injured me? Knifed me in the back, every chance he got. Always has--but +he never had such a chance as he has now. And plays the part of an angel +of light in that house--fools them all. I'm the ill-tempered incompetent, +he's the forbearing wise man. The case is mine, but he's played the game +till they all have more confidence in him than they have in me. And he's +got all the cards in his hand!" + +He flung himself off the couch, and began to pace the room. Speech, once +unloosed, flowed freely enough now,--he could not keep it back. + +"The patient is a man of prominence--the matter of his recovery is a +great necessity. If he were able to bear it he ought to be operated upon; +but there isn't one chance in a hundred he'd survive an operation at +present. There's at least one chance in ten he'll get well without one. +I'm usually keen enough to operate, but for once I don't dare risk it. +Van Horn advises operation--unreservedly. And the deuce of it is that +with every hour that goes by he lets the family understand that he +considers the patient's chances for relief by operation are lessening. +He's fixing it so that however things come out he's safe, and however +things come out I'm in the hole." + +"Not if the patient gets well." + +"No, but I tell you the chance for that is mighty slim--only one in ten, +at best. So he holds the cards, except for that one chance of mine. And +if the patient dies in the end it's because I didn't operate when he +advised it--or so he'll let them see he thinks. Not in so many words, but +in the cleverest innuendo of face and manner;--_that's_ what makes me so +mad! If he'd fight in the open! But not he." + +"Would he have liked to operate himself?" + +Burns laughed--an ugly laugh, such as she had never before heard from his +lips. "Couldn't have been hired to, not even in the beginning, when he +first advocated it. And I couldn't have let him, knowing as well as I +know anything in life that the patient would never have left the table +alive. Don't you see I've had to fight for my patient's very life,--or +rather for his slim chance to live,--knowing all the while that I was +probably digging my own grave. Easy enough to let Van Horn operate, in +the beginning, and kill the patient and prove himself right,--if he would +have done it. Easy enough to pull out of the case and let them have +somebody who would operate on Van Horn's advice." + +"Is the patient going down?" + +"No, he's holding his own fairly well, but the disease isn't one that +would take him off overnight. It'll be a matter of two or three days yet, +either way. How I'm going to get through them, with things going as they +are;--meeting that Judas there at the bedside, three times a day, and +trying to keep my infernal temper from making me disgrace myself--" + +"Red, dear,--" + +She rose and came to him, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking +straight up into his face. + +"That's where Dr. Van Horn is stronger than you, and in no other way. He +can control himself." + +"Not inside! Nor outside--if you know him. He's exactly as mad as I am, +only--" + +"He doesn't show it. And so he has the advantage." + +"Do you think I don't know that? But I'm right and he's wrong--" + +"So you are the one who should keep cool. You've heard the saying of some +wise man--_'If you are right you have no need to lose your temper--if +you are wrong you can't afford to.'_" + +Red Pepper laid hold of the hands upon his shoulders, and looked down +into his wife's eyes with fires burning fiercely in his own. + +"You can give me all the wise advice you want to, but the fact +remains.--I have reason to be angry, and I am angry, and I can't help it, +and won't help it! Great heavens, I'm human!" + +"Yes, dear, you're human, and so am I. You have great provocation, and +I think I'm almost as angry, in my small way, with Dr. Van Horn, as +you are, now that I know. But--I want you somehow to keep control of +yourself. You are a gentleman, and he is not, but he is acting like a +gentleman--hush--on the outside, I mean--and--you are not!" + +"What!" + +"Dear, _are_ you?" + +"What do you know about it?" + +"From the little I saw outside the house this morning." + +He grasped her arms so tightly that he hurt her. "Lord! If you mean that +I ought to grin at him, as he does at me, the snake in the grass--" + +"I don't mean that, of course. But I do think you shouldn't allow +yourself to look as if you wanted to knock him down." + +"There's nothing in life that would give me greater satisfaction!" + +He relaxed his grasp on her arms, and she let them drop from his +shoulders. She turned aside, with a little droop of the head, as if she +felt it useless to argue with one so stubbornly set on his own +destruction. + +He looked after her. "A big brute, am I not? Didn't know me before, did +you? Thought I was all fine, warm heart and blarneying words. Well, I'm +not. When a thing like this gets hold of me I'm--well, I won't shock your +pretty ears by putting it into words." + +He walked out of the room, leaving her standing looking after him with a +strange expression on her face. Before she had moved, however, the door +burst open again, and he was striding across the floor to her, to seize +her in his arms. + +"I _am_ a brute, and I know it, but I'm not so far gone as not to realize +I'm wreaking my temper on the one I love best in the world. Forget it, +darling, and don't worry about me. I've been through this sort of thing +times enough before. Best not try to reform me--let me have my fling. I'm +no Job nor Moses,--I wasn't built that way." + +She lifted her head, and the action was full of spirit. "I don't want you +a Job or a Moses, but a man! It's not manly to act as you are acting +now." + +He threw up his head. "Not manly! That's a new one. According to your +code is there no just anger in the world?" + +"Just anger, but not sane rage. You have reason to be angry but there's +no reason in the world why you should let it consume you. Red, dear, why +not--_bank the fires_?" + +He stared down into her upturned face. He had thought he knew her, +heart and soul, but he found himself thoroughly astonished by this new +attitude. He was so accustomed to a charming compliance in her, he could +hardly realize that he was being brought to book in a manner at once so +felicitous yet so firm. She gave him back his scrutiny without flinching, +and somehow, though she put him in the wrong, he had never loved her +better. Here was a comrade who could understand and influence him! + +"Bank the fires, eh?" he growled. "Not put them out? I should suppose you +would have wanted them drowned out in a flood of tears of repentance for +letting them burn." + +"No! You are you, and the fires are warming--when they are kept under +control. You're fighting the harder for your patient's life because the +fight's a hard one. But when you let the Devil fan the flame--" + +He burst into a great, unexpected laugh and caught her to his breast +again. "That's what I'm doing, is it? That ever I should have lived to +hear you use a phrase like that! But it's a true one, I admit it. I've +let his Satanic Majesty have his own way with me, and bade him welcome, +too. I may again, when I get away from you. But--well--I know you're +right. I--I'll try to bank the fires, little wife. Only don't expect too +much." + +"Red," said she,--and it was not at all the sort of rejoinder he might +have expected after his concession,--"why is there no woodpile now behind +the house?" + +"Woodpile?" He was clearly puzzled. "Why, there's plenty of wood in the +cellar, you know, if you want fires. You can't be suffering for them, +this weather?" + +"No, but I wish there were a woodpile there. Did you think you wouldn't +need one any more after you were married? You should have laid in a +double supply." + +"But, what for? Oh!--" Light dawned upon him. "Somebody's told you how I +used to whack at it." + +"Yes, and I saw you once myself, only I didn't know what put the energy +into your blows. It was a splendid safety-valve. Red,--send for a load +of wood to-day, please!" + +"In July! You hard-hearted little wretch! Do you want me reduced to a +pulp?" + +She nodded. "Better that than burning like a bonfire. And better than +running the Imp sixty miles an hour. That doesn't help you,--it merely +helps your arch enemy fan the flames." + +He laughed again, and the sound of his own laughter did him good, +according to the laws of Nature. "Bless you, you've put him to rout for +the moment at least, and that's more than any other human soul has ever +done for mine, before." + +He kissed her, tenderly, and understanding what he did. In his heart he +adored her for the sweetness and sense which had kept her from taking +these days of trial as a personal affront and finding offence in them. + +They went out to dinner, and Burns found himself somehow able to forget +sufficiently to enjoy the appetizing dishes which were served to him, and +to keep his brow clear and his mind upon the table talk. When he went +away, afterward, back to the scene of his irritation and anxiety, he bore +with him a peculiar sense of having his good genius with him, to help him +tend those devastating fires of temperament which when they burned too +fiercely could only hinder him in the fight he waged. + +It was almost daybreak when he returned. Ellen was not asleep, although +she did not expect him to come upstairs, if only for fear of disturbing +her at that hour. But presently the cautious opening of her door caused +her to raise her head and lift her arms. Her husband came to her, and sat +down close beside her. + +"I've discharged myself from the case," he said. He spoke quietly, but +his voice vibrated with feeling. "It was the only thing to do. No man +could keep on with a case where the family were secretly following the +consultant's directions, instead of those of the physician in charge. +But,--for your sake, little wife, I've done something I never would have +believed I'd do." + +She sat up, her eyes fixed on the dim outlines of his face. "Tell me!" +she urged. + +"To begin with, I had it out with them, and let them know I understood +the situation perfectly--and had understood it all along. That I couldn't +stay with people who had lost faith in me. That if I were out of it they +could have the full benefit of Van Horn's orders, and the nurses would be +relieved of a mighty difficult situation. I suppose you don't know--few +people do--that it's a bad breach of professional ethics for a consultant +to conduct himself so that he throws doubt on the ability of the man in +charge? In this case it was a piece of outrageous--" He caught himself +up. "I can't get going on that, or--those fires won't stay banked!" + +She had his hand in both hers, and she lifted it to her lips. He drew a +smothered breath or two, and went on. + +"They were glad enough to see me out of it. Van Horn was--also glad! +You see,--within the last few hours the patient had lost ground--Van's +prognosis was being verified. But, when it came to taking leave of the +patient, there was the dickens to pay. His pulse jumped and his +temperature went up, and there was trouble for fair. He begged me not to +leave him. From the start his faith has been pinned tight to me. The +family hadn't reckoned with that. They found themselves obliged to reckon +with it. They saw I must be kept, or the game would be up in short +order." + +"Oh, then you _had_ to stay!" + +"Yes, I had to stay--but--I couldn't! Van Horn was in charge, and the +family wanted him in charge." + +"But the patient would die if you didn't stay. You couldn't let +professional etiquette--" + +"Couldn't you, though? You've got to observe the rules of the game, +Ellen, or you'll be in a worse mess than if you disregard them. After I +had resigned the case, unless Van Horn took himself out of it I could +have no recognized place in the house. He could have invited me, in the +emergency, to share responsibility equally with himself--but would he do +that? Never! There was just one thing I could do,--let the patient think +I was still in charge, and continue to see him, while Van Horn ran things +and so satisfied the family." + +"Oh, Red, they couldn't ask you to do that?" + +"That was what they did ask. I saw 'red' then, for a minute, I can tell +you. You can't understand just what a humiliation that would be,--it's +more than you could expect of any man--" + +"But with the patient needing you--" + +"I know,--but it's an anomalous position, just the same--an unbearable +one. Not one man in a thousand would consider it for an instant. But it's +the one I've accepted--for you!" + +He drew her into his arms, and had his reward. He had not known she would +be so deeply touched, and his heart grew very warm. + +"Bless you!" he murmured. "Do you care so much about seeing those fires +banked? They would never burn _you_!" + +"Care? Oh, how I care! But, Red, you haven't accepted an 'anomalous +position.' It's a clearly defined one,--the position of the man who is +big enough to take second place, because it is his duty. And I'm so proud +of you--so proud! And prouder yet because you've controlled that fiery +temper." + +"Don't praise me yet,--it may break out again. The test is coming in the +next forty-eight hours." + +"You will stand it,--I know you will." + +"You would put backbone into a feather-bed," said Red Pepper, with +conviction, and they laughed and clung together, in the early dawn. + + * * * * * + +Two days later Burns came home again as the first light of the morning +was breaking over the summer sky. It had been the third consecutive night +which he had spent at the bedside of the patient who would not let him +go,--the patient who, every time his weary eyes lifted, during the long +stretches of the night, wanted to rest them upon a halo of coppery red +hair against the low-burning light. The sick man had learned what it +meant to feel now and then, in a moment of torture, the pressure of a +kind, big hand upon his, and to hear the sound of a quiet, reassuring +voice--_"Steady--steady--better in a minute!"_ + +As he entered his office his eyes were heavy with his vigils, but his +heart was very light. He looked at a certain old leather chair, into +which he had often sunk when he came in at untimely hours, too weary +to take another step toward bed. But now he passed it by and noiselessly +crossed the hall into the living-room, where stood the roomy and +luxurious couch which Ellen had provided with special thought of hours +like these. + +He softly opened the windows, to let in the morning breeze and the +bird-songs of the early risers outside, then threw himself upon the +couch, and almost instantly was sound asleep. + +Two hours later, before the household was astir, Ellen came down. She was +in flowing, lacy garments, her hair in freshly braided plaits hanging +over her shoulders, her eyes clear and bright with the invigoration of +the night's rest. As if she had known he would be there, she came +straight to her husband's side, and stood looking down at him with +her heart in her eyes. + +He looked almost like a big boy, lying there with one arm under his head, +the heavy lashes marking the line of the closed eyes, the face unbent +from the tenser moulding of waking hours, the whole strong body relaxed +into an attitude of careless ease. Even as she looked, though she had +made scarcely a breath of noise, his eyes unclosed. He was the lightest +of sleepers, even when worn out with work. He lay staring up at her for a +minute while she smiled down at him, then he held out his arms. + +"He's passed the danger point," he exulted, and he took hold of the two +long plaits and wound them about her head. Then he sat up and began +deliberately to unbraid her hair, while she submitted laughing. + +"At two this morning he had a bad turn," said he, his fingers having +their way with the dusky locks. "The nurse gave him Van Horn's drugs,--he +grew worse. I rose up and took charge." He laughed at the thought. "We +had things doing there that would have made Van's hair curl. Everybody's +hair curled but mine. Mine stood up straight. I waved my arms like a +semaphore. I said _'Do this!'_ and they did it. I sent every one of Van's +emergency orders to thunder and tried my own. They were radical--but they +worked. The patient pulled out,--he'll live now,--I'll warrant him. +They got Van there just as the thing was over. He and I looked each other +in the eye--and I won. _Ah--h!--it was worth it!_" + +He drew her hair all over her face, like a veil; then he gently parted it +and kissed her happy lips. + +"Oh, but I'm the hungry boy," said he. "Can't we have breakfast--_now_?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MORE THAN ONE OPINION + + +"I want an opinion," said Burns, one night at dinner, "that shall +coincide with mine. Where do you suppose I'm going to find it?" + +He had been more or less abstracted during the entire dinner. He now +offered, in a matter-of-fact tone, this explanation of his abstraction +much as he might have observed that he would like a partridge, if it had +happened to be in season. + +"What's a ''pinion,' Uncle Red?" inquired his small ward, Bob. Bob's +six-year-old brain seemed to be always at work in the attempt to solve +problems. + +"It's what somebody else thinks about a thing when it agrees with what +you think. When it doesn't agree it's a prejudice," replied Burns. He +forestalled further questioning from Bob by refilling his plate with the +things the boy liked best, and by continuing, himself: + +"Grayson's idea about a certain case of mine is prejudice--pure +prejudice. Van Horn's is bluster. Field's is non-committal. Buller would +like to back me up--good old Buller--but is honestly convinced that I'm +making an awful mess of it. I want an opinion--a distinguished opinion." + +"Why don't you send for it?" his wife asked. + +Burns frowned. "That's the trouble. The more distinguished the opinion +I get the more my patient will have to pay for it, and he can't afford +to pay a tin dollar. At the same time--By George! There's Leaver! I +heard the other day that Leaver was at a sanitorium not a hundred miles +away,--there for a rest. I'll wager he's there with a patient for a few +days--at a good big price a day. Leaver never rests. He's made of steel +wires. I believe I'll have him up on the long-distance and see if I can't +get him to run over." + +"Is it Dr. John Leaver of Baltimore you speak of?" + +"It surely is. Do you happen to know him?" + +"Slightly, and by reputation--a great reputation." + +"Great? I should say so. Jack's been sawing wood without resting for ten +years. We were great chums in college, though he was two classes ahead +of me. I was with him again for a winter in Germany, when we were both +studying there. If I can get him over here for a day, I'll have an +opinion worth respecting, whether it happens to agree with mine or not. +And if it doesn't, I'll not call it prejudice." + +He left the table to put in a long-distance call. Between the salad +and the dessert he was summoned to talk with his friend. Presently he +returned, chuckling. + +"It must be fully ten minutes since I thought of Leaver, and now I have +him promised for to-morrow. I'll meet him in the city, give him the +history of the case at luncheon at the Everett, take him to the hospital +afterward, bring him out here to discuss things, and give him one of your +dinners. Then for a fine evening at our fireside. He's agreed to stay +overnight. I didn't expect that. He's usually in too much of a hurry to +linger long anywhere." + +"He has never seemed in a hurry, when I have seen him," Ellen observed. +"He has such a quiet manner, and such a cool, calm way of looking at one, +I always thought he must have a wonderful command of himself." + +"I always envied him that," admitted Red Pepper, stirring his coffee with +a thoughtful air. "I used to wish it were contagious, that splendid calm. +He never loses his head, as I do. Takes plenty of time to consider +everything, and plenty to get ready in. But when he does come to the +point of operating,--he's a wonder. Talk about rapidity and brilliancy! +And he never turns a hair. I've often wanted to count his pulse at a +crisis, when he'd found something unexpected--one of those times that +sends mine racing like a dynamo. He's as cool as a fish--outwardly, at +any rate. Well, it will be jolly to see him. I could hardly get his voice +to sound natural, over the 'phone. It seemed weak and thin. Poor service, +I suppose,--though he had no difficulty in hearing me, apparently." + +"Shall I put him in the small guest-room or the large, comfortable one? +Which will appeal to him most, space or a reading-light over his bed?" + +"Put him in the big room and give him all the comforts of home. I doubt +if he gets many of the really homelike sort, living alone with servants, +in the old family mansion, since his mother died. I've often wondered why +he hasn't married." + +"As you've only just married yourself I should think you would be quite +able to supply a reason," suggested Ellen, with a sparkle of her dark +eyes under their heavy lashes. + +"He's had plenty of opportunities. Many fair ladies have made it easy for +him to propose to them. But he's not the sort that kindles into flame at +the sight of a match in the distance. Yet he's by no means a cold-blooded +proposition. His heart is as warm as anybody's, under that reserve of +his. That's why I know he'll see my patient for the love of science and +humanity, and charge him nothing." + +Ellen found herself particularly interested, next day, in making +preparations for the reception of her husband's friend, the first +bachelor who should spend a night in the house. It was a fortnight since +Red Pepper had insisted upon having the telephones extended to the +upstairs rooms, and during that period two more rooms had been furnished +and put in readiness for the guests whom it was a part of Mrs. Burns's +hospitable creed to expect. The larger of these was a charming apartment, +in blue and white, and possessed a small fireplace, in front of which +stood a low couch, luxurious with many pillows. + +"It's rather a feminine looking room for so manly a man as Dr. Leaver," +Ellen reflected, as she looked in at it, an hour before his arrival, "but +perhaps he's not above enjoying little softnesses of comfort. I believe +I'll have a small fire for him, June though it is. It's a cold June, and +it looks like rain. It _is_ raining." She crossed to the window and +looked out. "Why, it's pouring! What a pity! We shall have to stay +indoors." + +As she stood contemplating the downpour, it quite suddenly increased, and +in the course of a minute or two became a deluge. In the midst of it she +discovered a white-clad figure running across the lawn, and recognized +Miss Mathewson, evidently caught in the shower as she was returning to +Burns's office. + +"She must be soaked through and through," thought Ellen, and ran +downstairs to meet her, herself clad in dinner dress of the pale lilac +which suited her so well, and for which her husband had conceived a +special fondness. + +"Oh, don't come near me, please, Mrs. Burns," expostulated Miss +Mathewson, as she stood, dripping, on the porch outside the office, while +Ellen, in the open door, motioned her within. "I'll just stay here until +the worst is over, and then run home and change." + +"Indeed you'll come in. Nothing can hurt this floor, and it's turned ever +so cold, as I can feel. It may rain for an hour. I'll give you everything +you need, and be delighted." + +There was no resisting Red Pepper's wife; she was accustomed to have her +way. Miss Mathewson, reluctant but shivering, came inside, and when her +clothing had ceased to drip moisture, followed Ellen upstairs. Presently, +dry-clad, she was taken into Ellen's own room and confronted with an +invitation which was rather a command. + +"You're to stay and have dinner with us. I've laid out a frock which I'm +confident will fit you. Please don't say no. It's a special providence, +for I've been wishing all the afternoon I had asked somebody to make a +fourth at our table, to meet Dr. Leaver. And now I shall have the +pleasure of dressing you for the occasion, since you can't possibly go +home through this, and wouldn't have time to dress and come back, if you +could." + +"But, Mrs. Burns,--" Amy Mathewson began, flushing after a fashion she +had which made her for the moment almost pretty and certainly attractive, +"there's no real reason why you need me, and I--" + +"I do need you. Three is such a stupid number. You will enjoy Dr. Leaver +and he will enjoy you. Come, my dear girl, don't spend any more time +remonstrating, but do your hair and put on this simple frock, which I'm +confident will just suit you. You're a bit taller, I know, but the dress +is long for me, and will be quite the right length for you. Sit down here +at my dressing-table, and let me help you dry that beautiful hair. I've +often longed to see it all unconfined, and now I'm going to have the +chance." + +As she spoke she slipped on a loose protecting garment above her lilac +daintiness, and waved an inviting hand to her guest, smiling so coaxingly +that Miss Mathewson yielded without another word of protest. When the +hairpins came out, and the mass of fair hair fell upon the shoulders, +Ellen exclaimed with hearty admiration: + +"I knew it was wonderful hair, but I didn't dream there was such a +wealth. My dear, why do you wear it in such a tight fashion, as if you +wanted everybody to think there wasn't much of it? Do let me try dressing +it for you in a way I know, which it seems to me would just suit your +face. Have you always worn it coiled on top of your head, and shall you +feel very strange and uncomfortable if I arrange it lower?" + +"Do it as you like, Mrs. Burns, since you will be so kind. But don't +expect me not to feel strange, wearing your clothes and staying to +dinner. Do you realize how far from society I've lived, all these years +that I've been nursing for Dr. Burns?" + +"I know you are a lady, and that is quite enough. And our simple dinner +isn't 'society,' it's home. Now, please keep quite still, and don't +distract my mind, while I lay these smooth strands in place. I want every +one to lie in just this shining order." + +Ellen worked at her self-appointed task with all the interest of the born +artist, who has an ever-present dream of things as they ought to look. +When the last confining pin was in place she viewed the fair head before +her from every point, then clapped her hands delightedly, and presented +Miss Mathewson with a hand-mirror. + +"You must get the side view, then you'll recognize how these new lines +bring out that distinguished profile that's been obscured all this time. +Do you see? Do you know yourself, my dear? Won't you always wear it this +way, to please me?" + +"But I never could do it myself, in the world," pleaded Amy Mathewson, +her cheeks again flooding with colour at the strange sight of herself. + +"It's perfectly simple, and I'll teach you with pleasure,--only not now, +for we must hurry. I'll slip the frock over your head without disturbing +a hair, and then we'll go down, for I want a bit of a blaze on the hearth +in the living-room, to offset this dull-gray sky." + +On went the frock in question, a "simple" one, undoubtedly, but of +the sort of simplicity which tells its own story to the initiated. +Whether its new wearer recognized or not its perfection of detail, she +could but see that it suited her to a nicety, both in hue--a soft apricot +shade--and in its absence of elaboration. Its effect was to soften every +line of the face above it, and to set off its wearer's delicate colouring +as the white uniforms could never do. + +"Don't you quite dare to look at her?" questioned the self-appointed +lady's maid, merrily, as she led her charge to stand in front of a long +mirror, set in a door. + +"Hardly." Miss Mathewson raised eyes grown suddenly shy to view her own +image in the glass, gave her back a picture such as she had never dreamed +could be made by herself, under any conditions whatever. Over her +shoulder her employer's wife smiled at her. + +"She looks very charming, to me, however she looks to you. But I won't +force her to stare long at such a stranger. It might make it difficult +for her to forget the stranger afterward, which is what I want her to +do." + +Ellen ran away to make herself ready once more, and returning put her arm +about her guest's waist, in the friendly way of her own which came still +more naturally now that the uniform was gone. Together the two descended +the stairs to the living-room, there to await the arrival of Burns and +his friend. + +This took place about three quarters of an hour after it was to be +expected, as Red Pepper's arrivals usually did, whether accompanied or +not by invited guests. The two came in laughing together over some +reminiscence, and Ellen recognized the tall, distinguished figure she +well remembered, with the clean-cut features, the fine eyes rather deep +set under heavy brows, the firm yet sensitive mouth. Yet, after a moment, +as Dr. John Leaver stood talking with her, she observed a careworn look, +a dimming of the fresh, clear colour she had noted on former meetings; +altogether in his whole aspect she found more than a suggestion of undue +fatigue, and when the smile ceased to light his face, even of sadness +quite unwonted. + +While he was in his room before dinner, she held a hasty consultation +with her husband, as he dressed with the speed of which he was master +through long practice. + +"Dr. Leaver can't be quite well, Red,--to look like that?" + +"I should say not. I haven't asked him a question and he hasn't said a +word, but it shows all over him. He's not my old friend Jack Leaver, at +all, and it upsets me. I'm hoping he'll unload, and tell me what's wrong, +though I can guess fairly well for myself. I could see, all through our +consultation, that he held himself in hand with an effort. The old +keenness was there, but not the old command. He's worn out, for one +thing,--though there may be more than that. But, see here,--do you mean +to tell me that's Amy Mathewson you've got downstairs? Never! It might be +her younger sister--six years younger--but not my staid nurse. Not even +you could bring about such a miracle." + +"Isn't it wonderful? Yet--it isn't, at all. She's always worn her hair +strained back from her face and put up into that tight coil on the top of +her head. Dressing it properly has made two thirds of the difference and +the apricot frock makes the other third. Isn't it delightful?" + +"No doubt of that. She's a mighty good girl, and if she can make shift to +be a good-looking one as well, there may be a bit of fun left in life for +her yet. She's by no means old, and you've made her young,--bless your +generous heart! I don't know how you ever managed to get her consent, +though. She thinks that uniform is her shell, and can't be doffed. But I +don't think she's likely to get much fun out of Leaver to-night. He's +just about fit for bed, or I'm no diagnostician." + +"Then let's put him there," said Ellen, promptly. + +"Oh, I don't mean that literally. One of your dinners ought to set him +up, and Amy Mathewson won't make any exacting demands on his brilliancy." + +"Won't she? You can't tell what pretty clothes may do for her. She will +surprise you some time, in spite of the fact that you know her so well." + +"Wise woman. She will, if you have a hand in the game. You can be trusted +to bring out every one's best. Bother this tie--it acts like original +sin." + +"I won't offer to tie it for you. I can't imagine Redfield Pepper Burns +allowing his wife to tie his cravat for him." + +"Can't you? That is to say, won't you?" He came close. + +She shook her head, and moved away, smiling. "It would destroy a certain +ideal. Stop laughing! One of your most powerful charms for me is your +independence." + +He groaned and continued to struggle with the bow of black silk which +eluded his efforts to fasten it securely. "I thought all women delighted +in getting their husband's neckwear adjusted according to their own +notions. Another dream shattered!--Well, here goes for the last time. If +I can't get it right now I'll go in and implore Jack to do it for me. It +will open his eyes as to how far hopes may be slain by realities. There! +That's a pretty good result, at last. I'll go across now, and see if he +wants any of my assistance." + +Ten minutes later both men appeared in the living-room. In his evening +attire Dr. Leaver looked a tall and sombre figure, and the contrast +between him and his friend, as Red Pepper stood beside him on the +hearth-rug, the picture of ruddy health, was startling. + +"You must be pretty heavy, Red," Leaver said considering his host. "Not a +particle of superfluous fat, but good, solid structure, I should say. One +wouldn't want to try to pass you against your will, in a narrow alley, on +a dark night." + +"It strikes me you could glide by me in the shadow and never attract my +attention," Burns replied, his keen eyes on his friend's face. "The +difference between us is that every inch of you represents concentrated +energy, while my plant spreads all over the landscape without producing +half as much power." + +Leaver smiled. There was both strength and sweetness in his smile, but +there was depression in it also. "That sounds like you," he said. "I +suppose many men envy other men the possession of some supposed source of +efficiency. Just now I find myself envying you your home--and its +occupants. What a delightful room." + +He turned to his hostess and her friend. While they talked together Burns +regarded Amy Mathewson, his long-time associate, with renewed wonder, and +presently found himself addressing her from an entirely new point of +view. This fair girl with the graceful head and the glowing blue eyes +could not possibly be the sedate young woman who was accustomed to hand +him instruments and sutures, ligate arteries, and attend to various minor +matters from the other side of his operating-table. He wondered why he +had never before noticed how much real individuality she possessed, nor +how really attractive she was of face and person. He decided afresh that +his wife was the most wonderful woman in the world, to be able to see at +a glance that which had escaped his attention for so long, and he +congratulated Miss Mathewson, in his mind, on the possibilities he for +the first time saw ahead of her. Clearly after all she was a woman, not a +machine! + +The party went out to dinner, and Burns looked to see his friend enjoy, +as he thought he must, the cleverly planned and deliciously cooked meal +which came, perfectly served, upon the table. It was such a dinner as he +himself delighted in, unostentatious but satisfying, with certain +touches, here and there, calculated to tempt the most capricious +palate,--such as he shrewdly judged Leaver, in his presumably lowered +state of vitality, to possess. + +But to his surprise and dismay the guest barely touched most of the +dishes, and ate so sparingly of others that Burns felt himself, with his +hearty, normal appetite, a gormandizer. Nobody made any comment whatever +upon Dr. Leaver's lack of appetite, but all three noted, with growing +concern, that there were moments when he seemed to keep up with an +effort. Instinctively the others made short work of the later courses, +and felt a decided relief when it became possible to leave the table and +return to the living-room. + +By a bit of clever management Ellen was able to put the guest's tall form +into a corner of the big davenport, among the blue pillows, where he +could receive more support than was possible in any other place. After a +little he seemed less fatigued, and charmed them all with his pleasant +discourse. Burns himself was soon summoned to the office. He would not +allow Miss Mathewson to take up her duties there, though she followed him +to offer eagerly to run home and change her attire. + +"Not a bit of it," Burns assured her, in the hall. He regarded her with +mischief in his eyes. "Cinderella isn't due at home till the clock +strikes twelve," he whispered. "Besides,--the Prince isn't in his usual +form to-night. He may need her services as nurse at any minute, judging +by his appearance." + +That sent her back into the room, as he knew it would. It was, for her, +a wonderfully interesting hour which followed, for Dr. Leaver and Mrs. +Burns fell to discussing life in a certain great city, as both knew it +from quite different standpoints, and she herself had only to listen and +observe. She thought the pair upon the davenport made a striking picture, +the woman in her rich and still youthful beauty, her smile a thing to +wonder at, her voice low music to the ear; the man, though no older than +Burns, worn and grave, yet with a strangely winning personality, and eyes +which seemed to see far beneath the surface. In all Amy Mathewson's +experience with the men of Burns's profession, she had never met just +such a one as John Leaver. The sense of his personal worth and dignity +was strong upon her as she watched him; his evident fatigue and weakness +appealed to her sympathies; and she forgot herself more completely than +she had imagined she could when first summoned to the unaccustomed part +she was this evening playing. + +But, quite suddenly, the scene changed. In the act of speaking Dr. Leaver +suddenly stopped, put one hand to his side, and lay back against the high +end of the davenport, breathing short, his face turning pallid, ashen. +Ellen rose to her feet in dismay, but Amy Mathewson sprang toward him, +drew him with strong arms gently down to a position more nearly +recumbent, and with fingers on his pulse said in a low voice, "Call the +Doctor, please." + +Ellen ran, and in a minute had Burns there, striding in, in his white +office jacket, his face tense with sudden anxiety. Leaver was panting for +breath as Burns felt his pulse and nodded at Amy, who hurried quietly +away. She was back very quickly, handing Burns a tiny instrument ready +for use. In a moment more the supporting drug was on its way to lend aid, +and Burns was bending over his friend again, laying a gentle hand upon +the damp forehead, and saying with quiet assurance: + +"All right, old boy. We'll have you comfortable in no time. You were too +tired to play society man to-night, and we oughtn't to have allowed it." + +It was not very long before Leaver was breathing more easily, and a trace +of colour had come back to his face. He moved his head and tried to speak +naturally: + +"I am--rather--ashamed of myself--" + +"You've no business to be. When a fellow is played out Nature takes her +innings--and she takes all that's coming to her. You're going up to bed +in a few minutes, and you're going to stay there till the rest has had a +chance to get in some work. Miss Mathewson will stay with you for a bit. +She's a famous nurse." + +Leaver's head moved in surprised protest, and Miss Mathewson spoke: + +"He doesn't know, Dr. Burns, that that is my profession." + +Burns laughed. "Oh, I see. That was a bit startling, for a fact. But she +is, Leaver, the most accomplished of her guild, and my right-hand man. +She can make you more comfortable in an hour than I can in a week." + +Upstairs, while she released Amy from the apricot frock, that something +more in keeping with the duties of a nurse might be donned, Ellen +questioned anxiously: + +"The Doctor must think him really ill, to speak of keeping him in bed. Do +you know what is the matter?" + +"His heart action is weak. I don't know the cause, of course. He seems +worn out; that showed plainly all the evening. I'm going to run home, +Mrs. Burns; my wet things must be quite dry, now. There'll be time, I'm +sure. The Doctor won't bring him upstairs for a little yet." + +She hurried away, and was back within the half hour. Although she no +longer looked the part of the fine lady, the old rôle seemed hardly hers. +The new fashion of her hair had changed her appearance very completely, +and the youthful look it had restored to her remained, to Ellen's no +little pleasure. Her cheeks were still flushed with the evening's +excitement, and her eyes were charmingly bright and happy. + +When everything was in readiness, Burns, in spite of all remonstrance +from his friend, lifted him in his powerful arms and carried him +upstairs. The exertion made him breathe a little heavily for a moment, +but that was all. Leaver was not a light burden, in spite of his +thinness, for his frame was that of a man who should carry many pounds +more than he now bore. + +"You strong man, how I envy you," Leaver said, sadly, as Burns laid him +upon the bed. + +"Your envy of me can't be a circumstance to that I've felt, many a time, +when I've watched you. But you've been working like a slave too long. +Rest is all you need, man." + +But Leaver slowly shook his head. He did not reply to this confident +statement, and Burns knew better than to try to argue it out with him +just then. Instead, with a warm grip of the hand, he turned his new case +over to the care of his nurse, and went away, his heart heavy at sight of +a strong man prone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BROKEN STEEL WIRES + + +"But I can't stay here," John Leaver protested, a few days afterward. He +was still in bed, much against his will, but not, as he was forced to +admit, against his judgment, when he allowed it consideration. "I can't +impose on Mrs. Burns's and your kindness like this. I shall soon be fit +for travel, and then--" + +"Would you mind listening to me?" R.P. Burns, M.D., sat comfortably back +in a large willow chair, by the bedside, and crossed one leg over the +other in a fashion indicative of an intention to settle down to it and +have it out. "Just let me state the case to you, and try to look at it +from the outside. Of course that's a difficult thing to do, when it +happens to be your own case, but you have a judicial mind, and you can +do the trick, if anybody can." + +Leaver was silent. He lay staring out of the open window beside which his +bed had been drawn, his thin cheek showing gaunt hollows, his eyes heavy +with unrest. All the scents and sounds of June were pouring in at the +three windows of the room; a tangle of rose vines looked in at him from +this nearest one. Just before Amy Mathewson had left him, a few minutes +ago, for her afternoon rest, she had brought him one wonderful bloom, +the queen, it seemed, of all the roses of that June. It lay upon the +window-sill, now, within reach of his hand. + +Burns began to speak. His tone was matter-of-fact, yet it held +inflections of tenderness. His friend's case appealed to him powerfully; +his sympathy with Leaver's state of mind, as he was confident he +understood it, was intense. "If it were I!" he had said to himself--and +to Ellen--and had groaned in spirit at the thought. If it had been his +own case, it seemed to him he could not have endured it. + +"You were at that sanitorium," Burns began. "Sanitoriums are useful +institutions, some of them get splendid results. But they have their +disadvantages. It's pretty difficult to eliminate the atmosphere of +illness. And, for a man whose training and instincts lead him to see +behind every face he meets in such a place, it's not an ideal spot at +all. What you need is a home, and that's what we're offering you, for as +long as you need it." + +"And I appreciate it more than any words can express," Leaver said +gratefully. He turned his head now, and looked at his host. "Just to know +that I have such friends does me good. And I know that you mean all you +say. If I were a subject for a cure I might almost be tempted to take you +at your word." + +"You are a subject for a cure." + +Leaver shook his head, turning it away again. "Only to a certain point," +he said, quietly. "Of course I know that rest and quiet will put my heart +right, because there's no organic lesion. Probably I shall build up and +get the better of my depression of mind--to a certain extent. But, +there's one thing I'm facing I haven't owned to you. You may as well know +it. I shall never be able to operate again.... Perhaps you can guess what +that means to me," he added. His voice was even, but his breathing was +slightly quickened. + +Burns was silent for a time, his own heart heavy with sympathy for +Leaver. Guess what a conviction like that must mean to a man of Leaver's +early eminence in the world of distinguished operative surgery? He surely +could. It had been his almost certain knowledge that this was his +friend's real trouble which had made him say to himself with a groan, "If +it were I!" So he did not answer hastily to persist in assurance that all +would yet be well. He knew Leaver understood that sort of professional +hypnosis too thoroughly to be affected by it. + +Burns got up and took a turn or two up and down the room, thinking things +out. His face was graver than patients usually saw it; there was in it, +however, a look of determination which grew, moment by moment, as he +walked. Presently he came back to the bedside and sat down again. + +"Suppose you tell me all about it, Jack," said he. "You haven't done me +that honour, yet, you know. Will it be too hard on you? Just to make a +clean breast of every thought and every experience which has led you to +this point? I know I'm rather forcing myself upon you as your physician. +If you prefer, I'll withdraw from the case, in favour of any better man +you may choose, and send for him to-day." + +Leaver's head turned back again. "I know no better man," he said, and +their eyes met. + +"There are plenty of better men," Burns went on, "but I confess I want +this case, and am ready to take advantage of having it in my house, for +the present, at least. Well, then,--if you can trust me, why not do as +I suggest?" + +Leaver shivered a little, in the warm June light, and put one hand for a +moment over his eyes. + +"You don't know what you ask, Red," he said, slowly. + +"Don't I? Perhaps not. Yet--I have a notion that I do. It would be a +trifle easier to face the rack and thumbscrew, eh? Well, let's get it +over. Possibly telling will ease you a bit, after all. It works that way +sometimes." + +By and by, persisting, gently questioning, helping by his quick +understanding of a situation almost before Leaver had unwillingly +pictured it, he had the whole story. It was almost precisely the story +he had guessed,--an old story, repeated by many such sufferers from +overwork and heavy responsibility, but new to each in its entirety of +torture, even to this man, who, still in his youthful prime, had himself +heard many such a tale from the unhappy lips of his patients, yet to whom +his own case seemed unique in its suffering and hopelessness. + +The recital culminated in an incident so painful to the subject of it +that he could recount it only in the barest outlines. His listener, +however, by the power of his experience and his sympathy, could fill in +every detail. A day had come, some six weeks before, when Leaver, though +thoroughly worn out by severe and long continued strain, had attempted +to operate. The case was an important one, the issue doubtful. Friends of +the patient had insisted that no one else should take the eminent young +surgeon's place, and, although he had had more than one inner warning, in +recent operations, that his nerve was not what it had been, his pride had +bid him see the thing through. He had given himself an energizing +hypodermic,--he had never done that before,--and had gone into it. There +had come a terrible moment.... Leaver's lips grew white as he tried to +tell it. + +He felt his friend's warm, firm hand upon his own as he faltered. +"Steady, old fellow," said Burns's quiet voice. "We've got this nearly +over. You'll be better afterward." + +After a little Leaver went on. + +He had come upon an unexpected complication--one undreamed of by himself +or the consulting surgeons. "You know--" said Leaver. Burns nodded, +emphatically. "You bet I know," said he, and his hand came again upon +Leaver's, and stayed there. Leaver went on again, slowly. + +Instant decision had been necessary, instant action. It was such a moment +as he had faced hundreds of times before, and his quick wit, his +surgeon's power of resource, his iron nerve, had always come to the +support of his skill, and together these attributes had won the day for +him. Fear, at such crises, had never possessed him, however much, +afterward, reviewing the experience, he had wondered that it had not. But +this time, fear--fear--a throttling, life-destroying fear had sprung upon +him and gripped him by the throat. Standing there, entirely himself, +except for that horrible consciousness that he could not proceed, he had +had to beckon to the most experienced of the surgeons present who +surrounded him as onlookers, and say to him: "Get ready--and take this +case. I can't go on." + +There had been no apparent physical collapse on his part, no fainting nor +attack of vertigo, nothing to help him out in the eyes of that wondering, +startled company of observers. He had been able to direct his assistants +how to hold the operation in suspension until the astonished, unwilling +colleague could make ready to step into the breach, cursing under his +breath that such an undesired honour should have been thrust upon him. +Then Leaver had walked out of the room, quite without assistance, only +replying wanly to those who questioned, "There's nothing to say. I +couldn't go on with it. Yes, I am perfectly well." + +It had not got into the papers. They had been kind enough to see to +that, those pitying professional colleagues who had witnessed his +dispossession. The patient had lived. If he had died the thing must have +come out. But he had lived. The situation could not have been as +desperate a one as it had seemed. The other man had handled it,--and he +was by no means a man eminent in his profession. There had been no +excuse, then, for such a seizure,--no excuse. It meant--the end. + +Well, it was certainly the end of recounting it, for when he had reached +this point Leaver's power to endure the thought of it all failed him, and +he lay back upon his pillows, his brow damp and his breath short. + +Burns silently ministered to him, pain in his eyes, his lips drawn tight +together. His sympathy for his friend was intense. + +It seemed to him incredible that this shaken spirit before him could be +John Leaver--Leaver, whom, as he had told his wife, he had often envied +his perfect self-command, his supposed steadiness of pulse, his whole +strong, cool personality, unaffected by issues such as always keyed Burns +himself up to a tremendous tension, making him pale with the strain. +"Leaver's made of steel wires," had been his description of his friend to +Ellen. Well, the steel wires were stretched and broken, now, no doubt of +that. The question was whether they could ever be mended and restrung. + +When Leaver was comfortable again,--comfortable as far as an evenly +beating heart and a return of blood to the parts which needed it could +make him,--Burns spoke to him once more. + +"We won't talk about this any more to-day, Jack," he said. "You've had +enough for now, and I have what I needed,--the facts to work upon. Just +let me say this much. I'm not discouraged by anything I've heard to-day. +I'll not try any bluffs or jollyings with you, because I know they +wouldn't work, but I do say this, honestly: I'm not discouraged. And I'm +interested--interested to the bottom of my heart. I'm going to put the +best there is in me into this problem. I never tackled anything in my +life that appealed to me more powerfully. If that's any comfort just now, +I offer it. If you were my brother I couldn't be more anxious to pull you +out of this ditch. Now, trust me, and try to go to sleep." + +Leaver did not look up at the kind, almost boyishly tender face above +him, but he pressed the hand which grasped his own, and Burns saw a tear +creep out from under the closed lids of the eyes under which the black +shadows lay so deeply. The well man took himself away from the sick one +as quickly as he could after that,--he couldn't bear the sight of that +tear! It was more eloquent of Leaver's weakness than all his difficult +words. + +When he met Miss Mathewson, an hour afterward, in the hall, on her way +back to her patient, he delayed her. + +"I want you to do more than nurse this case, Amy," he said, fixing her +with a certain steady look of his with which he always gave commands. +"I want you to put all your powers, as a woman, into it. Forget that you +are nursing Dr. Leaver, try to think of him as a friend. You can make one +of him, if you try, for you have in you qualities which will appeal to +him--if you will let him see them. You have hardly let even me see +them,"--he smiled as he said it,--"but my eyes have been opened at last. +I'm inclined to believe that you can do more for our patient than even my +wife or I,--if you will. Suppose,"--he spoke with a touch of the +dangerously persuasive manner he could assume when he willed, and which +most people found it hard to resist,--"you just let yourself go, and +try--deliberately try--to make Dr. Leaver like you!" + +She coloured furiously under the suggestion. "Dr. Burns! Do you realize +what you're saying?" + +"Quite thoroughly. I'm asking you not to hesitate to make of yourself a +woman of interest and charm for him, for the sake of taking him out of +himself. Isn't that a perfectly legitimate part for a nurse to play when +that happens to be the medicine needed? You have those powers,--how +better could you use them? Suppose you are able, through your effect of +sweetness and light, to minister to a mind diseased;--isn't that quite as +worthy an occupation as counting out drops of aconite, or applying +mustard plasters?" + +Amy Mathewson shook her head. "Do you realize, Dr. Burns, that a man +like--your guest--is so far beyond me in mind and--tastes--in every way, +that I could never--interest him in the way you speak of--even if I were +willing to try?" + +She spoke with difficulty. As Burns studied her downbent face, the +profile his wife had brought out by her skill at hair-dressing showing +like a fine cameo against the dark background of the wall, he was +thinking that unless Leaver were blind he must find her rather satisfying +to the eye, at least. He answered her with confidence. + +"He's a man of education, it's true. But what are you? Come,--haven't I +found all sorts of evidences, about my office, that you are a woman of +education? It doesn't matter whether you got that education in a college +or from the books I know you have read,--you have it. I'll trust your +ability to discuss six out of a dozen subjects Leaver may bring up--or, +if you can't discuss them all, you can do what is better--let him +instruct you. Don't tell me you can't handle those cards every +fascinating woman understands so well. If there's anything a man likes to +do it's to teach an interested woman the things she cleverly professes +she wants to know--and the best of it is that no matter how often you +play that game on us we're always caught by it. Leaver will be caught by +it, just as if he hadn't had it tried on him a thousand times. And while +he's playing it with you, he'll forget himself, which is the first step +on the road I want him to travel." + +She looked up. "Do you mean that I am to keep on attending him after he +is able to leave his room? Is he going to stay with you after that? He +told me only to-day that he intends to go as soon as he is able to +travel." + +"We shall keep him as long as we can possibly persuade him to stay. +Meanwhile, my plan is to have you settle down and stay with us, as a +member of the family. We'll have someone else attend to the office. You +can go with me, as usual, when I operate, but I shall put you on no case +but Dr. Leaver's, and the greater part of your time will be his." + +"But what will he think? Doesn't he know that I'm your office nurse?" + +"How should he know it--unless you have taken pains to tell him?" + +She shook her head. "He only knows that I am your assistant at +operations. The other point hasn't come up." + +"Good. Then he will accept whatever situation he finds, and never think +of questioning it. The way is clear enough. And it's the only way I know +of to insure his having what he needs--the close companionship of a +sympathetic--yet not too sympathetic--woman--with a face like yours," +he added, slyly. + +The quick colour answered this, as he knew it would. "Dr. Burns! You know +I'm not even good looking! Please don't say such things." + +"I only said 'a face like yours.' That may imply a face as plain as you +think Amy Mathewson's is--and as my wife and I know it is not. It's time +you waked up, girl, to your own attractions. You ought to have faith in +them when I'm asking the use of them for this patient of mine. I'd give +about all I own to put him on his feet again." + +"I hope you can--indeed I do. And of course--anything I can do--" + +He nodded. "I'll leave that to you. Consult--not your head alone, +but--your heart!" + +And he let her go, smiling at her evident confusion of mind. But when +left alone he sighed again. + +"He needs a woman like my Ellen,--_that_ would be a drug of a higher +potency. But--he can't have that--he can't have that! I must do the +next best thing." + +And he went on his way, studying it out. + +That evening he took his wife into his confidence. He did not tell her +the whole story,--it was not his to tell. But he made her acquainted with +the fact that Leaver had had a severe nervous shock and that the thing to +be overcome was his own distrust of himself, the thing to be recovered +was his entire self-command. + +"I have insisted on his staying as long as he can be content," Burns +explained. "I had your consent to that, I know?" + +"Of course, Red. You knew that." + +"In my enthusiasm I went a step further, without realizing that I had not +consulted you. I asked Amy Mathewson to stay with us too, as a member of +the family. I asked her cooperation as a woman, as well as a nurse, and +to have that it seemed to me necessary to have her here, even after he is +up and able to look after his own wants. How will you feel about that?" + +He looked straight into her eyes. They were sitting upon a small side +porch, in the late June evening. He had come in from a visit to a nearby +patient, and, finding her upon the porch, had thrown himself upon the +cushion at her feet, his head against her knee. Now, he turned and looked +up at her, and she could see his expression clearly in the moonlight. + +"I don't believe I quite understand yet," she said. "What is it that you +want Amy to do for him, 'as a woman'? Read to him, and walk with him, and +be a sort of comrade?" + +"Precisely that--and a bit more." + +"Can you prescribe that sort of thing, and make sure that it will work +out? He may not care for it." + +"I want him to have a woman's companionship; it's what he needs, I firmly +believe. It must be a certain sort of woman--the kind who will be good +for his nerves, gently stimulating, not exacting. One of the brilliant +society women he knows wouldn't do at all. The ideal kind would be--your +own kind. But he can't have that." He spoke so decidedly that she smiled, +though he did not see it. "It seems to me that Amy, if she puts her heart +into it, can give him just what he needs. Remember he's a sick man, and +will continue to be a sick man for some time after he's walking about our +streets and climbing our hills." + +"Yes, I'm afraid he will be. And you think he will accept Amy's +companionship, after he is walking about, as a part of his medicine? +Shall you insist on her being with him, or is she to wait to be invited +to read to him and walk with him?" + +His brows knit in a frown. "You think I'm prescribing something I can't +administer? But I think that he will grow so used to having her with +him, while he actually needs her as a nurse, that, when he gets about and +finds her still here, he will quite naturally fall into the way of +seeking her company." + +"Perhaps he will. At any rate, she is very welcome to stay, as long as +you want her for the experiment." + +"You are an angel! I realize that I shouldn't have made such an +arrangement without asking your permission. To tell the truth, I'm so +used to--" + +He stopped short, with a little ejaculation of dismay. + +"I understand, dear," she said quickly. "You are so used to being master +of the house that you forgot the new conditions. It's all right--you are +still master--particularly in everything that has to do with your +profession. And if you can find a cure for poor Dr. Leaver's broken +spirit I shall be as happy as you." + +"It's going to make you a lot of trouble,--two guests in the house, for +an indefinite period. You see, I'm just waking up to what I'm asking of +you. It's precisely like my impetuosity to create a situation I can't +retreat from, and then wonder at my own nerve. Will it bother you very +much?" + +"It's what we're here for, isn't it?" She smiled at him as he turned and +put both arms around her, kneeling beside her in the shadow of the vines. +"It's certainly what you are here for, and I am your partner, or I'm not +much of a wife." + +"Bless you, you darling; you surely are. And such a partner! If Leaver +had one like you--he wouldn't be where he is. But he can't have you," +he repeated, and held her closer. "I couldn't see you reading to him and +walking with him, and being a friend to him,--I couldn't see it, that's +all, no matter how much good you might do him. Queer--I didn't know that +was in me--that feeling. Macauley calls me a Turk. I guess that's what I +am. It's a primitive sort of instinct, scoffed at in these days when half +the married women are playing with fire in the shape of other women's +husbands. But I hate that sort of thing--have always hated it. I'm a +Turk, all right. Do you mind?" + +"No, I don't think I mind," she answered softly. "But I want your perfect +trust, Red." + +"You have it, oh, you have it, love. No possible question of that. And +I don't mean that I'm not willing to have Leaver get what he can of +your dearness, as he's bound to feel it, in our home. But this comrade +business, which I feel he's so much in need of,--that's what he can't +have from you. And if he stayed on, and there was no other woman about, +why, quite naturally--" + +He stopped. Then, as she was silent, "You won't misunderstand me, little +wife?" he begged. "I've seen so much of the other thing, you know. Can I +be--enough for you?" + +"Quite enough, Red." + +After a minute he went back to the thing which absorbed him. "I can see +you haven't much confidence in my plan for Amy's helping him?" + +She hesitated. "You spoke just now of playing with fire. You don't +feel that in throwing two people so closely together you are risking +something?" + +He considered it. "My idea is that Amy will administer her comradeship as +she would her medicines. She is the most conscientious girl alive; she +won't give him a drop too much." + +"Not a drop too much for his good, perhaps. But what about hers, dear? +When he is himself Dr. Leaver can be a wonderfully interesting and +compelling man, you know. It would be a pity for her to grow to care for +him, if--I don't suppose it is at all possible to expect him to care +seriously for her,--do you?" + +"Well, I shouldn't have said so a month ago. But I'm just beginning to +realize a new side to Amy Mathewson. I don't suppose I ever saw her--to +look at her--out of her uniform, before that night when you dressed her +up. By George, along with the clothes she seemed to put on a new skin!" + +"Uniforms are disguising things," Ellen admitted, "and Amy is a lady, +born and bred, in her uniform and out of it. But it's not much use +speculating on what will happen, when the arrangements are already made. +We must just do our best for Dr. Leaver, and hope that no harm will come +to either of them." + +"None will--under your roof," her husband asserted confidently. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +POINTS OF VIEW + + +"A lady downstairs to see you, Mrs. Burns." Cynthia presented a card. + +It was early morning. Ellen had just seen her husband off in the Green +Imp, and was busy at various housewifely tasks. She took the card in +some surprise, for morning calls were not much in vogue in this small +town. But when she read the name--"Miss Ruston"--she gave a little cry of +delight, and ran downstairs as one goes to welcome a long absent friend. + +A graceful figure, radiant with health and good looks, dressed in the +trimmest and simplest of travelling attire, yet with a gay and saucy air +about her somewhere, quite difficult to locate, rose as Ellen came in. +Dark eyes flashed, lips smiled happily, and a pair of arms opened wide. +Ellen found herself caught and held in a warm embrace, which she returned +with a corresponding ardour. + +"Why, Charlotte, dear!" she cried. "Where did you come from? And why +didn't you let me know?" + +"Straight from home, Len, darling. And I didn't let you know because I +didn't know myself till I was here. Oh, do let me look at you! How dear, +how dear you are! I had almost forgotten anybody could be so lovely." + +"That sounds like you, you enthusiastic person. How glad I am to see +you--it seems so long. I hope you have come to make me a visit, now you +are here." + +"Just a wee one, for a day, while I make plans at express speed, and fly +back again to grandmother. I left her in Baltimore." + +"Really? Did you bring her 'way up from Charleston? Then she must be +pretty well?" + +"Very well, if, like a piece of old china, I keep her quiet on the top +shelf. Baltimore is the bottom shelf, for her, even though she's with +the Priedieus, who will take the kindest care of her. Hence my haste. +Oh, I can't wait a minute till I tell you my plans. Let me splash my +dusty face and I'll plunge in. I want your advice, your interest, and +your--cooperation!" + +"You shall have them all, my dearest girl. Come upstairs," and Ellen led +the way, Miss Ruston following with a small travelling bag of which she +would not give her hostess possession. + +"What a dear house!" The guest was throwing rapid glances all about her +as she mounted the stairs. "I should have known that living-room was +yours if I hadn't had your Aunt Lucy's famous old desk to give me a clue. +O, Len, the very back of you is enchanting!" + +Ellen turned to laugh at Charlotte Ruston's characteristic fervour of +expression. "I remember you are always admiring people's backs," she +observed. + +"Yes, they're often so much more interesting than their faces. But +yours--merely gives promise of what the face fulfills! Forgive me, +Len,--you know when I haven't seen you for ages I have to tell you +what I think of you. In here? Oh, what an adorable room!" + +It was Ellen's own. She was thinking rapidly. Dr. John Leaver occupied +one of her two guest-rooms, Amy Mathewson the other. She should have to +turn Bob out of the bachelor's room, and send him down to stay with +Cynthia. But Miss Ruston put an end to her planning at once by adding: + +"I can't even sleep under your roof, Len, for I've engaged my berth on +the sleeper to-night. I'm always in such anxiety about Granny when I get +her away from her quiet corner. Now let me make myself clean with all +haste, that I may not lose a minute of this happy day with you." + +She was as good as her word, and in five minutes was looking as fresh as +the fortunate possessor of much rich and youthful bloom can be at a touch +of soap and water. She gave her hostess a second embrace, laying a cheek +like a June rose against Ellen's more delicately tinted cheek, and +murmuring: + +"I never can tell you how I have missed you since that all-conquering +husband of yours brought you off up North. By the way, is that his +photograph?" + +She was looking over Ellen's shoulder at a picture in an ivory-and-silver +frame upon the dressing-table. She answered her own question. + +"Of course it is. I'd know by the look of him that he must be Red Pepper +Burns." She went over and examined the pictured face closely. "I could +make a better picture of him than that,--I know it without seeing him in +the flesh. What a splendid pair of eyes! Do they look right down into +your inmost thoughts--or do they see only as far as your liver? Fine +head, good mouth, straight nose, chin like a stone wall! Goodness! do you +never meet up with that chin?" + +She looked around at Ellen with mischief in her bright brown eyes. + +"Of course I do! Would you have a man chinless?" + +"Luckily, you have a determined little round chin of your own," Miss +Ruston observed. "And you're happy with him? Yes, I can see it in your +face. Well, now, shall we talk about me? Because I have so little time, +you know, and so much has to be settled before night." + +"Tell me all about it at once, dear." And Ellen established her guest in +a high-backed, cushioned wicker chair by the window, and sat down close +by. The two looked at each other, smiling. + +"Well, Len, I never could lead up to a thing; I have to tell it in one +burst, and trust to Providence to sustain the hearer. What would you +say--to--my coming to this place for a year, renting a cottage, putting +in a skylight, and--practising my profession of photography in your +midst?" + +"Charlotte Ruston!" + +"My middle name is Chase," observed Miss Ruston, laying her head back +against the chair, and smiling out at Mrs. Burns through half-closed +lids. "Charlotte Chase Ruston forms a quite imposing signature to imprint +upon the distinguished portraits she is to make. Portraits of the +aristocracy who can afford to pay ever so many dollars a dozen for +likenesses of themselves in exquisite, informal poses, with wonderful +shadows just where they will hide the most defects, and splendid high +lights where they will bring out all the charm the subjects didn't know +they possessed." + +"Charlotte! Have you been studying in secret? I know you do delightful +amateur work, but--a studio! Do you dare?" + +"I've worked a year in the developing room of the Misses Kendall, and +have been allowed to make trial studies of subjects, when they were busy. +I have their friendship, also that of Brant--Eugene Brant--who does the +cleverest professionally amateur studio work in the world, according to +my humble opinion. And the Kendalls do the finest garden and outdoor +studies, as you know. Could I have better training? Mr. Brant thinks +me fit to start a city studio--a modest one--but the Misses Kendall +advise a year in a small town, just working for experience and +perfection. Then when I do begin in a bigger place I'll be ready to do +work of real distinction. Come, tell me, isn't it a beautiful plan?" + +"Any plan, which brings you to live near me, is a beautiful plan. And +you've really chosen this little town? How did you come to do it?" + +"Tales of the beauty of the region, and the reflection that, since one +small town in it was probably as good as another, there was no reason why +I shouldn't be near one of my dearest friends, and have, frankly, the +help of her patronage. Shall you mind giving it to me?" + +"I'll bring you a dozen subjects the first day. I suppose you haven't +looked about at all as yet for the place?" + +"I shall not need to, if you won't object to having me close by, even so +near as across the road. As I stood on your doorstep I saw my future +studio spring, full-fledged, into view, with a '_To rent_' notice already +up. Could I have a plainer sign that my good fairy is attending my +footsteps?" + +Miss Ruston leaned forward to the window as she spoke, drew aside the +thin curtain which swayed there in the summer breeze, and pointed across +the street. "Isn't there a little old cottage, back in there somewhere, +in a tangle of old-fashioned flowers? It doesn't show from here, I see, +but from below I caught just a glimpse of its unimposing dimensions. The +sign is on the gate, in the hedge. It's simply perfect that the place +should have a hedge!" + +"Evidently you didn't inspect it very closely, Charlotte dear. It's a +most forlorn little old place, and much run down. Two old ladies have +lived there all their lives, and have died there within the year. They +would never sell, although, as you see, the neighbourhood all about is +built up with modern houses--all except our own. This house is quite +old, I believe, too." + +"Two old ladies lived and died there, did they?" mused Charlotte Ruston. +"Their gentle ghosts won't trouble us, and Granny will delight in that +garden. What a background for an outdoor studio! Do let's go over and +explore the place, will you?" + +As they crossed the street the newcomer was using her eyes with eager +observation. "It's a fine old street," she said, "with all these +beautiful trees. What a pity it is mostly so modern in the matter of +architecture! I wonder if the people in those houses will think me +out of my head, to begin with, because I choose this quaint little +dwelling-place. I shall choose it, Len, if I can get it, I warn you." + +With some difficulty they opened the gate in the hedge, and proceeded up +the path of moss-grown stones to the house, set so far back from the +street that it was nearly concealed by the growth of untrimmed shrubbery, +old rose-bushes heavy with pink and white roses, lilac trees, and +barberry-bushes. + +"Of all the dear, queer, little front porches!" Miss Ruston cried, +setting her exploring foot on a porch floor which promptly sagged beneath +her weight. She threw a quizzical glance at her companion. "Even though +the roof falls in on my head, and the walls sway as I pass by, I must +have this house--if it is dry! Of course I can't bring Granny to a damp +house. Putting in my skylight and shingling the rest of the roof will +take care of dampness from above, but I must look after the floors and +foundations. Who owns it, and how can we get in?" + +An hour later the key had been obtained from the astonished owner, an +inhabitant of one of the modern houses near by and a nephew of the former +occupants, and the place had been thoroughly gone over. It was examined +by a future tenant who made light of all the real drawbacks to the +place--as the owner secretly considered them--but who demanded absolutely +water-tight conditions as the price of her rent. As she was willing to +pay what seemed to the landlord an extraordinary rent--though he +carefully concealed his feelings on this point--he somewhat grudgingly +agreed to put in the skylight and shingle the roof. + +"But when it comes to paint and paper and plumbing, the house isn't worth +it, and I can't agree to do it," he declared positively. "Not for any one +year rental." + +"I don't want paint, paper, or plumbing," she replied, and he set her +down as eccentric indeed. "But I do want that fireplace unsealed, and if +you will put that and the chimney in order, so I can have fires there, I +won't ask for any modern conveniences. When can you have it ready for me? +By the middle of July?" + +He did not think this possible, but his new tenant convinced him that it +was, and went away smiling, her hands full of June roses, and her spirits +high. It was with her vivid personality at its best that she presently +took her place at the luncheon table, meeting there, however, at first, +only Miss Mathewson. + +"My patient has fallen asleep after his walk," Amy explained to Mrs. +Burns, as she came in. "I thought he had better not be wakened." + +"You were quite right, I am sure," Ellen agreed. Then she made the two +young women known to each other, and the three sat down. R.P. Burns, +M.D., rushing in the midst of the meal, found them laughing merrily +together over a tale the guest had been telling. + +As Burns came forward Miss Ruston rose to meet him. The two regarded each +other with undisguised interest as they shook hands. + +"Yes, I can make a much better photograph of you than the one on your +wife's dressing-table," said she, judicially, and laughed at his +astonished expression. + +"Can you, indeed?" he inquired. "Have you a snapshot camera concealed +anywhere about you? If so, I'll consider going back to town for my +luncheon." + +"You are safe for to-day," Ellen assured him, and he sat down. + +He was told the tale of the morning, the subject introduced by his wife, +and amplified by their guest. He expressed his interest. + +"You have a good courage, Miss Ruston," said he. "And we'll agree to +stand by you. Any time, in the middle of the night, that we hear the +crash and fall of decayed old timbers, we'll come to the rescue and pull +you out. We don't have much excitement here. The wreck will have the +advantage of advertising you thoroughly. Then you can build a tight +little bungalow on the spot and settle down to real business." + +Miss Ruston shook her shapely head. "No tight little bungalows for me," +she averred. "Those vine-clad old walls will make wonderful backgrounds +for my outdoor subjects--they and the garden. Then, indoors--the +fireplace, the queer old doors--" + +Red Pepper looked at his wife. "Has the village a passion for +quaintness?" he asked her. "Will our leading citizens want to be +photographed in their old hoopskirts, with roses behind their ears?" + +"Oh, you don't understand!" cried Miss Ruston. "Ellen--will you excuse me +while I run up and bring down an example or two of my work?" + +She was back in a minute, several prints in her hand. She came around +behind Burns's chair and laid one before him, another before Amy +Mathewson. Ellen, who had already seen the prints, watched her husband's +face as he examined the photograph. + +"You don't intend me to understand," said he, after a minute's steady +scrutiny, "that this is a photograph of actual children?" + +Miss Ruston nodded. Her face glowed with enthusiasm over her work. +"Indeed it is. Flesh and blood children--Rupert and Rodney Trumbull. +And it's really the night before Christmas, too. They were not acting the +part--it was the real thing." + +Burns continued to study the picture--of two small boys in their +night-clothes, standing before a chimney-piece, looking up at their +stockings, at that last wondering, enchanted moment before they should +lay hands upon the mysteries before them. The glow of the firelight was +upon them, the shadows behind held the small sturdy figures in an +exquisitely soft embrace. It was such a photograph as combines the +workings of the most delicate art with the unconscious posing of absolute +realism. + +Burns looked from the picture to his wife's face. "We must have one of +Bobby like that," said he. + +Ellen agreed, her eyes meeting her friend's over his head. The guest laid +another print before him. "Since you like fireplace effects," she +explained. Then she gave the Christmas-eve picture to Miss Mathewson, +smiling as Amy, returning the print she had been studying, said softly, +"It is wonderful work, Miss Ruston. I shall want one of my mother like +this." + +"You shall have it," Miss Ruston promised. + +Burns exclaimed with pleasure over the presentment of a little old lady, +knitting before a fire, a faint smile on her face, as if she were +thinking of lovely things as she worked. As in the other picture the +shadows were soft and hazy, only the surfaces touched by the fireglow +showing with distinctness, the whole effect almost illusive, yet giving +more of the human touch than any clear and distinct details could +possibly have done. + +"That is Granny," said Miss Ruston, a gentle note in her eager voice. "My +little piece of priceless porcelain which I guard with all the defences +at my command. Tell me, Dr. Burns, I shall not be bringing her into any +danger if I put her in the little old house, when it is made right?" + +"If you are thinking of bringing _this_ old lady here," said he, +emphatically, his eyes on the picture again, "you must let me look the +place over thoroughly for you first." + +"But I've engaged it!" cried his wife's friend, in dismay. + +"That doesn't matter. You will call it all off again, if I don't find +the place can be made fit," said he. "Old ladies like this shall not +be risked in doubtful places, no matter how quaint and artistic the +background, not while I am on hand to prevent." + +Miss Ruston looked at Mrs. Burns. "_Is_ this what he is like?" said she, +in dismay. "I didn't reckon with him!" + +"You will have to reckon with me now," said Red Pepper Burns, with +coolness. + +"But the owner says it can be made perfectly tight. And I have to go back +to-night!" + +"The owner of a sieve would say it could be made perfectly tight--if +it was wanted for a dishpan. And you are at liberty to go back +to-night--much as we shall dislike to lose you. I will take time +to go over, right now, and make sure of this thing for you." + +He rose as he spoke. + +"Well, of all the positive gentlemen! Will you stay to look at one more? +It may soften that austere mood." + +Miss Ruston gave him a third print. It was of a very beautiful woman +standing beside a window, the attitude apparently unstudied, the lighting +unusual and picturesque, the whole effect challenging all conventional +laws of photography. + +"It's very nice--very nice," said Burns, indifferently. "But it's not in +it with the old lady by the fire. I'll run across and make sure of her +quarters, if you please." + +"That will be wonderfully good of you," and the guest looked after her +host, dubiously, as he went out. + +"Does one have to do everything he says, in these parts?" she inquired, +glancing from Mrs. Burns to Miss Mathewson, both of whom were smiling. +Her own expression was an odd mixture of interest and rebellion. + +Miss Mathewson spoke first. "I have been his surgical assistant for more +than nine years," said she. "When I have ventured to depart from the line +he laid out for me I have--been very sorry, afterward." + +"Did you ever venture to depart very far?" + +"Do I look so meek?" + +"You don't look meek at all, but you do look--conscientious." Miss Ruston +gave her a daring look. + +Amy spoke with more spirit than the others had expected. "If I were not +conscientious I couldn't work for Dr. Burns." + +"He doesn't look conscientious, to me," declared Miss Ruston. "He looks +adventurous, audacious, unexpected." + +"Perhaps he is. But he doesn't expect his assistant nurse to be +adventurous, audacious, or unexpected!" + +"Good for you!" Miss Ruston was laughing, and looking with newly roused +interest at this young woman, whom she had perhaps taken to be of a +more commonplace type than her words now indicated. "As for my friend, +Mrs. Burns--he is her husband, and she must have known what he was like, +since I, in one short hour, have already discovered two or three of his +characteristics! Well, here's hoping he's on my side, when he comes back. +If he's not--" + +But when he came back he was on her side, reluctantly convinced by a +painstaking examination of the possibilities in the old cottage, and by a +man-to-man talk with its owner as to his good faith in promising to carry +out the lessee's requirements. + +"Though what in the name of time possesses a stunning girl like that to +come here and shut herself up in Aunt Selina's old rookery, I can't make +out," the landlord, Burns's neighbour, had confessed. + +"Possibly she won't shut herself up," Burns had suggested, though he +himself had been unable to discover the mysterious attraction of the +little old house. The garden promised better, he thought. He could +understand her being caught by the forsaken though powerful charm of +that. Doubtless it would furnish backgrounds for her outdoor photography, +which would put to blush any painted screens such as the village +photographers were accustomed to use. + +He returned to give Miss Ruston his sanction of her project, and to +receive her half-mocking, wholly grateful acknowledgment. + +"And I hope, Dr. Burns," said she, as he took leave of her, his watch in +his left hand as he shook hands with his right, "that you will let me +make that photograph of you, at the very beginning of my stay here." + +"With a clump of hollyhocks behind me, or a 'queer old door'?" he +inquired. + +"With nothing behind you except darkness and mystery," said she. + +"I thought those were the things one looked toward, not out of?" + +"Your patients looking toward 'the black unknown,' and seeing your face, +must find their future lighted with hope!" + +He turned and looked at his wife, a sparkle in his eye. "She's from +the big town," said he. "Here in the country we don't know how to give +fine, fascinating blarney like that, eh? Good-bye, Miss Ruston, and good +luck. Bring the little grandmother carefully wrapped in jeweller's +cotton--nothing is too good for her!" + +When luncheon was over Mrs. Burns and her guest went off for a long +drive, Miss Ruston being anxious to explore the region of which she had +heard as offering a field for her camera. The drive, taken in the +Macauley car, by Martha's invitation, and in the company of Martha +herself, Winifred Chester, and several children, prevented much +confidential talk between the two friends, and it was not until a few +minutes before train time, at five o'clock, that the two were for a brief +space again alone together. + +"I'm so sorry you are not to be here at dinner," Ellen said, as Miss +Ruston repacked her small travelling bag, while the car waited outside to +take her to the station. "I should have liked you to meet our guest, Dr. +Leaver. He is an old friend of my husband's, who has been ill and is here +convalescing. He over-tired himself in taking a walk this morning, and +has been resting in his room all the afternoon." + +Charlotte Ruston, adjusting a smart little veil before Ellen's mirror, +her back to her friend, asked, after a moment's pause: + +"Dr. Leaver? Not Dr. John Leaver, of Baltimore?" + +"Yes, indeed. Do you know him?" + +"I have met him. Is he ill? I hadn't heard of that." + +"He has worked very hard, and is worn out," explained Ellen, choosing her +terms carefully. Her husband had warned her against allowing any definite +news concerning Leaver to get back to his home city. "He is improving, +and we are keeping him here because it is a place where he can be out of +the world, for a time, and not be called upon to go back before he +should. So please don't mention to your Baltimore friends that he is +here. I am ever so sorry, if you know him, that he wasn't down to-day. It +might have done him good to see the face of an acquaintance." + +"It might be too stimulating for him," suggested Miss Ruston. She seemed +difficult to satisfy in the matter of the veil's adjustment. Though she +had had it fastened, she now took it off and began again to arrange it. + +"Can't I help you?" Ellen offered, coming close. + +"Thank you, I can manage it. I had it too tight. I suppose your guest +will be gone before I come back?" + +"I don't know. He needs a long rest, and we shall keep him just as long +as he can be contented. Not that he is contented to be idle, but it is +what he needs. He is going to need diversion, too, and perhaps you can +help supply it, when you come back. Do you know him well enough to know +what an interesting man he is?" + +"I have heard people talk about him who do," said Miss Ruston. "But I +hope he will be quite recovered and away before I come back--for his +own sake. There, I believe this veil's on, at last. What a terrible +colour it gives one to drive in the sun all afternoon! I must put on +plenty of cold cream to-night, or I shall be a fright to-morrow." + +"Why, you _are_ burned! I hadn't noticed it before. And the top was up, +all the time, too. But it's very becoming, Charlotte, since it seems to +have confined itself to your cheeks. One's nose is usually the worst +sufferer." + +"That will probably show later. I must be off. Thank you, +dear--dearest--for all you have done for me to-day. It's been such +a happy day, I can't tell you how I feel about it." + +Charlotte Chase Ruston laid her burning, rose-hued cheek against her +friend's--cool and quite unburned by the drive--embraced her, and hurried +down the stairs. She seemed in haste to be off, but it was like her to be +eager to do whatever was to be done. Ellen looked after her as the +Macauley car bore her away. + +"Dear Charlotte!" she said to herself. "It's like having a warm, +invigorating wind sweep over one to have her company, even for a day. How +I shall enjoy her, when she comes! Of all the young women I know she +seems to me the most alive. I wish Dr. Leaver had been down to-day. He +would surely have liked to see her; I never knew a man who didn't. If he +has ever met her, he must remember her. But perhaps he will want to run +away, if he knows any one who knows him has found him out. Perhaps it +will be better not to tell him--just yet." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNDER THE APPLE TREE + + +"A walk, Miss Mathewson? Yes, I'll take a walk--or a pill--or whatever is +due. Did you ever have a more obedient patient?" + +John Leaver rose slowly from the steamer-chair in a corner of the porch +where he had been lying, staring idly at the vines which sheltered him +from the village street, or out at the strip of lawn upon which the early +evening light was falling. His tall figure straightened itself; evidently +it cost him an effort to force his shoulders into their naturally erect +carriage. But as he walked down the path by Miss Mathewson's side there +was not much look of the invalid about him. His face, though still rather +thin, showed a healthy colour, the result of constant exposure to the sun +and air. His days were spent wholly out of doors. + +"Which way, this time?" Amy asked, as they reached the street. + +"Away from things rather than toward them, please. I shall be very glad +when I can tramp off into the open country." + +Amy glanced across the street. "Don't you want to approach a visit to the +country by exploring the old garden, over there? I hear that it has all +sorts of treasures of old-fashioned flowers in it. Do you care for old +gardens?" + +"Very much, though it is a long time since I've been in one." + +"Have you heard that the old house over here is to have a new tenant?" + +"No, I haven't heard." + +Leaver opened the gate in the hedge for his companion, looking as if the +least interesting thing in the world to him were the matter of tenants +for the little old cottage before him. But his tone was, as always, +courteously interested. + +"I was so sorry, the other day, that it happened you didn't meet Mrs. +Burns's friend, such an interesting young woman. She is coming here to +open a photographic studio in this old house--as an experiment." + +"A professional photographer?" + +"I believe not--as yet. She would still call herself an amateur, but from +the pictures she showed us she would seem an expert. I never saw anything +like them. Dr. Burns--he had never met her--was very much taken with +them, especially with one of the little old lady, her grandmother, whom +she is to bring here." + +They strolled along the moss-grown path, past the house, aside into the +garden, its tangle of flowers and shrubbery rich with neglected bloom and +sweet with all manner of scents--sweet-william, larkspur, clove-pink. +Leaver, stooping, picked a spicy-smelling, fringe-bordered pink, and +sniffed its sun-warmed fragrance. + +"It takes me back to my boyhood," he said, "when I used to think a visit +at my grandfather's old country place the greatest thing that could +happen to me. There was a big bed of these flowers under my window. When +the sun was hot upon them they rivalled the spices of Araby." + +Miss Mathewson stood looking back at the house. From the garden, which +lay at the side and behind it, it showed all of its forlornness and few +of its possibilities. + +"What will she make of living there, even for the year she means to +stay?" she wondered, aloud. "Now, if it were I, it wouldn't seem strange; +I am used to living in a little old house. But such a girl as Miss +Ruston--I can hardly imagine her here. She thinks the house and the old +garden will make fine backgrounds for her work. I suppose they will." + +"Miss Ruston?" Dr. Leaver repeated. "Was that the name?" + +"Miss Charlotte Ruston, of South Carolina, I believe. I never heard the +name before, have you?" + +"It is an unusual one. I have known only one person of that name." Leaver +walked slowly over to a decayed and tumbling bench beneath an apple-tree, +whose boughs had been so long untrimmed that they spread almost to the +earth. He sat down upon it, rather heavily, and lifted the clove-pink +to his nostrils again. His dark brows contracted slightly. He looked at +the house. "It will have to have a good deal done to it before it is fit +for any one," he observed. "You said there was an old lady to come, too?" + +"A most beautiful little old lady, whom Miss Ruston seemed to be very +anxious over, lest she suffer any harm. Dr. Burns, when he heard of it, +insisted on coming over here to make sure the house could be made +perfectly dry and comfortable for her." + +"He was right. Little old ladies must be taken care of, and young women +are apt to think any place that is picturesque is safe." + +Miss Mathewson, seeing him apparently more interested in the subject than +he was apt to be in the topics she brought up to amuse him, except as he +assumed interest for her sake, went on with this one, and told him all +she knew about Miss Ruston's plans, ending with a description of the +photographs she had shown. + +"But I should like to see one of herself," she added. "She has such +a--brilliant face. I can't think of any other word to describe it! +When she looks at you she looks as if she--cared so much to see what +you were like!" She laughed at her own attempt to make her description +clear. "Not as if she were curious, you know, but as if she were +interested--attracted. Can you imagine the expression?" + +Leaver leaned his head back against the apple-tree trunk, and closed his +eyes. The spice-pink, still held at his nostrils, shielded his lips. He +looked rather white, his nurse noticed, but she had become accustomed to +seeing these moments come upon him--they passed away again, and Dr. Burns +had said that no notice need be taken of them unless they were long in +passing. In spite of his pallor, he spoke naturally enough. + +"Yes, I have seen such a face. But many women--Southern women, +especially--have that look of being absorbed in what one is saying; it is +a pretty trick of theirs. Won't you sit down, too, on this old bench? It +is so warm yet, we may as well rest a little and walk when it is dusk and +cooler." + +She sat down beside him, a pleasant picture to look at in her white lawn +in which, at Ellen's suggestion, she now made of herself, in the +afternoons, a figure less severe than in her uniform. She had even added +a touch of turquoise to the chaste whiteness of the dress, a colour which +brought out the beauty of her deep blue eyes and fair cheeks and even +lent warmth to the pale hues of her hair. + +"If you want to sit here, Dr. Leaver, I might run across and bring the +book we are reading. Would you like to hear a chapter?" + +"Thank you, not to-night. It's a great book, and stirs the blood with its +attempt to tell the story of a war whose real story can never be told by +any one, no matter what skill the historian brings to the telling. But +I'm not in the mood for it to-night. I wonder if, instead, you won't tell +me a bit about yourself. You've never said a word about the work you do +with my friend, Dr. Burns. Do you like it?" + +She hesitated. Was this a safe subject, she wondered, for a surgeon who, +she understood, had broken down from overwork? But the question had been +asked. + +"Very much," she answered, quietly. "One could hardly help liking work +under Dr. Burns." + +"Why? Do you think him a fine operator?" + +"Very fine. He is considered the best in the city, now, I believe, even +though his office is out here in the village. Of course it is not a great +city, but his reputation extends out into the towns around." + +"He is an enthusiast in his profession, I know. And you are one in yours, +I see." + +"Do you see it, Dr. Leaver? I thought I spoke quite moderately." + +"So moderately that I recognized the restraint. You assist Dr. Burns +whenever he operates?" + +"Yes--if I am free." + +"He can't have been doing much lately, then." + +She glanced at him. He was still leaning back against the apple-tree +trunk, but his eyes were open and regarding her rather closely. They were +eyes whose powers of discernment, as Burns had said, one could not hope +easily to elude. + +"He is so interested in your recovery, Dr. Leaver, that he is willing, +anxious, to spare me. There are other capable assistants, plenty of +them." + +"But none trained to his hand, as you are trained." + +In spite of herself, the quick colour rose in a wave and bathed her face +in its tell-tale glow. He smiled. + +"I see. It's worth everything to an operator to have a right-hand man--or +woman--like that. One doesn't often find a woman capable of taking the +part, but, when one is, she is like a second brain to the operator. Well, +I'll soon release you. I don't need to be coddled now, though it's very +pleasant. I shall remember these walks and talks and hours with books. If +one must be disabled, it's much to be looked after by one who seems a +friend." + +"But--Dr Leaver!--" She spoke in some alarm. "You mustn't talk of +dismissing me like this--unless you are dissatisfied with me. I know Dr. +Burns is taking great satisfaction in having me give my time to you. If +I am helping you at all--" + +"You are. But--I must help myself.... Never mind." He closed his eyes +again. "Tell me about yourself--as Dr. Burns's assistant. Do you enjoy +making things ready for him?" + +She saw that he would have it, so she answered. "Yes, I suppose I take +pride in having everything as he will want it. I know quite well what he +wants, by this time." + +"Yes. And he can depend on you. When the time comes for the start, you +have yourself well in hand? No quick pulse--short breath?" + +"Why, it would not be possible, I suppose, to be so self-controlled as +that. Even Dr. Burns is not. He has told me, more than once, that his +heart is pounding like an engine when he goes into an operation, or when +he faces an unexpected emergency, in the course of it." + +"Ah!... But it doesn't affect his work--or yours--this racing of the +engine?" + +"One forgets it, I think, when one is once at work. Dr. Leaver, look at +that squirrel! Out on the roof of the house--at the back. Do you see him +peering over at us? Inquisitive little creature!" + +"Like myself. Yes, I see his small majesty. Well, tell me, please, why +you like the work so much? You wouldn't give it up?" + +She drew a quick breath. "Oh, no!" + +"And the reason why you like it--am I too curious? Do you mind telling +me?" + +"Why, not at all. I can--hardly tell you, though, what it is that makes +me like it. Of course, I'm happy to have a hand, even though it's only an +assistant's hand, in saving life. But--the life isn't always saved. I +suppose, the real secret of it is one likes to be doing the thing one can +do best." + +"That's it!" He drew a heavy breath. "The thing one can do best. +And when that thing is the setting poor, disabled human machinery +straight--making it run smoothly again! One can hardly imagine turning +one's hand to--book-binding, making things in brass, dressing dolls, +to take up one's time, occupy one's mind, keep one's hands busy, after +having known the practice of a profession like that!" + +He got up from the bench and strode a few paces with a quick, impatient +step, such as she had never seen him take. Then, wheeling suddenly, he +came back to the bench and dropped upon it, breathing short. She had +instantly to his support a small bottle of strong salts which she always +carried, but for a moment she feared that this might not be stimulant +enough to a heart still inclined to be erratic upon small provocation. +She laid anxious fingers upon his pulse, but found it already steadying. + +"This will be over in a minute," she said quietly. "Soon, you will have +got above such bothersome minutes. I shouldn't have let you talk about a +thing which means so much to you." + +"No, I can't even talk about it," he said. "I'm as much of an infernal +hypochondriac as that. I beg your pardon--" and he set his lips. + +They sat in silence for a little. Then, suddenly a voice hailed them--a +cheerful, familiar voice. + +"'Under the spreading chestnut-tree?' Or is it an apple? May I join the +party?" + +Redfield Pepper Burns appeared, looking like a schoolboy lately released +from imprisonment. But his face sobered somewhat as his eye fell upon his +friend. It was not that John Leaver had not looked up with a smile, as +Burns approached, nor was it that he now showed physical distress of any +significant sort. A certain hard expression of the deep-set eye told the +story to one who could read signs. + +"There's a caller for you at the house, Miss Mathewson," said Burns. + +As she went away he dropped down upon the grass near Leaver. "It's at +least five degrees cooler under this tree," said he, "than in any outdoor +spot I've found yet." + +"Work must have been trying to-day." + +"Rather. But so much worse for my patients that I haven't thought much +about it for myself. At two places I had the satisfaction of personally +seeing to the moving of the invalid from a little six-by-nine inferno of +a bedroom to a big and airy sitting-room. It gave me the keenest pleasure +to see it hurt the tidy housewife, who didn't want her best room mussed +up." He chuckled. "In one case I made her take down the stuffy lace +window-curtains and open things up in great shape. She came near having +a convulsion on the spot. Curious how a certain type of mind regards any +little innovation like that. That woman would have let her unlucky +husband smother to death in that oven before it would have occurred to +her to move him out of it." + +"I rather wonder at your continuing to practise in a village like this, +with that sort of people, when you have so much city work, and could do a +large business with a city office." + +Burns stretched out an arm, thrusting his hand deep into the long grass. +"That sort--narrow-minded people--aren't all found in the country, +though--not by a long shot. I've sometimes thought I'd take an office in +town, but, when it comes to making the move, I can't bring myself to it. +You see, I happen to like it out here, and I like the village work. This +way I get both sorts. I don't know why one's ambition should be all for +city work. The people out here need me just as much as those where the +streets are paved. There's a heap more fresh air and sunshine and liberty +here than in town. And, as for being busy, there are only twenty-four +hours in the day, anywhere." + +"And you fill the most of those full. So you do. Yet, I should think +your love for surgery would lead you to take up an exclusive surgical +practice. You could make a name. You have a good-sized reputation +already, with your ability you could make it a great one." + +Burns looked at Leaver. The two men regarded each other with a sudden +fresh interest, a sudden wonder as to the operation of each other's +minds. The man on the bench, broken down by just such a life as he +recommended to his friend, looked at the man on the grass, unworn and +vigorous, and questioned whether, with all his virtues, Burns were really +possessed of the proper ambition. The man on the grass, aware of large +interests in his busy life, looked at the man on the bench, whose +interests were at present wholly concerned with recovering his health, +and wondered what insanity it was which bound his fellow mortal's brain +that he could not see things in their right values. There was a long +minute's silence. Then Burns, lying at full length upon his side in the +warm grass, his head propped upon his elbow, began, in a thoughtful tone: + +"Ever since a period early in our acquaintance my wife and I have had +a vision before us. It was one that, curiously enough, we both had +separately first, and then discovered, by accident, that it was mutual. +The time has come when we are to carry it out. My wife has bought an old +place, in the real country, three miles out on a road that turns off from +the main road to the city. She is going to fit it up for a hospital for +crippled children, curables, mostly, though her heart may lead her into +keeping a few of the other sort, if there is no other home for them to go +to. I'm to have the distinguished honour of being surgeon to the place." + +He made this final announcement in the tone in which he might have made +it if it had been that of an appointment to the greatest position the +country could have given him. + +"Well," said Leaver, after a moment, his weary eyes still studying +Burns's face, "that is a fine thing for you two to do. I can see that +such an interest might well hold a man away from an ordinary city +practice. There is no children's hospital near here, then?" + +"None at all. Children's wards, of course, but nothing like what ought to +be. Of course we can't take care of the surplus. It will be only special +cases, here and there, that we shall try to handle. But I'm meeting with +those every day--cases where the country air and the country fare are +almost as much a part of the cure as the surgical interference. My word! +but it will be a satisfaction to bundle the poor little chaps off to our +farm!" + +His eyes were very bright. He lay smiling to himself for a minute, then +he sat up. + +"In a month," said he, "we shall be ready for business. I have four +little patients waiting now for the place. On three of them I'm going to +operate at once. On the fourth--_you_ are." + +Again the two pairs of eyes met--hazel eyes confident and determined, +brown eyes startled, stabbed with sudden pain. Burns held up his hand. + +"Don't say a word," he commanded. "I'm merely making an assertion. I'm +willing to back it up by argument, if you like, though I'd rather not. +In fact, I'd much rather not. I prefer simply to make the assertion, and +let it sink in." + +But Leaver would speak. "You forget," he said, bitterly, "that I've put +all that behind me. I told you I should never operate again. I meant it." + +"Yes, you meant it," said Burns comfortably. "A man means it when he +swears he'll never do again something that has become second nature to +him to do. He'll do it--he's made that way. You will do this thing, and +do it with all your old grip and skill. But I'm not going to discuss it +with you. Some day, if you are good, I'll describe the case to you. It's +one you can handle better than I, and it's going to be up to you." + +He got to his feet, ignoring the slow shaking of Leaver's downbent head. +"By the way," he said, with a glance at the cottage, now a mere blur in +the oncoming twilight, "have you heard of the young photographer who is +to sweep down upon us and make wonderful, dream-like images of us all, +for good hard cash and fame? A friend of my wife's: a girl who looks +twenty-five, but is a bit more, I am told. A remarkably good-looking, not +to say fascinating, person with a grandmother still more fascinating--at +least to me. They are to come as soon as this rookery can be made +habitable." + +"Miss Mathewson spoke of it. It will be an interesting event to the +village, I should suppose. But I shall not be among the victims of the +lady's art. I may as well tell you, Red--I must get away next week." + +Burns wheeled upon him. "What's that you say?" + +The other proceeded with evident effort, laying his head back against the +tree-trunk again. "I am as grateful to you and Mrs. Burns as a man can +possibly be, so grateful that I can't put it into words--" + +"Don't try. Go on to something more important." + +"I have trespassed on your hospitality--" + +"Don't use hackneyed phrases like that. Say something original." + +--"as long as I can be willing to do it. I am as much improved as I can +expect to be--for a long time. I can't hang on, a useless invalid on your +hands--" + +"Cut it, old man! You're not an invalid, and you're not useless. You're +giving me one of the most interesting studies I've engaged in in a long +time. I'm liable to write a book on you, when I get sufficient data." + +Leaver smiled faintly. "Nevertheless, I can't do it, Red. You wouldn't do +it in my place. Be honest--would you?" + +"Probably not. I'd be just pig-headed fool enough to argue the case to +myself precisely as you are doing. Well, Jack, I've expected this hour. +It's a pity there isn't more faith and trust in friendship in the world. +We're all deadly afraid of trying our friends too far, so after just +about so long we strike out for ourselves. But since it is as it is, and +you're growing restless, I'll agree that you leave us, if you'll stay for +a while where you'll be under my observation. I've set my heart on making +a complete cure in this case--or, rather, you understand, assisting +Nature to do so. If you go off somewhere I shall lose track of you. +Suppose you stay in the village here for a while longer. I know a +splendid place for you, just round the corner. Quiet, pleasant home, +middle-aged widow and her young son--a lady, and a sensible, cheerful +one--she'll never bore you by talk unless you feel like it--and then the +talk will be worth while. What do you say? You know perfectly well that +you're not yet quite fit to shift for yourself. Be rational, and let me +manage things for you a while longer." + +Leaver stood up; in the dim light Burns could not see his face. But he +heard his voice--one which showed tension. + +"You don't know what you're asking, old friend. There are reasons why I +feel like getting away, entirely apart from any conditions under your +control. Yet since you ask it of me, and I owe you so much, and since--I +suppose it doesn't really make much difference where I am--I'll stay for +the present." + +"Good! I'm much obliged, Jack." + +Burns got up, also, and the two strolled away together, in the pleasant +summer dusk. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A PRACTICAL ARTIST + + +"Here I am! And the goods are here too. Isn't it a miracle? It could +never have been done if I hadn't found a kind friend among the railroad +men, who sent my things by fast freight. Now to settle in a whirlwind of +a hurry and fly back for Granny." + +These were Miss Charlotte Ruston's words of greeting as she shook hands +with the occupants of the Macauley car, which had met her at the station +on the last day of July. She looked as fresh and eager to carry out her +plans as if she were not just at the end of a journey. + +"I suppose you'll stop for luncheon first," Martha Macauley suggested. +She noted, with the approval of the suburbanite who cares much to be well +dressed, the quietly smart attire of the arriving traveller. + +"Indeed I will. Fuel first, fire afterward. But I'm fairly burning to +begin, July weather though it is. How are my hollyhocks? A splendid row? +I've dreamed of those hollyhocks!" + +"They are all there--as well as one can see them above the weeds. We +would have had the grass cut for you, but didn't venture to touch so much +as a spear, lest we destroy some picturesque effect," Ellen said, giving +her friend's hand an affectionate grasp as Charlotte took her place +beside her. + +"I do want to see to it all for myself. I've had the greatest difficulty +in waiting these four weeks, or should have had if I hadn't been so busy. +But now that I'm here I'll show you how to make a home out of four +chairs, three rugs, a table, a mirror, and an adorable copper bowl. Talk +of the simple life--you're going to see it lived just across the street, +you matrons with innumerable things to dust!" + +"We shall be delighted to watch you do it," Ellen assured her, and Martha +gave an incredulous assent. + +It was but a few hours before they saw the prophecy coming true. Miss +Ruston barely took time for luncheon, and by the time the dray containing +her modest supply of household goods was at her door she was ready for +work. A blue painter's blouse slipped over her travelling dress, her +sleeves rolled well up her shapely arms, she had plunged into the labour +of settling. She had for an assistant a woman whom Ellen had engaged for +her, and a tall youth who was the woman's son, and these two she managed +with a generalship little short of genius. + +The floors had been cleaned and stained with a simple dull-brown stain a +week before, and Miss Ruston eyed them with satisfaction, uneven though +they were. She set the lad at work oiling them, demonstrating to him with +her own hands, carefully gloved, the way to do it. Every window she flung +wide, and Mrs. Kelsey was presently scrubbing away at the dim, small +panes, trying her best to make them shine to please the young lady who +from time to time stopped as she flew by to comment on her work. + +"That's it, Mrs. Kelsey, you know how, don't you? I haven't much in the +way of hangings for them, so we must have them bright as mirrors. Hard to +get into the corners? Yes, I know. But it's somehow the corners that show +most. Try this hairpin under your cloth,"--she slipped one out from her +heavy locks--"you can get into the corners with that, I'm sure. Tom, +there's a spot as big as a plate you haven't hit. You can't see it in +that light; bend over this way a minute, and you'll find it. That's it! +It would have been a pity to leave it, wouldn't it! Don't miss any more +places, Tom. I haven't many rugs, and the floors will show a good deal." + +"I didn't know artists were ever such practical people," confessed Mrs. +Red Pepper Burns, sitting on the edge of a straight-backed old chair in +the small kitchen. The house boasted but four rooms, two below and two +above, with a small enclosure off the kitchen which had been used for a +bedroom in the benighted days when people knew no better, and which +Charlotte had promptly set aside for a dark room. + +"Practical? I'm not an artist, as you use the word, but I assure you real +artists are the most practical people in the world. Not one of them but +can make a whistle out of a pig's tail, or a queen's robe out of a sheet +and a blue scarf! What do you think of my light-housekeeping outfit?" + +She held up an aluminum skillet which she had just taken from the box she +was unpacking. "Here's everything we can need in the way of cooking +utensils, packed into a foot square, and light as a feather, the whole +thing. My purse was rather light when I had bought it, too." She made a +funny little grimace, then laughed. "But my most trying purchase was my +tin bath! You can't imagine what a hunt I had for it. But I found it at +last in an Englishman's little out-of-the-way shop, and a big tin ewer to +go with it. I'm proud of them now, and emptying the tub once a day is +going to be fine for my muscles." + +"You have splendid courage, dear, and I can see you're not afraid of hard +work. I want you to promise me this, though, Charlotte. When you are +specially tired, and there's luncheon or dinner to get, run over and let +us give you a trayful of things. Cynthia always cooks more than we eat, +and then has to contrive to use it in other ways." + +Charlotte nodded. "Thank you. Luckily, though I'm poor I'm not proud. By +the way, you haven't an unused kitchen chair, have you? To tell the truth +I forgot several things, and one of them is a chair for the kitchen. I +probably shall not sit down myself, and shall always serve our little +meals in the living-room, but I foresee that I shall have guests here in +the kitchen, and I'd like to be able to offer them a chair. That one +you're sitting in is my very best old split-bottomed, high-backed +photographer's treasure, which must go in the front room by the +fireplace." + +"When you are through explaining I will assure you that two kitchen +chairs will arrive as soon as I go home," promised Ellen. + +"Bless you! I foresee that you will make a splendid neighbour. Do you +want to climb upstairs and see the nest I'm going to feather for Granny?" + +She turned to the narrow little staircase between the walls, and gayly +led the way. But Ellen exclaimed in dismay over the steepness of the +stairs. + +"Charlotte! Do you think dear little old Madam Chase can climb these? +They are the steepest I ever saw!" + +"She won't need to. Private lift, always ready." + +"What do you mean? Surely not--" + +Charlotte extended two round, supple arms. "Why not? Granny weighs just +eighty pounds--if she is wearing plenty of clothes. In her little nightie +and lavender kimono considerably less. And I'm strong as strong." + +"But even then she's more than you ought to carry up and down this +ladder." + +Charlotte turned at the top of the stairs, and laughed back at her +friend. "Granny's a sports-woman," said she. "She will--whisper +it!--thoroughly enjoy sliding down these stairs, and, as for my carrying +her up them, haven't you yet found out that a weight you love devotedly +is just no weight at all? Now, look here! Aren't these bits of rooms +fascinating? Hot, just now, I admit--" She ran to the windows, wrenched +them open and propped them up. "Too hot in July, certainly; we'll camp +downstairs while this weather lasts. But fine and warm and sunny through +the winter. A bit of an oil-stove will make Granny as snug as a kitten, +and her maid Charlotte will see that she's never left alone with it +burning." + +"I see you're quite invincible in your determination to make the best of +everything. I can hardly believe you are the same girl I used to know, +brought up to be waited on and petted by everybody. You've developed +splendidly, and I'm proud of you." + +"Thank you, Len. No, I'm not the same girl at all. I've been having to +depend upon my own management for four years now--long enough to learn +a good many makeshifts. It's been rather a pull, but I've had Granny +through it all, and as long as she's left to me I won't complain. I used +to be an extravagant person, but you've no idea how I've learned to make +money last. Don't stay up here, it's too hot for you. But I'll get the +place in order, for it may be cooler by the time I bring Granny, so we +can sleep here." + +"I'll help. What comes first?" + +"Nothing--for you. I'll run up and down with rugs and +curtains,--really, they're about all there are to go up here, +except Granny's dressing-table. I've saved that for her, and a +little old single bed she likes. I'll have Tom bring them up." + +But Ellen insisted on helping, and when the bed was in place made it up +with the fine old linen Charlotte produced, exclaiming over its handsome +monograms, of an antique pattern much admired in these days. + +"But where is your bed, Charlotte? I want to get that ready, too," she +urged, when various small tasks were completed. + +"Oh, never mind about mine. I'll see to that later." Charlotte was +rubbing away at an old brass candlestick upon the dressing-table. + +"I didn't see another bed. Surely you can't both sleep in this?" + +"Hardly--poor Granny! No; mine is a folding cot, the nicest thing!" + +"And you've no furniture at all for your room?" + +"Don't want it. Granny will let me peep in her mirror. Don't look so +shocked, Len. We're just camping out for a year, you know, and I brought +all we needed. What's the use of being encumbered with household goods?" + +"But you have them, somewhere? Let me send for them, dear, please. If you +are to stay all winter you must be comfortable." + +"We shall be. And--I haven't any more things, if you must have it. When +the estate was sold I bought in all I could afford, but have sold some +since. You may as well know it, but I want you to understand that I don't +consider it a hardship at all to live as I intend to live this year. I +shall be making money hand over fist, presently, and by the time I have +had my city studio a year or two shall be affording Eastern rugs and +hand-carved furniture. Wait and see!" + +She stopped polishing and stood looking at her friend with the peculiar, +radiant look which was her greatest charm, her dark eyes glowing, her +lips in proud, sweet lines of resolution, her round chin held high. Then +she laughed, throwing her head higher yet, with a gay spirit; came +forward and caught Ellen Burns by the shoulders and bending kissed her. + +"I told you I wasn't proud," she said, "but I am! _Too proud to be +proud!_ I never believed in the pride which covers up, but in that which +frankly owns its poverty, and laughs at it. I laugh!" + +"You splendid girl! Where did you get it?" + +"Picked it up. But I really think I shall have the happiest year out of +this I've known yet." + +"I believe you will. And I shall delight in having you so near." + +The two descended. By the time Mrs. Kelsey's work-day was over the front +room was in order, and Charlotte, bidding good-night to her servitors, +gave them hearty praise and bade them come back early in the morning. +Ellen had gone home, bidding Charlotte follow her at convenience. + +"I must run out and pick some flowers for my copper bowl," Charlotte had +said. "Then the room will be ready to show your husband this evening. I'm +anxious to have it make a good impression on him, and I've discovered +that men always notice posies." + +So, out in the tangled garden she chose a great bunch of delphinium, in +mingled shadings from pale blues and lavenders to deepest sapphire tones, +and bringing it in exultingly filled the copper bowl and set it on the +old spindle-legged table opposite the fireplace. Woven rag rugs in dull +blues lay on the floor; one great winged chair, Granny's chair, stood by +the window. Besides this were the splint-bottomed, high-backed chair, two +Sheraton chairs, and a Chippendale mirror,--all relics of a luxurious old +home. Two small portraits in oil hung upon the wall, painted by some +master hand, portraits of Charlotte's parents. This was all the +furnishing the room contained, but somehow, in the warm light of +the late July afternoon, it looked anything but bare. + +The Chesters, the Macauleys and the Burnses, all came across the street +in the early July evening, to view the work which had been done. +Charlotte had slipped on a thin white gown and pinned a bunch of +old-fashioned crimson-and-pink "bleeding-hearts" at her waist, to do the +occasion honour. She looked, somehow, already as if she belonged with the +place. She sat upon the doorstone and hemmed small muslin curtains which +were to go in the bedrooms upstairs, and Martha, Winifred, and Ellen, +seeing this, sent for their sewing materials and helped her, while the +daylight lasted. + +Burns, looking on, hands in pockets, suddenly observed, "We fellows ought +to be doing something for her. What do you say to every man going for +a scythe and cutting the grass? No lawn mower can tackle a tangle like +this." + +Macauley groaned. "Why begin to be neighbourly at such a pace? Cutting +this grass is going to be no easy task." + +But Chester and Burns had already started across the street, and Macauley +was obliged to follow. By the time darkness fell the front yard had been +cropped into at least a semblance of tidiness, and Charlotte was offering +her thanks to three warm gentlemen, and regretting that she had not been +keeping house long enough to have any refreshment to offer them. + +"Come over when we are settled, and Granny and I will have some sparkling +Southern beverages for you," she promised. + +"You are coming over to sleep, child," Ellen said, as the time for +departure arrived, and Charlotte showed signs of closing up her small +domain. + +"Not at all. I mean to have the fun of spending my first night in my new +home," Miss Ruston declared, and held to her decision, in spite of the +arguments and entreaties of the women and the assertions of the men that +she would be afraid. + +"Well, then, beat on a dishpan if anything disturbs you, and we'll rush +across in a body and rescue you," promised Macauley. + +Left alone, Charlotte went inside, lighted a genial looking lamp, and sat +down alone in her little living-room. Chin in her palms, she leaned her +elbows upon the spindle-legged table, looking up at the portrait of her +mother, its fine colourings glowing in the mellow light from the lamp. +She sat for a long time in this posture, her eyes losing their sparkle +and growing dreamy, and--at last--a trifle misty. When this stage +occurred she suddenly jumped up, carried the lamp into the kitchen, +searched until she found a candle and lighted it, then, extinguishing +the lamp, she went slowly upstairs to the cot bed. + +By the following evening her preparations were so far complete that she +could take the evening train for Baltimore, announcing that the two +future occupants of the little house would return within forty-eight +hours. During her absence the three women who were her friends put their +heads together, ordered extra baking and brewing done in their own +kitchens, and ended by stocking her small shelves with a great array +of good things. + +Before the forty-eight hours had quite gone by Miss Ruston was leading a +tiny figure, with shoulders held almost as straight as her own, in at the +hedge gate. It was twilight of the August evening. The cottage door was +open and the rays from the lamp lately lighted by her neighbours streamed +down the path. + +Charlotte stooped--she had to stoop a long way--and put her lips close to +the small ear under the white hair which lay softly over it. "Doesn't it +look like home, Granny?" she said, in a peculiar, clear tone, a little +raised. + +"What say, dear?" responded a low and quite toneless voice--the voice of +the very deaf. + +"Home, Granny?" repeated the younger voice. The strong arm of the taller +figure came about the little shoulders in the small gray travelling coat. + +"Warm? Not so warm as it was on the train. I shall be quite comfortable +once I am sitting quietly in my chair." + +Doctor and Mrs. Burns, following the travellers with certain pieces of +hand luggage, looked at one another. + +"Bless her small heart, is she as deaf as that?" queried Red Pepper, in a +whisper. "I shall have difficulty in getting my adoration over to her!" + +"She has grown much deafer since I knew her, several years ago," Ellen +explained. "But as her eyes seem bright as ever I imagine you will have +no difficulty in making her understand your adoration. She is used to +it." + +"I should think she might be. She is the prettiest old lady I ever saw, +and looks one of the keenest. We shall understand each other, if we have +to write on slates." + +Charlotte led Madam Chase--Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase was the name +on the visiting cards she still used with scrupulous care for the +observances of etiquette--in at the cottage door and placed her in the +winged chair. She untied and removed a microscopic bonnet, drew off the +gray coat, and laid an inquiring finger on her charge's wrist. + +"Let me attend to that," begged R.P. Burns, looming in the small doorway. +"I'll find out how tired she is. I doubt if she would admit it by word +of mouth." + +He went down on one knee beside the chair, a procedure which brought his +smiling face beside the old lady's questioning one. His fingers clasped +her wrist, and held it after he had found out what it told him. + +"Tired?" he said, very distinctly, his lips forming the word for her to +see. + +Madam Chase shook her head decidedly. "Not at all, Doctor. But the train +was very warm and very dusty. I shall be glad to feel a cool linen pillow +under my head instead of a hot cotton one." + +He nodded. "Could you eat a bit, and drink a cup of tea?" + +"What say, Doctor? Tea? Yes, I should be glad of tea. I never like the +decoction they serve upon trains and call tea." + +"I'll have it for her in a minute," and Ellen went out into the kitchen. + +Burns looked up at Miss Ruston. "As soon as she has had her tea she must +go to bed. She has stood the journey well, but she needs a long rest +after it." Then he looked again at Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase. "I can +see you are a very plucky small person," said he, and her nod and smile +in answer showed that at least she caught the indications of a +compliment. + +Presently, when she had had her tea, had patted Ellen's hand for bringing +it, and had looked about her a little with observant eyes which showed +pleasure when they rested on certain familiar objects, she laid her white +curls back against the chair and looked up at her granddaughter like a +child who asks to be put to sleep. + +Burns advanced again. "May I have the honour?" he asked, stooping over +the tiny figure with outstretched arms. + +"You'll find me pretty heavy, Doctor," said she, but she put up her +arms and clasped his neck as he lifted her, quite as if it were a matter +of course with her to have stalwart men offer their services on all +occasions. Burns strode up the steep and narrow staircase with her as if +she had been a child, Charlotte preceding him with a pair of candles. In +her own room he laid the little old lady on her bed, then stooped once +more. + +"May I have a reward for that?" he asked, and without waiting for +permission kissed the delicate cheek, as soft and smooth as velvet +beneath his lips. + +"You are a very good young man," said the old lady. "I think I shall have +to adopt you as a grandson." + +Burns laid his hand on his heart and made her a deeply respectful bow, at +which she laughed and waved him away. + +"Adorable," said he to Charlotte, on his way down, "is not a word which +men use over every small object, as you women do, therefore it should +have the more force when they do make use of it. No other word fits +little Madam Chase so well. Consider me yours to command in her service, +at any hour of day or night." + +"Thank you," Charlotte called softly after him. "I assure you she will +command you herself, and delight in doing it. She never fails to +recognize homage when she receives it, or to demand it when she does +not. But she will give you quite as much as she takes from you." + +"I'm confident of it," and Burns descended to his wife. "You have a +rival," he told her solemnly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A RUNAWAY ROAD + + +Camera hung by a strap over her shoulder, small tripod tucked under her +arm, Charlotte Chase Ruston, photographer, turned aside from the country +road along which she was walking, to follow a winding lane leading into a +deep wood. The luring entrance to this lane had been beyond her power to +resist, although the sun had climbed nearly to the zenith, warning her +that it was time to turn her steps toward home. In her search for +picturesque bits of landscape to turn to account in her work, her +enthusiasm was likely at any time to lead her far afield. + +Just as the lane promised to debouch into an open meadow and release its +victim from any special sense of curiosity, it suddenly swerved to one +side, forced its way under a pair of bars, and ran curving away into deep +shadows, fringed with ferns, and overhung with the dense foliage of oak +and walnut. A distant glimpse of brilliant scarlet flowers, standing like +sentinels in uniform against the dark green of the undergrowth, beckoned +like a hand. With a laugh Charlotte set her foot upon the bottom rail. +"I'm coming," she called blithely to the scarlet flowers. "You needn't +shout so loud at me." + +Hurrying, because of the hour, she pulled her blue linen skirts over the +fence, and dropped lightly upon the other side. She ran along the lane to +the flowers, stopped to admire, but refused to pick them, telling them +they were better where they were, and would droop before she could get +them home. Then she went swiftly on around a bend in the cart-path, +catching the faint sound of falling water, and impelled to seek its +source, just as is every one at hearing that suggestive sound. And, of +course, the water was farther away than it sounded. + +A trifle short of breath, from her haste, she ran it down at last, and +came upon it--a series of small waterfalls down which a small stream +tumbled recklessly along a vagrant watercourse, seeming to care little +when it reached its destination, so that it contrived to have plenty of +fun and exercise by the way. And on the bank, stretched recumbent, hands +clasped under head, lay a long figure in gray flannels, a straw hat and a +book at its side. + +Charlotte stopped short. The figure turned its head, sat up, and got +rather quickly to its feet, pushing back a heavy, dark lock of hair which +had fallen across a tanned forehead. Dr. John Leaver came forward. + +"I'm so sorry I disturbed you," said Charlotte Ruston, finding words at +last, after having been surprised out of speech by the sudden apparition, +"I hope I didn't wake you from a nap." + +"You haven't disturbed me, and I was not asleep. I'm only waiting for Dr. +Burns, who may come now at any minute. This is a pleasant place to meet +in, isn't it?" + +Their hands met, each looked with swift, straight scrutiny into the face +of the other, and then hands and eyes parted abruptly. When they regarded +each other after that, it was as two casual acquaintances may exchange +glances, in the course of conversation, when other things are of more +interest than the personal relation. + +"Indeed it is pleasant--charming! The path lured me on and on, I couldn't +stop. I ought to be at home this minute. Did you walk so far? Mrs. Burns +told me you were here, and that you had been ill. I was very sorry, and +I'm now so glad to see you looking so well." + +"Thank you. I am much myself again, but not yet quite equal to a walk of +this distance. Dr. Burns and his car are just a few rods away, on the +other side of this bit of woods. He has a patient in a little shack over +there, and brought me along to see this spot. It was worth coming for." + +"You must enjoy Dr. Burns very much." + +"We are old friends, and being together again after a nine-years' +separation, is a thing to make the most of." + +"I should think so. He seems so alive, so full of interest in every +living thing. He must be a fine comrade." + +"The finest in the world. To me there is nobody like him, and most people +who know him, I've noticed, feel in the same way. He has a beautiful +wife. She is a friend of yours, she tells me." + +"Also an old friend, and almost the dearest I have. I'm very happy to be +near her. Dr. Leaver, will you tell me what time it is, please? I have a +dreadful suspicion that I shall be very late." + +As he drew out his watch a voice was heard from the other side of a clump +of undergrowth, calling crisply: + +"All right, Jack, we're off. One more call before luncheon, and it's +blamed late, so get busy." + +"In a minute," Leaver called back, smiling, as he showed Charlotte his +watch's dial. + +Red Pepper Burns looked over the bushes, discerning in his friend's tone +an intention of delay, and inclined to be still more peremptory with him +about it. Discovering now what looked like an interesting situation, he +came forward, bareheaded, his frown of impatience turning to a smile of +greeting. + +"What luck, to find a dryad in the woods!" he cried. "Did this gentleman +invade your domain?" + +"Not at all. I invaded his most unexpectedly. I was following a lane, +intending to turn back at any moment, when it ran away under a fence and +treacherously led me into trouble." + +"Call it trouble, do you, meeting your friends in the woods? That's +always the way! Call a woman luck, and she calls you trouble! Let me tell +you, Miss Charlotte, it's luck for you, meeting us, for we can give you a +lift of a mile down the road. We have to turn off there, but you'll be +less late for a luncheon that's probably already cold than you would be +after walking the whole distance. You won't refuse? You mustn't, for I +expect it's my only chance to get John Stone Leaver of Baltimore started. +Otherwise he'll stand here till mid-afternoon, showing you his watch and +pointing out to you the beauties of this noisy brook." + +"Thank you, Dr. Burns, but you can't very well take me in a car built for +two." + +"Can't I? The car has frequently carried half a dozen, judiciously +distributed over the running-boards, to the imminent peril of the tires +and springs. We'll put Dr. Leaver on the running-board. It will hurt +neither his clothes nor his dignity, and if it does he can get off and +walk." + +He led the way. If she could have done so Charlotte would gladly have +turned and run away. But there are people from whom one cannot easily +run away, and Red Pepper Burns was one of them. With all his powers of +discernment, he had no possible notion that the two who followed him were +not eager to accept this arrangement. They looked well together, too, he +had observed as he neared them--exceedingly well. He was sure he was +doing them a favour in keeping them together as long as possible. + +In point of actual distance he certainly succeeded literally in +keeping them extremely near together, during the few minutes it took to +get out of a winding wood-road to the main highway, and to drive at a +stimulating pace a mile down that road. When Leaver took his place upon +the running-board he was unavoidably close to Charlotte's knee, and his +head was within reach of her hand. His hand, grasping the only available +hold with which to keep himself in place, as Burns let the car go at high +speed, was close under her eyes. + +Keeping his eyes upon the road, Burns, in a gay mood now, kept up a +running fire of talk, to which Charlotte, as became necessary, responded. +Leaver, straw hat in hand, also stared straight ahead, and Charlotte, +unobserved by either companion, looked at the head below her, its heavy, +dark-brown hair ruffled by the wind of their progress, noted--not for the +first time--the fine line of the partial profile, the shoulder in its +gray flannel, the well-knit hand, tanned, like its owner's face, with +much exposure. And, as she made these furtive observations, something +within her breast, which she had thought well under control, became +suddenly unmanageable. + +"I'm sorry to desert you here, so ungallantly," Burns declared, bringing +the car to a standstill at a cross-road. "If my friend here were quite +fit I'd put him down, too, and give him the pleasure of walking in with +you. In a week or two more I'll turn him loose. Looks pretty healthy, +doesn't he?" + +"I'm entirely able to walk in with Miss Ruston now," said Leaver, +standing, hat in hand, in the road, as Charlotte adjusted her belongings +and prepared to walk rapidly away. + +"That's my affair, for a bit longer," and Burns put out a peremptory +hand. "Be good and jump in. The lady will excuse you, and I won't, so +there you are. Forgive me, Miss Ruston, and don't bring on heart failure +by walking too fast in this August sun." + +"I won't. Good-bye, and thank you both," and Charlotte set briskly off +toward home, while the car swept round the turn and disappeared into +a hollow of the road. + +"That's what I call a particularly worth-while girl," commented Burns, as +the Imp carried them away. "Beauty, and sense, and spirit, not to mention +originality and a few other attributes. You don't often get them all +combined. Good old family, according to my wife, but all gone now, and +this girl left to make her way on her own resources. But perhaps you know +all this already, since you've met her before?" + +"I know the main facts?--yes," Leaver responded. His lips had taken on a +curiously tight set, since the car had left the corner. His eyes, under +their strongly marked brows, narrowed a little, as he looked out across a +field of corn yellowing in the sunlight. "She has visited more or less in +Baltimore, where she has been very much admired." + +"Why 'has been'?" queried Burns. "She doesn't look like a 'has-been' to +me. More like very much of a 'now-and-here'--eh?" + +"I mean only that since she has been thrown upon her own resources she +has applied herself closely to the study of photography, and has been +little seen in society." + +"I imagine when she was seen she kept a few fellows guessing. She looks +to me as if she might have refused her full share of men." + +"I have no doubt of it." + +That which Burns would have enjoyed saying next he refrained from. But to +himself he made the observation: "By the signs I haven't much doubt you +were one of them, old man." Aloud he questioned innocently: + +"You know her rather well?" + +"Quite well." + +"Your manner says 'Drop it,'" observed Burns, with a keen glance at a +side-face clean-cut against the landscape. "I've encountered that manner +before, and I'll take warning accordingly. This is a fine day, and it's +rather an interesting case I'm going to see, up this road. If you care to +come in I'll be glad of your opinion, but I won't insist on it." + +"Unless you really wish it, I'll stay out, thank you." + +Burns left his companion in the car, open book in hand. It was a book Red +Pepper had strongly recommended, with the motive of stirring up his +friend to interested resentment,--a particularly unfair and prejudiced +discussion of a subject just then being torn to pieces by all manner of +disputants, with the issue still very much in doubt. He knew precisely +the place Leaver had reached in his reading, and noted, as he got out of +the car, the page at which he was about to begin. The page was one easily +recognizable, for it was one upon whose margin he himself had drawn, in a +moment of intense irritation with the argument advanced thereon, a rough +outline of a donkey's head with impossibly long and obstinate ears. + +He left Leaver with eyes bent upon the page, not the semblance of a smile +touching his grave mouth at sight of the really striking and effective +cartoon which so ably expressed a former reader's sentiments. Burns went +into the house making with himself a wager as to how far Leaver's perusal +of the chapter would have progressed in the ten minutes which would +suffice for the visit, and was divided whether to stake a page against a +half-chapter, or to risk his friend's being aware of his observation and +leaping through the chapter to its end. + +When he came out the book was closed and lying upon Leaver's knee. Burns +took his place and drove off, malice sparkling in his eye. + +"What did you think of that chapter?" he inquired. + +"Interesting argument, but weak in spots." + +"Hm--m. Which spots?" + +Leaver indicated them. There could be no doubt that he had read +the chapter carefully to the end. Burns put him through a severe +cross-examination, but he stood the test, much to his examiner's disgust. +In detective work it is usually irritating to have one's theories +disproved. But he still doubted the evidence of his ears. Either John +Leaver was a colder blooded deceiver than he thought him, or his powers +of concentration were more than ordinarily great, that he could turn from +the contemplation of a subject like the one left at the cross-roads +corner, a subject which Burns was pretty sure vitally concerned him, to +a mere abstract discussion of a modern sociological problem, bare of +practical illustration, and dealing purely with one man's notions not yet +worked out to any constructive conclusion. + +"Well," said Leaver, turning suddenly to look at Burns with a smile, "are +you satisfied that I have read the chapter?" + +Burns also turned, met his companion's eye, and broke into a laugh. "I +shall have to admit you have," said he. + +"Why should you have doubted it?" + +"I haven't been gone long enough for you to have read and digested it." + +Leaver looked at his watch. "You were gone seventeen minutes. That's +long enough to take in the argument pretty thoroughly. As to digesting +it--it's indigestible. Why try?" + +"No use at all. But having given my mental machinery a lot of friction I +enjoyed trying to stir yours up also to irritation and discontent. But +I haven't done it. You've remained calm where I grew hot. Also you've +proved your ability to change the subject of your thinking as you would +switch off one electric current and switch on another. It shows you're a +well man." + +"I must warn you, as I have done at various times in our association: +'Don't jump to conclusions.' Your first one, that I hadn't read the +chapter, was wrong. I had read it. Your second one, that, after all, I +had read the chapter while you were in the house, was also wrong. I had +read it by the side of the brook, an hour ago." + +Burns's laughter spoke his enjoyment as heartily as if he were not the +one cornered. But his amusement ended in triumph, after all, though to +this he discreetly did not give voice. Since he had met Miss Charlotte +Ruston in the woods Dr. John Leaver had not given himself to the study of +any other man's ideas. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AFTER DINNER + + +"Charlotte Chase Ruston, I want you to come over to a little dinner +to-night. Just a few people, and as informal as dinners on hot August +evenings should be. Afterward we'll spend the time on the porch." + +"Thank you, Len. Whom are you going to have? I want to prepare my mind +for what is likely to happen." + +Mrs. Burns mentioned her guests. "I've arranged them with special +reference to Dr. Leaver," she explained. "I think it will do him good, +just now, to have to exert himself a little bit. He seems well enough, +but absolutely uninterested in things or people,--except the children. He +spends hours with them. I'm going to put you next him, if I may." + +"Please don't. I particularly want the chance to talk with Mr. Arthur +Chester about something I've found he can tell me. We never can get time +for it, and this will be just the chance. Give Miss Mathewson to Dr. +Leaver, and put some pretty girl on his other side." + +"I will, if you prefer, of course," Ellen agreed promptly. She had +observed that, although she had taken pains to have them meet, Dr. Leaver +and Miss Ruston seemed to be in the habit of quietly avoiding each other. +But she was not the woman to ask her friend's confidence, since it was +not voluntarily given. She could only wonder why two people from the same +world, apparently so well suited to each other, should be so averse to +spending even a few moments together. + +An hour later Charlotte, having dispatched considerable business, +bundling it out of the way as if it had suddenly become of no account, +was delving in a trunk for a frock. + +"It's the one and only possible thing I have that will do for one of +Len's 'little dinners,'" she was saying to herself. "I know just how +she'll be looking, and I must live up to her. I wonder if I can mend it +to be fit--I wonder." + +She carried it downstairs. Madam Chase, sitting by the window with her +knitting, looked up. + +"Mending lace, dearie?" she asked. "Can't I do it for you?" + +"I'm afraid it's beyond even you, Granny," she said, ruefully. To the +deaf ears her gesture told more than her words. + +"Let me see," commanded the old lady. When the gauzy gown was spread +before her she examined it carefully. + +"If it need not be washed--" she began. + +"It must be. Look at the bottom." Charlotte's expressive hands +demonstrated as she talked. "I've danced in it and sat out dances in all +sorts of places in it. But I can wash it, if you can mend it. I'll wash +it with the tips of my fingers." + +"I will try," said her grandmother. + +That afternoon Charlotte carefully laundered the mended gown, dried it in +the sun and ironed it, partly with her fingers, partly with a tiny iron. +Finished, it was a work of art, a frock of rare lace of exquisite design, +several times made over, and now, in its last stage, prettier than in its +first. + +"If it will hold together," Charlotte said laughing, as she put it on, +and, kneeling before Granny, waited while the delicate old fingers slowly +fastened each eyelet. When she rose she was a figure at which the old +lady who loved her looked with pleased eyes. + +"You are beautiful, dearie," she said. "And nobody will guess that your +dress is mended." + +"Not a bit, thanks to your clever fingers. Now I'll go find some flowers +to wear, and then I'm off. I'll come back to put you to bed, and you'll +send Bob over if you want the least thing, won't you, even the least?" + +Charlotte went out into her garden, holding her skirts carefully away +from possible touch of bush or briar. Late August flowers were many, but +among them were none that pleased her. She came away therefore without a +touch of colour upon her white attire, yet seeming to need none, the +bloom upon her cheek was so clear, the dusk of her hair so rich. + +"Isn't she fascinating?" said Winifred Chester in the ear of John Leaver, +as Charlotte came in. "I never saw a girl who seemed so radiantly well +and happy, with so little to make her so. I think she and Madam Chase +must be very poor, all the nice things they have seem so old, and the new +things so very simple. Ellen says the family was a very fine one." + +"Very fine," he agreed. His eyes were upon Charlotte as she greeted her +hosts. He answered Winifred's further comments absently. He bowed gravely +in response to Charlotte's recognition of him, then turned and talked +with the pretty girl whom Ellen had asked him to take in to dinner. + +At the table Miss Ruston and Dr. Leaver found themselves nearly opposite. +Leaver talked conscientiously with his companion, then devoted himself to +Winifred Chester, upon his other side. Returning to do his duty by Miss +Everett, he found her eager to discuss those opposite. + +"They say Miss Ruston does the most wonderful photographs," she observed. +"One would know she was devoted to some art, wouldn't one? The way that +frock is cut about her shoulders--only an artist would venture to wear it +like that, without a single touch of colour. Every other woman I know +would have put on a string of gold beads or pearls or at least a pendant +of some sort." + +For a moment Leaver forgot to answer. He had not looked at Charlotte +since he had first taken his seat. Now, with Miss Everett calling +his attention to her, and everybody else, including the subject of +their interest, absorbed in their own affairs, he let his eyes rest +lingeringly upon her. He had had only brief glimpses of her since she +had come to town, and had seen her at such times always in the summer +street-or-garden attire which she constantly wore. Now he saw her under +conditions which vividly brought back to him other scenes. The white lace +gown she wore, with its peculiar cut, like the spreading of flower petals +about the beautifully modeled shoulders--it struck him as familiar. Had +she worn any jewels upon that white neck when he had seen her? He thought +not. He had never known her to wear ornament of any sort, he was sure. +She needed none, he was equally sure of that. As she sat, with her head +turned toward Arthur Chester, who was expounding with great elaboration +something which called for maps upon the tablecloth drawn with a rapidly +moving finger, she was showing to the observers across the table a face +and head in profile, an outline which had been burned into the memory of +the man who now regarded it and forgot to make answer. + +Miss Everett glanced at him curiously. Then she murmured: "Don't you +think the leaving off of all ornaments is sometimes just as much a +coquetry as the wearing of them would be? It certainly challenges notice +even more, doesn't it?" + +"It depends on whether one happens to possess them, I should say," Leaver +returned. + +"About their drawing attention, or their absence drawing it? I suppose +so. But when you don't know which it is, but judge by the richness of the +gown that the wearer can afford them--" + +"I'm no judge of the richness of a gown." + +"I am, then. That is the most wonderful lace--anybody can see--at least +any woman." + +"Tell me, Miss Everett,"--Leaver made a determined effort to get away +from the personal aspect of the subject,--"why does a woman love jewels? +For their own sake, or because of their power to adorn her--if they do +adorn her?" + +The young woman plunged animatedly into a discussion of the topic as he +presented it. She was wearing certain striking ornaments of pearl and +turquoise, which undoubtedly became her fair colouring whether they +enhanced her beauty or not. It was while this discussion was in progress, +Leaver forcing himself to attend sufficiently to make intelligent +replies, that Charlotte Ruston suddenly turned and looked at him. He +looked straight back at her, a peculiar intentness growing in his +deep-set eyes. + +He did not withdraw his gaze until she had turned away again, and the +encounter had been but for the briefest space, yet when it was over John +Leaver's colour had changed a little. For the moment it was as if nobody +else had been in the room--he was only dully conscious that upon his +other side Winifred Chester was addressing him, and that he must make +reply. + +When the company which had spent the sultry August evening upon the porch +in the semi-darkness was near to breaking up, Leaver came to Charlotte +and took his place beside her. When she left the house he was with her, +and the two crossed the street and went in at the hedge gate together. + +"May I stay a very little while?" he asked. And when she assented he +added, "Shall we find the bench in your garden?" + +"Do you know that bench?" she questioned, surprised. + +"I spent many hours upon it before you came, and during the days when I +was not getting about much. I listened to the reading of two books, +lounging there. So it seems like a familiar spot to me." + +"It is my favourite resting place. I am sorry you were driven away by my +coming. You and Miss Mathewson would have been very welcome there, all +the rest of the summer, if I had known." + +"Thank you. But I have passed the invalid stage and am not being treated +as a patient. I read for myself, at present, and tramp the country, +instead of sitting on benches, anywhere. It's a great improvement." + +"I am very glad." + +Charlotte let him lead the way to the retreat under the apple-tree, and +he proved his knowledge of it by stopping now and then to hold aside +hindering branches of shrubbery, and to lift for her a certain heavily +leafed bough which drooped across the path, but which would hardly have +been discerned in the summer starlight by one not familiar with its +position. + +"It would be a pity to tear that gown," he remarked, as the last barrier +was passed. "It occurred to me, as I looked at you to-night, that it was +one I had seen you wear in Baltimore, last winter. Am I right?" + +"Last winter, and the winter before, and even the winter before that, if +you had known me so long," she answered, with a gay little laugh. "I am +so fond of it I shall not discard it until it can no longer be mended." + +"You are wise. I believe it is hardly the attitude of the modern woman +toward dress of any sort, but it might well be. We never tire of Nature, +though she wears the same costume season after season." + +"Her frocks don't fray at the edges--or when they do she turns them such +gorgeous colours that we don't notice they are getting worn." + +"Aren't there some rough edges on this bench? Please take this end; I +think I recall that it is smoother than the other." + +"Thank you. One good tear, and even Granny's needle couldn't make me +whole again." + +He bent over to pick up a scarf of silver gauze which had slipped from +her shoulders. He laid it about them, and as he did so she shivered +suddenly, though the air was warm, without a hint of dampness. But she +covered the involuntary movement with a shrug, saying lightly, "A man I +know says he thoroughly believes a woman is colder rather than warmer in +a scarf like this, on the theory that anything with so many holes in it +must create an infinite number of small draughts." + +"He may be right. But I confess, as a physician, I like to cover up +exposed surfaces from the open night air--to a certain extent--even with +an excuse for a protection like this." + +He sat down beside her. The bench was not a long one, and he was nearer +to her than he had yet been to-night. She sat quietly, one hand lying +motionless in her lap. The other hand, down at her side, laid hold of the +edge of the bench and gripped it rather tightly. She began to talk about +the old garden, as it lay before them, its straggling paths and beds of +flowers mere patches of shadow, dark and light. He answered, now and +then, in an absent sort of way, as if his mind were upon something else, +and he only partly heard. She spoke of "Sunny Farm"--the children's +hospital in the country--of Burns and Ellen and Bob--and then, suddenly, +with a sense of the uselessness of trying all by herself to make small +talk under conditions of growing constraint, she fell silent. He let the +silence endure for a little space, then broke it bluntly. + +"I'm glad," he said, in the deep, quiet voice she remembered well, "that +you will give me a chance. What is the use of pretending that I have +brought you here to talk of other people? I have something to say to you, +and you know it. I can't lead up to it by any art, for it has become +merely a fact which it is your right to know. You should have known it +long ago." + +He stopped for a minute. She was absolutely still beside him, except for +the hand that gripped the edge of the bench. That took a fresh hold. + +When he spoke again, his voice, though still quiet, showed tension. + +"Before I saw you the last time, last spring, I meant to ask you to marry +me. When I did see you, something had happened to make that impossible. +It had not only made it impossible, but it made me unable even to +explain. I shall never forget that strange hour I spent with you. You +knew that something was the matter. But I couldn't tell you. I thought +then I never could. Seeing you, as I have to-night, I realized that I +couldn't wait another hour to tell you. But, even now, I don't feel that +I can explain. There's only one thing I am sure of--that I must say this +much: All my seeking of you, last winter, meant the full intent and +purpose to win you, if I could. And--you can never know what it meant to +me to give it up." + +The last words were almost below his breath, but she heard them, heard +the uncontrollable, passionate ache of them. Plainer than the words +themselves this quality in them spoke for him. + +For a moment there was silence between them again. Then he went on: "I +can't ask--I don't ask--a word from you in answer. Neither can I let +myself say more than I am saying. It wouldn't be fair to you, however you +might feel. And I want you to believe this--that not to say more takes +every bit of manhood I have." + +Silence again. Then, from the woman beside him, in the clearest, low +voice, with an inflection of deep sweetness: + +"Thank you, Dr. Leaver." + +Suddenly he turned upon the bench--he had been staring straight before +him. He bent close, looked into her shadowy face for a moment, then +found her hand, where it lay in her lap, lifted it in both his own, and +pressed it, for a long, tense moment, against his lips. She felt the +contact burn against the cool flesh, and it made intelligible all that he +would not allow himself to say, in terms which no woman could mistake. + +Then he sprang up from the bench. + +"Will you walk as far as the house with me?" he asked, gently. "Or shall +I leave you here? It is late: I don't quite like to leave you here +alone." + +"I will go with you," she answered, and, rising, drew her skirts about +her. He stood beside her for a moment, looking down at her white figure, +outlined against the darkness behind them. She heard him take one deep, +slow inspiration, like a swimmer who fills his lungs before plunging into +the water; she heard the quick release of the breath, followed by his +voice, saying, with an effort at naturalness: + +"If I had such a place as this, where I'm staying, I should be tempted to +bring out a blanket and sleep in it to-night." + +"One might do worse," she answered. "These branches have been so long +untrimmed that it takes a heavy shower to dampen the ground beneath." + +They made their way back along the straggling paths, and came to the +cottage, from whose windows streamed the lamplight that waited for +Charlotte. As it fell upon her Leaver looked at her, and stood still. +Pausing, she glanced up at him, and away again. She knew that he was +silently regarding her. Quite without seeing she knew how his face +looked, the fine face with the eyes which seemed to see so much, the firm +yet sensitive mouth, the whole virile personality held in a powerful +restraint. + +Then he opened the door for her, and she passed him. She looked back at +him from the threshold. + +"Good-night," she said, and smiled. + +"Good-night," he answered, and gave back the smile. Then he went quickly +down the path and away. + +Ten minutes afterward she put out the light in the front room, and stole +out of the door, leaving it open behind her. Still in the white gown of +the evening, but with a long, dark cloak flung over it, she went swiftly +back over the paths to the garden bench. Arrived there she sat down upon +it, where she had sat before, but not as she had been. Instead, she +turned and laid her arm along the low back of the bench, and her head +upon it, and remained motionless in that position for a long time. Her +eyes were wide, in the darkness, and her lips were pressed tight +together, and once, just once, a smothered, struggling breath escaped +her. But, finally, she sat up, threw up her head, lifted both arms above +it, the hands clenched tight. + +"Charlotte Ruston," she whispered fiercely, "you have to be strong--and +strong--and stronger yet! You have to be! _You have to be!_" + +Then she rose quickly to her feet, with a motion not unlike that with +which John Leaver had sprung to his an hour before. It was a movement +which meant that emotion must yield to action. She went swiftly back to +the house, in at the door, up the straight, high stairs to her room. + +As she lighted her candle a voice spoke from Madam Chase's room, its door +open into her own. + +"Charlotte?" + +"Yes, Granny?" + +The girl went in, taking the candle, which she set upon the +dressing-table. She bent over the bed, putting her lips close to +the old lady's ear. + +"Can't you sleep, dear?" she asked. + +"Not until you are in, child. Why are you so late?" + +"It's not late, Granny. You know I went to Dr. Burns's to dinner." + +"It's very late," repeated the delicate old voice, slightly querulous, +because of its owner's failure to hear the explanation. "Much too late +for a girl like you. You should have had your beauty sleep long ago." + +Charlotte smiled, feeling as if her twenty-six years had added another +ten to themselves since morning. She patted the soft cheek on the pillow, +and tenderly adjusted the gossamer nightcap which, after the fashion of +its wearer's youth, kept the white locks snugly in order during the +sleeping hours. + +"I'm here now, Granny. Please go to sleep right away. Or--would you like +a glass of milk first?" + +"What say?" + +"Milk, dear,--hot milk?" + +"Yes, yes, it will put me to sleep. Quite hot, not lukewarm." + +Charlotte went down the steep stairs again, heated the milk, and brought +it back. When it had been taken she kissed the small face, drew the linen +sheet smooth again, and went away with the candle. In her own room she +presently lay down upon her cot, rejoicing that the old lady could not +hear its creaking. + +Toward morning she fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A CHALLENGE + + +"Miss Ruston!" + +"Yes?" The answer came through the door of the dark-room. "I can't come +out for four minutes. Can you give me the message through a closed door?" + +"Certainly," responded Amy Mathewson, standing outside. She was dressed +for motor travel and her eyes were full of anticipation. "Mr. Macauley +is taking some of us out to meet Dr. Burns at Sunny Farm. The Doctor has +telephoned from there that he would be very glad if you could come with +us, bring your camera, and take some photographs of a patient for him." + +"Delighted--if I can arrange for Granny," Charlotte called back. + +"Mrs. Burns's Cynthia will stay with her." + +"How soon must we start?" + +"As soon as you can be ready." + +"Give me ten minutes, and I'll be there." + +The big brown car was waiting outside the hedge gate when, nearly as good +as her word, Charlotte ran down the path. She had pulled a long linen +coat over her blue morning dress, and a veil floated over her arm. + +"Dear me, you all look so correct in your bonnets and caps! Must I tie up +my head, or may I leave off the veil until my hair gets to looking wild?" + +"It never looked wild yet that I can recall, so jump in and go as you +please. It's too hot for caps, and I'll keep you company," responded +Macauley, from the front seat. His wife, Martha, sat beside him, swathed +in brown from head to foot. Martha had acquired a motoring costume which +she considered matched the car and was particularly smart besides, and +she seldom left off any detail, no matter how warm the day. Martha looked +around as Charlotte took her place beside Miss Mathewson on the broad +rear seat. The two swinging seats which equipped the car to carry seven +passengers were occupied by Bobby Burns and young Tom Macauley. + +"People who have hair like Miss Ruston can go bareheaded where the rest +of us have to tie ourselves together to keep from blowing away," observed +Martha. + +Her husband laughed. "I never heard you own quite so frankly before that +parts of you were detachable," said he. + +"They're not!" cried Martha, indignantly. "But Miss Ruston's hair is that +crisp, half curly sort that stays just where you put it, and mine is so +straight and fine that it gets stringy. It makes all the difference in +the world." + +The car moved off. After a minute it turned a corner and came to a +standstill before a house. Macauley sounded a penetrating horn, and after +a minute the door opened and John Leaver came out. + +"Come on, Doctor," called Macauley. "R.P. has been telephoning in, in the +usual fever of haste, to have us get out there. It seems the place is in +order and two patients have arrived. He wants a doctor, nurse, and +photographer on the job at once. Find a place on the back seat, there?" + +Leaver came quickly down the walk. He looked like a well man now, whether +he felt like a well one or not. He had gained in weight, his face had +lost its worn look, his eyes were no longer encompassed by shadows. The +sun was in his eyes as he opened the rear door and prepared to take the +one seat left in the car, that beside Charlotte Ruston, who had moved to +one side as she saw what was about to happen. Her shoulder pressed close +against that of Miss Mathewson, she left so large a space for the +newcomer. + +After the first exchange of small talk, it was a silent drive. Macauley +was making haste to obey the summons he had received, and the rush of air +past those in the car with him was not conducive to frequent speech. Soon +after they were off Charlotte drew her big white veil over her head and +face, and was lost to view beneath its protecting expanse. One of the +veil's fluttering ends persisted in blowing across Leaver's breast, quite +unnoticed by its owner, whose head did not often turn that way. The man +did not put it aside, but after a time he took hold of it and kept it in +his hand, secure from the domineering breeze. + +"Here we are! Behold Sunny Farm, the dream of Doctor and Mrs. Red Pepper, +given tangible shape. Not a bad-looking old rambling place, is it?" + +Macauley brought his car to rest beside the long green roadster already +there. Its occupants jumped out and strolled up the slope toward the +white farmhouse, across whose front and wing stretched long porches, on +one of which stood a steamer chair and a white iron bed, each holding a +small form. Upon the step sat Ellen Burns and a nurse in a white uniform; +by the bed stood Burns himself. + +Miss Mathewson's observant eyes were taking veiled note of her recent +charge as he went up the steps and approached the bed. The little patient +upon it had not lifted his head, as had the child in the chair, to see +who was at hand. + +"Oh, the little pitiful face!" breathed Charlotte Ruston in Amy's ear, as +she looked down into a pair of great black eyes, set in hollows so deep +that they seemed the chiseling of merciless pain. + +"This is Jamie Ferguson," said Burns, with his hand on the boy's head. +"He is very happy to be here in the sunshine, so you are not to pity him. +Come here, Bob, and tell Jamie you will play with him when he is +stronger. He knows wonderful things, does Jamie. And this is Patsy Kelly, +in the chair." + +There was a pleasant little scene now enacted upon the porch, in which +Bob and Tom were introduced to the small patients, and everybody looked +on while shy advances were made by the well children, to be received with +timid gravity by the sick ones. Through it all Red Pepper Burns was +furtively observing the demeanour of Dr. John Leaver. + +He had hardly taken his eyes from Jamie Ferguson. Into his face had come +a look his friend had not seen there since he had been with him, the look +of the expert professional man who sees before him a case which interests +him. He stood and studied the child without speaking while Bob and Tom +remained, and when the small boys, too full of activity to stay +contentedly with other boys who could not play, were off to explore +the place, Leaver drew up a chair and sat down beside the bed. + +Burns glanced at his wife, and gave a significant nod of his head toward +the interior of the house. Ellen rose. + +"Come Martha, and Charlotte," said she, "and let me show you over the +rooms. I'm so proud of the progress we have made in the fortnight since +the house was vacated for us." + +She led them inside. Amy Mathewson went over to the chair and Patsy +Kelly, turning her back upon the pair by the bed. + +"When did you come, Patsy?" she asked. + +"We come the morn," said Patsy, a pale little fellow of nine, with a +shock of hair so red that beside it that of Red Pepper Burns would have +looked a subdued chestnut. "In the ambilunce we come. I liked the ride, +but Jamie didn't. He was scared of bein' moved." + +"Jamie is not so well as you. How fine it is that you can lie in this +chair and have your head up. You can see all about. Isn't it beautiful +here?" + +"It is. I'm glad I come. He said I'd be glad, but I didn't believe him. I +didn't know," said Patsy Kelly, with a sigh of satisfaction. "I had mate +and pitaty for breakfast the morn," he added, and rapture shone out of +his eyes. + +By the side of Jamie Ferguson Dr. John Leaver was telling a story. He was +apparently telling it to Dr. Burns, who listened with great interest, but +at the same time shy Jamie Ferguson was listening too. There were curious +points in the story when the narrator turned to the boy in the bed and +inquired, smiling: "Could you do that, Jamie?" to which questions Jamie +usually replied in the negative. They were mostly questions concerning +backs and legs and hips, and the boy in the story seemed to find +difficulty in using his, too, which made Jamie feel a strong interest in +him. Altogether it was a fascinating tale. When it was over the two men +walked away together down the slope, and between them passed other +questions and answers, of a sort which Jamie could not have understood. + +Down by the gate Leaver came to a pause, nodding his head in a thoughtful +way. "You are quite right, I believe, both in your conclusions and in +your plan for operation. I should go ahead without further delay than is +necessary to get him into a bit better condition." + +"I thought you would agree with me," Burns replied. "I'm gratified that +you do. But I'm not going to operate. I've got a better man: Leaver, of +Baltimore." + +The other turned quickly. A strange look swept over his face. + +"I told you my decision about that," he said. + +"I know you did. But I told you some time ago about this case, and warned +you that it was your case. I haven't changed my mind." + +Leaver shook his head. "I haven't changed mine, either. But I didn't know +this was the case you meant. If I had I shouldn't have gone to examining +it without an invitation." + +"You had an invitation. That was what I got you out here this morning +for. I didn't bring you myself because I didn't want you steeling +yourself against looking into it, as you would if I had told you about it +on the way out. My plan worked all right. The minute you saw the child +your instincts and training got the better of your caution. That's what +they'll continue to do if you give them a chance. See here, you don't +mean to quit your profession and take to carpentry, do you?" + +"I expect to practise medicine," Leaver said, and there was a queer +setting of his lips as he said it. + +"Medicine! You? Jack, you couldn't do it." + +"Couldn't I? I don't know that I could." He drew a half shuddering +breath. "But I can try, somewhere, if not in Baltimore." + +"I'd like to thrash you!" cried Red Pepper Burns, and he looked it. +"Standing there the picture of a healthy man and telling me you're going +to take to doling out pills and writing prescriptions.... See here. We've +put in a little surgery up there in the north wing, it's a peach of a +place. Come and see it." + +He led the way rapidly back up to the house, in at the door and up the +stairs. At the end of a long corridor he threw open the door of a small +room, whose whole northern side was of glass. Its equipment was as +complete as could be asked by the most exacting of operating surgeons. + +"Good!" Leaver cried, quite forgetting himself for the moment. "I had no +idea you meant to carry things so far as this. Fine!" + +"Isn't it? Could you have a better place to try your hand again? Nobody +looking on but Amy Mathewson, Miss Dodge--whom you met downstairs--and +Dr. Buller--for the anesthetic. Buller's the best anesthetizer in the +state and a splendid fellow besides. Also my humble self, ready to be +your right-hand man. I promise you this,--if the least thing goes +wrong--_and you ask it_--I'll take your place without a word. Jack, the +case is one that needs you. I've never done this operation: you have. +You've written a monograph on it. It's up to you, John Leaver. I don't +dare you to do it, _I dare you not to do it_!" + +For the first time, in response to his arguments on this subject, Burns +got no answer but silence. But his friend's face was slowly flushing a +deep, angry red. At this sight Burns rejoiced. His theory had been that +if he could wake something in Leaver besides deep depression and sad +negation he had a chance to influence him. He believed thoroughly that if +he could force the distinguished young surgeon through one successful +operation confidence would return like an incoming tide. He had hoped +that the pathetic sight of the little malformed body of Jamie Ferguson +would arouse the passion for salvage which lies in the breast of every +man who practises the great profession; he saw that thus far his plan had +succeeded. Now to accomplish the rest. + +"Suppose," said Leaver, turning slowly toward the other man, "I agree to +stand beside you and direct the operation?" + +It was Burns's turn to colour angrily, his quick temper leaping to fire +in an instant. + +"Not _much_! Let every tub stand on its own bottom! Either I do the +job or I don't do it; but I don't take the part of an apprentice. I'll +agree to play second fiddle to you, with you playing first. But I'll +be--condemned--if I'll play first, with a coach at my elbow. Take that +and be hanged to you!" + +He walked over to the open window, threw back the screen and put his +head out, as if he needed air to breathe. Leaver was at his side in an +instant. + +"I beg your pardon, my dear fellow, I do sincerely. It was an unworthy +suggestion, and I don't blame you for resenting it. Nobody needs help +less than you. You could do the operation brilliantly. That's why there's +no need in the world to force me into the situation--no need--" + +Burns wheeled. "There _is_ need! There's need for you--to save your soul +alive. You've been no coward so far--your overworked nerves played you a +trick and you've had to recover. But you have recovered, you are fit to +work again. _If you don't do this thing you'll be a coward forever!_" + +It bit deep, as he had known it would. If he had struck a knife into his +friend's heart he could not have caused so sharp a hurt. Leaver turned +white under this surgery of speech, and for an instant he looked as if he +would have sprung at Burns's throat. There followed sixty silent seconds +while both men stood like statues. But the merciless judgment had turned +the scale. With a control of himself which struck Burns, as he recalled +it afterward, as marvellous, Leaver answered evenly: "You shall not have +the chance to say that again. I will operate when you think best." + +"Thank God!" said Red Pepper Burns, under his breath. + +The two walked out of the little white room, with its austere and +absolute cleanliness, without another word concerning that which was to +come. Burns took his friend over the house, and Leaver looked into room +after room, approving, commending, even suggesting, quite as if nothing +had happened. And yet, after all, not quite as if nothing had happened. +He was not the same man who had come out to Sunny Farm an hour before. +Burns knew, as well as if he could have seen into Leaver's mind, the +conflict that was going on there. The thing was settled, he would not +retreat, yet there was still a fight to be fought--the biggest fight of +his life. On its issue was to depend the success or failure of the coming +test. Burns's warm heart would have led him to speak sympathetically and +encouragingly of the issue to be met; his understanding of the crisis it +precipitated kept him mute. Whatever help he was now to give his friend +must be given, not through speech but through silence, and by that +subtler means of communication between spirit and spirit which cannot be +analyzed or understood, but which may be more real than anything in life. + +They went downstairs, presently, and rejoined the party. Miss Ruston and +Miss Mathewson, Mr. James Macauley and his son Tom, with Bobby Burns, +were engaged in a spirited game of "puss in a corner," for the benefit of +Patsy Kelly, who lay looking on from his chair with sparkling, excited +eyes. Beside Jamie Ferguson, who could not see, Mrs. Burns sat, +describing to him the game and interpreting the shouts of laughter which +reached his ears as he lay, too flat upon his back to see what was +happening twenty feet away. + +Ellen looked up, as her husband approached, and something in his face +made her regard him intently. He smiled at her, his hazel eyes dark as +they often were when something had stirred him deeply, and she guessed +enough of the meaning of this aspect to keep her from looking at Dr. +Leaver until he had been for some time upon the porch. + +When she did observe him, he was standing, leaning against a pillar +and looking at the wan little face below her, from a point at which +Jamie could not know of his scrutiny. His back was turned upon the +game upon the grass, though the others were watching it. When it ended +Burns called Charlotte Ruston to the taking of the photographs he +wanted--snapshots of the two little patients carried into the full +sunlight. This being quickly accomplished, he announced his own immediate +departure. + +"Will you go back with me in the Imp, or at your leisure with the crowd +in the car?" Burns asked Leaver, in an undertone. "My wife will be glad +to go in either car; she suggested your taking your choice." + +"If the Macauleys will not misunderstand, I should prefer to go with +you," Leaver replied. + +"They won't. Two medicine-men are supposed always to wish for a chance to +hobnob, and we'll put it on that score. I really want to consult you +about Patsy's case." + +"Not going with us? Willing to forsake three fair ladies for one +red-headed fiend, just because you know he's going to give us his dust? +I like that!" cried Macauley, who could be trusted never to make things +easy for his friends. + +"Abuse him as you like. He's off with me at my request," called Burns, +pulling out into the road and turning with a sweep. + +Martha Macauley looked after the Green Imp's rapidly lessening shape +through the dust-cloud which it left behind. "I never thought till to-day +that Dr. Leaver seemed the least bit like a noted surgeon," said she, as +they waited for Macauley to get his car underway. "I could never imagine +his acting like Red, and rushing enthusiastically from bedside to +operating-room, pushing everything out of his way to make time to cut +somebody to pieces and sew him up again, for his ultimate good. But +to-day somehow, he seemed more--what would you call it--professional?" + +"That's the word," her husband agreed. "It's the word they juggle with. +If a thing's 'professional,' it's all right. If it's not, it may as well +be condemned to outer darkness at once." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A CRISIS + + +"Little wife?" + +"Yes, Redfield Pepper--" + +"I'm as nervous as a cat up a tree with a couple of dogs at the foot!" + +"Why, Red, I never heard you talk of being nervous! What does it mean?" + +"An operation to-morrow." + +"But you never are 'nervous,' dear." + +"I am now." + +"Is it such a critical one?" + +"The most critical I ever faced." + +Ellen looked at her husband, or tried to look, for they were moving +slowly along the street, at a late hour, Burns having suggested a short +walk before bedtime. It was quite dark, and Ellen could judge only by her +husband's voice that he spoke with entire soberness. + +"Can you tell me anything about it?" she suggested, knowing that relief +from tension sometimes comes with speech. Any confession of nervousness +from Red Pepper Burns seemed to her most extraordinary. She knew that he +often worked under tremendous tension, but he had never before admitted +shakiness of nerve. + +"Not much, if anything at all. It's a particularly private affair, for +the present. It's a queer operation, too. I may not handle a knife, tie +an artery, or stitch up a wound--may do less than I ever did in my life +on such an occasion, yet--I'll be hanged if I'm not feeling as owly about +it as if it were the first time I ever expected to see blood." + +Ellen put her hand on his arm, slipped it into the curve, and kept it +there, while he held it pressed close against him. "Red, have you been +working too hard lately?" she asked. + +"Not a bit. I'm fit as a fiddler. Don't worry, love. I've no business +to talk riddles to you, of all people. But for a peculiar reason I'm +horribly anxious about the outcome of to-morrow's experiment, and had +to work it off somehow. Just promise me that when you say your prayers +to-night you'll ask the good God not to let me be mistaken in forcing a +situation I may not be able to control." + +"I will," Ellen promised, with all her heart, for she saw that, whatever +the crisis might be, it was one to which her usually daring husband was +looking forward with most uncharacteristic dread. + +She was conscious that Burns spent a restless night. At daybreak he was +up and out of the house. Before he went, however, he bent over her and +kissed her with great tenderness, murmuring, "A prayer or two more, +darling, won't hurt anything, when you are awake enough. I've particular +faith in your petitions." + +She held him with both arms. + +"Don't worry, Red. It isn't like you. You will succeed, if it is to be." + +"It's got to be," he said between his teeth, as he left her. + +He swallowed a cup of Cynthia's hot coffee--bespoken the night before, +as on many similar occasions--and ran out to his car just as the slow +September sunrise broke into the eastern sky. In two minutes more he +was off in the Imp, flying out the road to Sunny Farm. + +Arrived there he astonished Miss Dodge, the nurse in charge, who was not +accustomed to Dr. Burns's ways. He had left the small patient, Jamie +Ferguson, the night before, entirely satisfied with his condition for +undergoing the operation set for nine o'clock this morning. He now went +once more painstakingly over every detail of the preparation he had +ordered, making sure for himself that nothing had been omitted. + +Then he called for Miss Mathewson, who had spent the night at the Farm. +She was to assist Leaver as she was accustomed to assist Burns. He took +her off by herself and addressed her solemnly, more solemnly than he had +ever done. + +"Amy, if you ever had your wits on call, have them this morning. In all +my life I never cared more how things went at a time like this. I care +so much I'd give about all I own to know this minute that the thing would +go through." + +"Why, Dr. Burns," said she, in astonishment, "it should go through. It is +a critical operation, of course, but the boy seems in very fair shape for +it, and Dr. Leaver has done it before. Dr. Leaver is quite well now--" + +"I know, I know. Feel of that!" + +He touched her hand with his own, which was icy cold. She started, and +looked anxiously at him. + +"Doctor, you can't be well! This isn't you--to be so--nervous! Why, think +of all the operations you've done, and never a sign of minding. And this +isn't even your responsibility--it's Dr. Leaver's." + +"That's right, scold me," said he, trying to laugh. "It's what I need. +I'm showing the white feather, a hatful of them. But you're mistaken +about one thing. It _is_ my responsibility, every detail of it. Don't +forget that. If the case goes wrong, it's my fault, not Dr. Leaver's." + +Then he walked away, leaving Miss Mathewson utterly dumbfounded. She +understood perfectly that Dr. John Leaver had suffered a severe breakdown +from overwork, and that this was his first test since his recovery. But +she knew nothing of the peculiar circumstances of his last appearance in +an operating-room, and could therefore have no possible notion of the +crisis this morning's work was to be to him. She did know enough, +however, to be deeply interested in the outcome, and she watched the +Green Imp flying down the road toward home with the sense that when it +returned it would bear two surgeons for whom she must do the best work +of support in her life. + +"Ready, Jack?" + +"Ready." + +John Leaver took the seat beside Burns, giving the outstretched hand a +strong grip. He carried no hand-bag, there was no sign of his profession +about him. He had sent to Baltimore for his own instruments, but they +were waiting for him in the little operating-room at Sunny Farm, having +been through every rite practised by modern surgery. + +The car set off. + +"It's a magnificent morning," said Red Pepper Burns. + +"Ideal." + +"September's the best month in the year, to my fancy." + +"A crisp October rivals it, to my notion." + +"Not bad. There's a touch of frost in the air this morning." + +"Quite a touch." + +The car sped on. The men were silent. His one glance at his friend's face +had showed Burns that Leaver had, apparently, his old quiet command of +himself. But this, though reassuring, he knew could not be trusted as an +absolute indication of control within. For himself, he had never been +so profoundly excited in his life. He found himself wondering how he was +going to stand and look on, unemployed, yet ready, at a sign, to take the +helm. He felt as if that moment, if it should come, would find him as +unnerved as the man he must help. Yet, with all his heart and will, he +was silently assuring himself that all would go well--must go well. He +must not even fear failure, think failure, imagine failure. Strong +confidence on his own part, he fully believed, would be definite, if +intangible, assistance to his friend.... + +Rounding a curve in the road, the white outlines of Sunny Farm house +stood out clearly against the background of near green fields, and +distant purple hills. + +"House gets the sun in great shape mornings," observed Burns. + +"The location couldn't be better," responded Leaver's quiet voice. + +The car swung into the yard. The two men got out, crossed the sward, and +stood upon the porch. Miss Mathewson met them at the door, her face +bright, her eyes clear, only a little flush on either cheek betraying +to Burns that she shared his tension. + +"Jamie seems in the best of condition," said she. + +"That's good--that's good," Burns answered, as if he had not made sure of +the fact for himself within the hour. + +"I will go in and see him a minute," Leaver said, and disappeared into +Jamie Ferguson's room. + +Outside Burns walked up and down the corridor, waiting, in a restlessness +upon which he suddenly laid a stern decree. He stopped short and forced +himself to stand still. + +"You idiot," he savagely addressed himself, "you act like a fool medical +student detailed to give an anesthetic at a noted surgeon's clinic for +the first time. Cut it, and behave yourself." + +After which he was guilty of no more outward perturbation, and, +naturally, of somewhat less inner turmoil. + +"Satisfied?" he asked of Leaver, as the other came out of Jamie's room. + +Leaver nodded. "Rather better than I had hoped. He's a plucky little +chap." + +"You're right, he is." + +The two went up to the dressing-room. Half an hour later, clad in +white from head to foot, arms bare and gleaming, hands gloved, +allowing assistants to open and close doors for them lest the slightest +contamination affect their rigid cleanliness, they came into the +operating-room. For the moment they were left alone there, while the +nurses went to summon the bearer of the little patient. It was the +moment Burns had dreaded, the stillness before action which most tries +the spirit at any crisis. + +He could not help giving one quick glance at his friend before he turned +away to look out of the window with eyes which saw nothing outside it. +In that instant's glance he thought the old Leaver stood before him, +cool, collected, armed to the teeth, as it were, for the fight, and +looking forward to it with eagerness. There had been possibly a slight +pallor upon his face, as Miss Dodge had adjusted his mask of gauze, but, +as Burns recalled it, this was a common matter with many surgeons, and it +might easily have been characteristic of Leaver himself, even though +Burns had not remembered it. His own heart was thumping heavily in his +breast, as it had never thumped when he had been the chief actor in the +coming scene. + +"Lord, make him go through all right," he was praying, almost +unconsciously, while he eyed the September landscape unseeingly, and +listened for the sound of the stretcher bearers.... + +As they came in at the door Burns turned, and saw, or thought he saw, +Leaver draw one deep, long breath. Then, in a minute or so, the fight was +on. He remembered, of old, that there was never much delay after the +distinguished surgeon saw his patient before him, had assured himself +that all was well with the working of the anesthetic, and had taken +up his first instrument.... + +Swift and sure moved Leaver's hands, obeying the swift, sure working of +his brain. There was not a moment's indecision. More than one moment of +deliberation there was, but Burns, watching, knew as well as if his +friend had been a part of himself that the brief pauses in his work were +a part of the work itself, and meant that as his task unfolded before him +he stopped to weigh feasible courses, choosing with unerring judgment the +better of two possible alternatives, and proceeding with the confidence +essential to the unfaltering touch. As Burns beheld the process pass the +point of greatest danger and approach conclusion, he felt somewhat as a +man may who, unable to help, watches a swimmer breasting tremendous seas, +and sees him win past the last smother of breakers and make his way into +calmer waters. He was conscious that he himself had been breathing +shallowly as he watched, and now drew several deep inspirations +of relief. + +"By George, that was the gamest thing I ever saw," thought Burns, +exultingly. "He hasn't shown the slightest sign of flinching. And Amy +Mathewson--she's played up to every move like a little second brain of +his." + +He looked at the small clock on a shelf of the surgery, and his head +swam. "He's outdone himself," he nearly cried aloud. "This will stand +beside anything he's ever done. If he'd been slower than usual it would +have been only natural, after this interval, but he's been faster. Oh, +but I'm glad--glad!" + +The event was over. Both Leaver and Burns, no longer under the necessity +of avoiding contact with things unsterilized, felt the small patient's +pulse and nodded at each other. The assistants bore Jamie Ferguson's +little inert body away, Miss Dodge attending. + +Dr. Leaver turned to Miss Mathewson. He drew off the masking gauze from +his head, showing a flushed, moist face and eyes a little bloodshot. But +his voice was as quiet as ever as he said: + +"I've never had finer assistance from any one, Miss Mathewson. If you had +been trained to work opposite me you couldn't have done better." + +"You work much like Dr. Burns," she said, modestly. "That made it easy." + +Burns burst into a smothered laugh. "That's the biggest compliment I've +had for a good while," said he. + +As they dressed, neither man said much. But when coats were on, and the +two were ready to go to Jamie's room, they turned each to the other. + +"Well, old man?" Burns was smiling like the sunshine itself into his +friend's eyes. "I think I never was so happy in my life." + +"I know you're happy," said the other man. "I don't believe I'll trust +myself yet to tell you what I am." + +"Don't try. We won't talk it over just yet. But I've got to say this, +Jack: You never did a more masterly job in your life." + +Leaver smiled--and shivered. "I'm glad it's over," said he. + +They went down to Jamie's room, and there, on either side of the high +hospital cot, watched consciousness returning. With consciousness +presently came pain. + +"I'm going to stay with him," Leaver announced, by and by. Jamie's +little, wasted hand was fast in his, Jamie's eyes, when they rested +anywhere with intelligence, rested on his face--a face tender and +pitiful. + +"Good for you. I shall feel easier about him if you do," and Burns went +away with the feeling that this course would be as good for the surgeon +as for the patient. + +He stopped in the lower hall to telephone Ellen. + +"All safely over, dear," he said. "The patient doing well so far, and no +reason why he shouldn't continue, as far as we can see." + +"Oh, I'm so glad, Red," came back the joyous reply, and Burns responded: + +"That goes without saying, partner. I'll tell you a lot more about it, +now, when I get back." + +The Green Imp went back at a furious pace. Half-way home, however, as it +neared a figure walking by the roadside, it suddenly slowed down. + +"Will you ride home, Miss Photographer?" Burns called. "Or do you prefer +trudging all the way back with that camera and tripod?" + +"I'm delighted to ride, Dr. Burns," replied Charlotte Ruston. +"Captivating roadside views enticed me much farther than I intended, +and the camera weighs twice what it did when I started." + +"Jump in, then, and let me give you a piece of good news I'm bursting +with," and Burns held out his hand for the camera. "You're getting a +beautiful sunburn on that right cheek," he commented. + +"I'll burn the left to match it, if you won't drive too fast. You'll have +to go a little slower while you talk. I've noticed you're always silent +when you're scorching along the road." + +"So I am, I believe. Well, I'm not going to be silent now. I've just come +from seeing Jamie Ferguson put on the road to future health and +happiness, the good Lord willing--and I've a notion He is." + +"Jamie--the little cripple who lies on his back?" + +"The same. He'll lie on his back some time longer and then, I think, +he'll get up." + +"You operated on him to-day? How glad I am!" + +"No, I didn't operate. It took a better man than I. I've never done +this particular stunt, and Jamie was not a patient for experiment. Jack +Leaver did the trick, and a finished trick it was, too. I'm so full of +enthusiasm over his performance that I'm bursting with it, as I warned +you." + +Charlotte Ruston had turned suddenly to face him. As he looked at her, +with this announcement, he had a view of lovely, startled eyes. + +"What's the matter?" he asked, wondering. He had to look ahead at the +road, but he cut down on the Imp's speed, so that he could spare a glance +at his companion again. "You look as if I'd given you bad news instead of +good." + +"Oh, no!--oh, no!" she said, in odd, short breaths. "It's +great--wonderful! Poor little fellow! I'm very glad. You said--Dr. +Leaver did it? I was simply--surprised." + +"Did it brilliantly. But there's no occasion for surprise about that. +Having been in Baltimore as much as you have, you must know his position +there. There's nobody with a bigger reputation." + +"But I thought he had been--ill?" + +"Tired out. Small wonder, at the pace he was going--the working pace, I +mean. He never let up on himself. I got him here to rest up. He would +have been off long ago if I would have given him leave, but I had his +promise to keep away from work till he was thoroughly fit for it, so I've +made the most of my chance. I shall never get another. If I know him +he'll be back in his office before the week ends. Once give a chap like +him a taste of work after idleness, and there's no use trying to hold +him." + +"You think him fully fit, now?" + +"Never so fit in his life, if I'm any judge. I've seen him at work many +a time, and I never saw finer methods than his to-day, his own or any +man's--and I've watched some pretty smooth things. By the way, I +understand you had met Dr. Leaver before you met him here?" + +"Yes, I had met him." + +Burns was not possessed of more than the ordinary amount of curiosity +concerning other people's affairs, but he was accustomed to observe human +nature and note its signs, and it struck him now rather suddenly that +both John Leaver and Charlotte Ruston had seemed rather more than +necessarily non-committal concerning an acquaintance which both admitted. +He saw no reason why he should not ask a question or two. Asking +questions was a part of his profession. + +"I hope you've managed to coax him before your camera. He's looking so +well now, I'd like a picture of him before he goes back and works himself +down again." + +"You might suggest it to him," said Miss Ruston. She was looking straight +ahead. She wore a hat of white linen, of a picturesque shape, such as are +in vogue in the country in warm weather, and it drooped more or less +about her face. Burns could not see her eyes when she looked forward, +but he could see her mouth. It was an expressive mouth, and it looked +particularly expressive just now. The trouble was that he could not tell +just what it expressed. + +"I'll do it, this afternoon, and keep it as a reminder of a patient of +whom I think a heap. No, I can't do it this afternoon, either, for he +won't leave Jamie till he can leave him comfortably over the first stage. +But by to-morrow afternoon, perhaps. We'll have to catch him on the fly, +for I'm confident he'll be off the minute the youngster is out of danger. +Well, I hope you know my friend well enough to appreciate that he's about +the finest there is anywhere?" + +"I'm beginning to know _you_ well enough, Dr. Burns, to see that you care +more to have your friends appreciated than to win praise yourself." + +"No, no--oh, Cesar, no! I've not reached such a sublime height of +altruism as that. To tell you the honest truth--which is supposed to be +good for the soul--I'm horribly envious of Jack Leaver for having done +that stunt this morning." + +"Envious? Of course you are. At the same time would you have taken it +away from him and have done it yourself, if you had had the chance?" + +"Trust a woman to confront a man with the unthinkable, and then expect +him to take credit for not having been guilty of it! Would I have +snatched a juicy bone away from a starving lion? That's what Leaver has +been all these months. It's what any man gets to be when his job is taken +away from him and he doesn't know when he will get another. No--at the +same time that I'm envious I'm genuinely happy that the lion got his +bone. He needed it. It's going to make a well lion of him; he is one now. +You're glad, too, aren't you?" + +He gave her one of his quick, discerning glances. + +"Of course I am." She spoke quite heartily enough to satisfy him. + +"Good! Then, if I can wheedle him before the camera, you'll be interested +in making a picture of him that Ellen and I shall want to frame and look +at every day?" + +"I will give you my amateur's best, certainly, Dr. Burns." + +"Prunes and prisms!" he exclaimed, and broke into a laugh. "I didn't +expect that, from a girl like you. I should have expected you to--well, +never mind. I was on the verge of being impertinent, I'm afraid. Forgive +me, will you, for what I might have said? I'll bring him over at the +first opportunity." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BEFORE THE LENS + + +"Red, this is certainly the unkindest cut of all! I haven't minded your +other prescriptions, but to insist on giving a well man the worst dose +of his experience to take--" + +"Stuff and nonsense! A bad prescription--to go across the street and let +the prettiest photographer in the United States take a sun picture of +you before you leave town? Besides, you owe it to us. I haven't the +smallest kind of a likeness of you. I want a nice big one, to use in my +advertisements. I only wish I had a picture of you 'as you were,' to +put beside the 'as you are.' It would be telling. 'The great Burns's +greatest cure. The celebrated Leaver of Baltimore as he was when Burns +finished with him.' I'll send you a dozen copies of the paper." + +"Please, Dr. Leaver." Mrs. Red Pepper Burns added her plea. "Red really +wants it very much, and so do I. You admit you have no photograph to send +us, and we know quite well you won't go and have one made by Mr. Brant, +as you should. So please let Miss Ruston try her art. We think you owe it +to us." + +Leaver looked at her, and his determined lips relaxed into a smile. +"I admit that argument tells, Mrs. Burns," he said. "I suppose it is +ungracious of me, but, to tell the truth, I've always preferred to be +able to say I had no portraits of myself." + +"Oh, I see," Burns broke in. "We're not considering, Ellen, the urgent +demands for a popular bachelor surgeon's photograph. It's precisely like +Jack not to hand them out to the ladies, or to the newspaper men. All +right, old chap. Give us what we want and we'll have the plate smashed. +Now will you be good? Come, let's go over. If you really mean to leave +to-night this is our last chance." + +The two men crossed the street, in the mellow September sunshine. Burns +preceded Leaver and knocked at the door. + +"Will you take a shot at my friend before he goes?" Burns asked +Charlotte. "He hates standing up to be shot at, but I have him primed +for the ordeal." + +"Must it be a shot, or may I make a portrait?" asked the photographer, in +her professional manner. + +"I want a portrait," replied Burns, promptly. "Your best indoor +work--Brant and the Misses Kendall put on their mettle to rival it." + +While Charlotte was absent, making ready her plates, her visitors waited +in the little living-room and looked about it. Its walls were now +possessed of many interesting photographs of people in the village, +among them several of Burns himself, at which he gazed with a quizzical +expression. + +"She certainly succeeds in making a hero of me, doesn't she?" he +observed. "Red hair turns dusky before the camera, luckily for me. I look +as if there wasn't much of anything I couldn't do, including playing +leading man in a melodrama--eh?" + +"She has caught the personality, cleverly enough," Leaver commented, +looking over Burns's shoulder. + +"I rather think, though," mused Burns, "that I don't look so much as if +there wasn't anything I couldn't do as that I thought there wasn't. +There's a difference, Jack,--eh? Do I really seem as ready to bounce out +of my chair and tackle somebody as that picture makes me look? If I do I +need to have a tourniquet applied somewhere about my neck to stop the +flow of blood to my bumptious head." + +Smiling, Leaver studied the photograph in question. "It's the best I ever +saw of you. It's precisely that air of being all there and ready for +action which is your most endearing characteristic. It is the quality +which made me willing to put myself in your hands last April." + +"Much obliged. But you didn't put yourself in my hands. I laid hands +on you and tied you down. I couldn't do it now, though," and Burns +turned to survey his friend with satisfaction. "You are in elegant trim, +if I do say it who shouldn't, and that's why I want a picture of my +handiwork--and Nature's. It's just possible that Nature deserves some +credit, not to mention Amy Mathewson. By the way, she's another who must +have this portrait of you, my boy." + +"She certainly shall, if she cares for it," admitted Leaver, gravely. +"I'm very willing to remind her how much I owe her, in that and better +ways." + +Charlotte appeared. As she set about her work Bob came racing over the +lawn and in at the open door. + +"Uncle Red, somebody wants you right away quick!" he announced. + +"Just my luck! I wanted to help pose the picture," grumbled Burns, but +went off, the boy on his shoulder shouting with delight. + +The photographer, in the plain dress of dull blue, which, artist-wise, +she had chosen as her professional garb, and in which she herself made a +picture to be observed with enjoyment, moved deftly about the room +arranging her lights and shadows. This done, she turned to her sitter. +When she came in he had been standing before a set of prints upon the +wall, studying them critically, but from the moment of her entrance he +had been watching her, though he held a photograph in his hand with which +he might have seemed to be engaged. + +"Ready?" she asked, smiling. "Or, rather, as ready as you ever will be?" + +"Does my reluctance show as plainly as that? But I am quite ready now to +do your bidding." + +"Sit down in that chair, please. But first--I really can't wait longer to +ask you--how is Jamie Ferguson?" + +"Doing finely." His face lighted with pleasure at the thought. + +"Will he have the full use of his poor little legs?" + +"It is too soon to say positively. We hope quite confidently for that +result. He shows better powers of recuperation than we dared expect." + +"Yesterday," said Charlotte, her hand on a certain bulb out of sight, +"Miss Mathewson told me something Jamie had said. It was the most +extraordinary thing--" + +She related the incident, in which the lad had shyly praised both +Leaver and Burns as seeming to him like big brothers. She told it with +animation, her watchful eyes on her sitter's face. At a certain point, +just before the climax of the story, she gave the bulb a long, slow +pressure; then, ending, she remarked: + +"Now, if you are ready, Dr. Leaver." + +His face immediately grew grave, lost its expression of interested +attention, and set in lines of resignation. She went through a number of +motions and announced that the sitting was over. + +"It wasn't so bad, was it?" she questioned, gayly, as she removed the +plate she had used. "I'm not even going to try again. I've discovered +that it's not always best to repeat an attempt, and when you are pretty +sure you have what you want, it doesn't pay." + +"Thank you for making the operation so nearly painless. I haven't had +a photograph taken since I was a medical student, and I wasn't prepared +for so short a trial. But, even so, I felt the desperateness of the +situation. Doubtless that will show plainly in the final result." + +"Mine is a discreet camera, and doesn't tell all it sees, so it is +possible it may keep your reluctance disguised." + +She took away the plate, left him for a few minutes alone among the +photographs, and returned. + +"It is quite all right, I think, Dr. Leaver," she said, "and the agony is +over. You are leaving town to-day?" + +He rose. "I go to-night. I should have come to say good-bye, in any case, +but, as I go out to Sunny Farm for one more look at the boy, I must be +off. So--I'll make this the good-bye." + +"I hope you'll have the busiest, happiest sort of winter," she said, in +the charming, friendly way which was naturally her own. "So busy and so +happy you'll forget this long, trying time of waiting to be well. Surely, +the rest--and Dr. Burns--have done the work. When you see the portrait +I hope it will show you, better than looking at yourself in any mirror, +what good has been done." + +"Thank you. I know a great change has been wrought, somehow, thanks to a +man who insisted on having his own way when I didn't want to let him. You +expect to stay in this cottage all winter?" + +"All winter, and all spring. Imagine us by a splendid fire in this good +fireplace." + +"I hope it won't smoke on windy days." Leaver looked doubtfully at it. +"It strikes me as better photographic material than as practical defence +against the cold." + +"I shall demonstrate that it is entirely practical. And Granny's little +feet will seldom touch the floor. I have a beautiful foot-warmer for her, +which will keep her snug as comfort." + +"I know you have a strong courage, and will face any discomfort bravely." + +His eyes were dwelling upon her face, noting each outline, as if he meant +to take the memory of it with him. + +"All the courage in the world. What would life be without it? With it, +one can do anything." + +"I believe you." He was silent for a moment, still looking at her +intently. "I wonder," he said then, "if you would be willing to give me +something I very much want. I have no right to ask it, and yet, for the +sake of many pleasant hours we have spent together--that's a tame phrase +for me to use of them, from my standpoint--for their sake would you be +willing to let me have--a picture of yourself? I promise you it shall be +seen by no one but myself. It would mean a good deal to me. Yet, if you +are not entirely willing, I won't ask it." + +He spoke in the quietest, grave way. After a moment's hesitation she +answered him as quietly. + +"I don't know why I should mind, Dr. Leaver, and yet, somehow, I find +I do. Will you believe it's not because I don't want to please you?" + +His face showed, in spite of him, that the denial hurt him. He held out +his hand. + +"You are quite right to be frank. Shall we say good-bye? All kinds of +success to you this winter--and always." + +"Thank you, Dr. Leaver. I give you back the wish." + +They shook hands, the two faces smiling at each other. Then he went +quickly away. Looking after him she saw that he carried his hat in his +hand until he had reached the gate in the hedge. He closed the gate +without a backward glance, and in a minute more was out of sight. + +She went into her dark-room and examined again the plate she had just +developed. Holding it in a certain light, against darkness, she was able +to obtain a faint view of the picture as it would be in the print. +Unquestionably she had made a lifelike and extraordinarily attractive +portrait of a man of distinguished features, caught at a moment when he +had had no notion that the thing was happening. She studied it long and +attentively. + +"It would have been better if I hadn't made it," she said slowly to +herself. "For now I shall have it to look at, and I shall have to look at +it. I'm not strong enough--not strong enough--I don't _want_ to be strong +enough--to forego that!" + + * * * * * + +After nightfall, on that September evening, Leaver took his departure. +Burns was to convey him in the Imp to the city station, because his +train did not stop in the suburban village. For a half-hour before his +going Burns's porch was full, the Macauleys and the Chesters having come +over to do Dr. Leaver honour. They found less chance for talking with him +than they might have done if he had not gone off with Miss Mathewson for +a short walk. + +"Something in it, possibly, do you think?" James Macauley asked, in an +aside, of Mrs. Burns. "Miss Mathewson certainly has developed a lot of +good looks this summer that I, for one, never suspected her of before. +Whether she could interest a man like him I don't know and can't guess. +He's no ordinary man. I didn't like him much at first, but as he's +improved in health he's shown up for what he is, and I can understand +Red's interest in getting him on his feet again. He's certainly on 'em +now. That was a great stunt he did for the little chap, according to Red. +Looks a bit suggestive of interest, his going off with Miss Amy for a +walk, at the last minute, don't you think? Still, I can't imagine any +man's looking in that direction when there's what there is across the +street. He hasn't shown any signs of life, there, has he?" + +"Jimmy, you're a sad gossip. If I knew all these people's affairs, or if +I knew none of them, I shouldn't discuss them with you. But I'm quite +willing to agree with you that both Amy and Charlotte are delightful, +each in her way." + +"Never did get any satisfaction out of you," grumbled James Macauley, +good humouredly. "I didn't suppose women had such a fine sense of honour +when it came to talking over other women." + +"Then it's time you found it out." + +"What's this? Ellen giving you hot shot?" Burns came up, watch in +hand. "It's time those people were back. They've probably fallen into +a discussion of surgical methods, and forgotten the time." + +The missing pair presently appeared. James Macauley looked curiously at +them, but could detect no sign of sentiment about them. Indeed, as they +came up the walk Leaver's voice was heard saying in a most matter-of-fact +way: + +"I'll send you a reprint on that subject. You'll find the German notion +has completely changed--completely. Nothing has happened in a long time +that so marks advance in research along those lines." + +"He's safe," the observer whispered to Mrs. Burns. "No fun to be had out +of that. Unless--he was clever enough to change his line when he came +within earshot. It has been done, you know. I've done it myself, though I +never jumped to German reprints as a safety station. But, you can usually +tell by the woman. She looks as if she had merely been out for a nice +walk. Not a hair out of place, no high colour, no--" + +Ellen moved away from him. She was conscious that she, too, had been +noting signs, but she would not join him further in discussing them. + +"I am not good at farewell speeches," said John Leaver, holding Ellen's +hand in both his own, when he had taken leave of every one else. "I only +hope I can show you, somehow, how I feel about what you and your husband +have done for me. I tried to tell Miss Mathewson something of the same +thing, but she wouldn't have it, which was fortunate, for the words stuck +in my throat." + +Burns took him away. "If they hadn't, you'd have missed your train. We've +got to make time, now." + +As he took his place in the Green Imp Leaver looked across the street at +the cottage back among the trees. Its windows were quite dark, although +the hour was barely ten o'clock. Burns looked over, too. + +"By the way," he said, as they moved away, "why wasn't Miss Ruston among +the crowd assembled to see you off? As an acquaintance of yours in +Baltimore she ought to join in the send-off back to that town." + +"She gave me her good wishes this afternoon, after taking the photograph. +Red, speaking of Baltimore, when are you coming down?" + +"When I get a card saying you are holding a clinic on a subject I'm +anxious to see demonstrated." + +"Do you expect me to go to holding clinics?" + +"Surest thing in the world. You can't keep out of them." + +"Do you suppose the men who saw my breakdown will be eager to welcome me +back?" + +"No question of it. Good Lord, man, you're not the first nor the +ten-thousandth man who has broken down from overwork. Because my axe +becomes dull I'm not going to refuse to use it when it comes back from +the grindstone with a brighter edge than ever on it, am I? Wait till you +see your reception. Some of those fellows have been making a lot of +mistakes in your absence--have been trying to do things too big for them. +They'll be only too glad to turn some of their stunts over to you. And +the big ones, who are your friends, will rejoice at sight of you. Of +course you have rivals; you don't expect them to welcome you with open +arms. They'll be sorry to see you back. Let them be sorry, and be hanged +to them! Go in and show them that they're the ones who need a rest now, +and that you'll take care of their work in their absence." + +Leaver laughed. "Red, there's nobody just like you," he said. + +"That's lucky. Too many explosives aren't safe to have around. I know, +and have known all along, Jack, that it's been like a cat lecturing a +king, my advice to you. A better simile would be the old one of the mouse +gnawing the lion out of the net. If I've done anything for you, that's +what I've done." + +Leaver turned in his seat. "Red," said he--and his voice had a deep ring +in it as he spoke--"you're about the biggest sized mouse I ever saw. I +want to tell you this: Since I've been watching your work up here I've +conceived a tremendous admiration for your standards. There are none +finer, anywhere. I've come to feel that you couldn't do anything bigger +or better in the largest place you could find. Indeed, this, for you, is +the largest place, for you fill it as another man couldn't." + +"The frog, in the marsh, where he lived, was king," Burns quoted, in an +effort at lightness, for he was deeply touched. + +"That's not the sort of king you are. You would be king anywhere. But +you're willing to rule over a kingdom that may look small to some, but +looks big as an empire to me, now that I understand. I've reached this +point: I am almost--and sometime I expect to be entirely--glad that the +thing happened to me which brought me here to you. You have done more for +me than any man ever did. And there's one thing I think I owe to you to +tell you. The greatest thing I've learned from you, though you haven't +said much about it, is faith in the God above us. I'd about let go of +that when I came here. Thanks to you, I've got hold of it again, and I +mean never to let go. No man can afford to let go of that--permanently." + +Burns was silent for a moment, in answer to this most unexpected tribute, +silent because he could find no words. When he did speak there was a +trace of huskiness in his voice. "I'm mighty glad to know that, Jack," he +said simply. + +Then, presently, for they had flown fast over the smooth road, they +were entering the city limits, traversing a crowded thoroughfare, and +approaching the great station on whose tower the illuminated face of the +clock warned them there was little time to spare. Arrived there, every +moment was consumed in a rush for tickets and in checking baggage. +Leaver secured his sleeper reservation with some difficulty, owing to a +misunderstanding in the telegram engaging it, and at the last the two men +had to run for the train. At the gate there was only space for a hasty +grip of two warm hands, a smile of understanding and affection, and an +exchange of arm-wavings at a distance as Leaver reached his car, already +on the verge of moving out. + +As Burns drove away he was feeling a sense of loneliness as unpleasant as +it was unexpected, and found himself longing to get back to a certain +pair of arms whose hold was a panacea for every ache. + +"He thinks he owes it all to me," he was saying by and by, when this +desirable condition had been fulfilled. "But maybe I don't owe something +to him. If the sight of a plucky fight for self-control is a bracing +tonic to any man I've had one in watching him. I never saw a finer +display of will against heavy odds. Another man in the shape he was in +last spring would have gone under." + +"It would be pretty difficult, I think, dear," said his wife, softly +touching his thick locks, as his head lay on her lap, "for any man to go +under with you pulling him out." + +"I didn't pull him out. No man in creation can pull another out, no +matter how strong his effort. The chap that's in the current has got to +do every last ounce of the pulling himself. I don't say God can't help, +for I'm positive He can, but I don't think a man can do much. And it's my +belief that even God helps chiefly through making the man realize that he +can help himself." + +"For which office he sometimes appoints a man as his human instrument, +doesn't he?" + +Burns turned his head and touched his lips to the hand which had laid +itself against his cheek. + +"Perhaps, when he can't find a woman. As a power conductor she is the +only, original, copper wire!" + + * * * * * + +The curiosity which James Macauley had freely expressed as to the +probable degree of friendship between Leaver and Amy Mathewson, developed +by months of close association, was, with him and with others, not +unnatural. But, in Ellen's case, the desire to know just how much the +situation had meant to Amy herself, was a result of her increasingly +warm affection for a young woman of character and personal +attractiveness, mingled with a sense of her own and her husband's +responsibility in bringing together two people who might be expected +to emerge from the encounter not a little affected by it. + +On the morning after John Leaver's departure, Ellen, standing at a +window, found herself watching with more than ordinary intentness the +face of Amy as she came up the walk to the house. Lest Leaver should +realize to what an extent his presence had disturbed the regular routine +of Burns's office, Amy had not been allowed to resume her position +according to the old régime, but had spent only a portion of her time +there, more as a guest of the house might assume certain duties than as a +regularly hired assistant would attend to them. This was, therefore, the +first time, since Leaver had left the confinement in his room, that Amy +Mathewson had appeared in the office in her old rôle, announced by the +donning of her uniform. + +"I certainly don't see any unhappiness there," said Ellen to herself, +watching Amy as she stooped to pick up an early fallen scarlet leaf upon +the lawn. She fastened it upon the severe whiteness of her attire, then +came on to the house with an alert step, as if she approached work she +looked forward to with zest. Her colour was more vivid than it had been +last June, when first she began to live the outdoor life with her +patient, her eyes were brighter, her whole personality seemed somehow +more significant. Ellen had noted in her these signs of enriched life +many times before during these weeks; but the fact that Amy's aspect, on +the day after the departure of her comrade of the summer, seemed to have +suffered no change, but that her whole air, as she came to her old task, +was that of one who hastens to a congenial appointment, gave to Ellen a +distinct sense of relief from an anxiety she had suffered from time to +time throughout the whole experience. + +Burns had gone away early, summoned by an insistent call, and the office +was empty. Knowing this, Ellen went in to greet her friend. There could +be no other term, now, for the whole-hearted bond between the two. + +"Isn't it glorious, this touch of frost in the air?" Amy came in smiling, +her cheeks bright with the sting of the early October morning. "And +to-day--to-day, at last, I am free to go to work as I like. I don't +believe Dr. Burns has sent out a bill for three months. He would go +bankrupt before he would tell a man what he owed him." + +"Do you like sending out bills so well as that?" Ellen asked, +incredulous. + +"I like anything that means being at work again, without having to play +that I'm a lady of leisure at any moment that anybody wants my company. +I like to have things methodical and systematic. I don't even mind +sending out bills, when I know they should be sent." + +She stirred about the office, getting out her typewriter and oiling it, +while the two talked of various things. Her whole manner was consistent +with her words: she seemed to be full of the very joy of living. It +occurred to Ellen once to wonder if, by any possibility, this could be +the result of expectation of future continuance of her friendship with +Leaver. But something happened presently which, though but a simple +incident enough, and all in the day's routine, made any such supposition +seem most unlikely. + +The telephone bell rang. Ellen saw Amy's face change at the first sound +of her questioner's voice, with that subtle change which sometimes tells +more than the person engaged in this form of communication realizes. + +"Yes, Dr. Burns," she said. "Yes ... Yes ... Yes ... Yes, I can +have everything ready in an hour ... I will ... I won't forget one +thing.... Yes ... Good-bye!" + +Not an illuminating set of replies, given at long intervals which +evidently spelled instructions from the other end of the wire. But Amy's +voice was eager, her concise replies by no means veiled that fact, and +Ellen could read, as plainly as if Amy had said it, that the voice which +spoke to her was the one of all voices, as it had been for so long, which +could give the commands she loved to obey. + +She turned from the desk and looked at Ellen with the same animated +expression of face. But even as she explained, she was taking instruments +from their cases, setting out certain hand-bags, and preparing to fill +them. + +"It is an emergency case--operation--out in the country. Impossible to +take the patient to the hospital; everything must be made ready on the +spot. Dr. Burns is to come for me in an hour. He will let me stay with +the case. It's work, Mrs. Burns; real work again, at last!" + +"You extraordinary girl! A débutante, going to a party again, after +enforced confinement at home, couldn't be gayer about it. I knew you +loved your work, but I didn't know you loved it like that!" + +"Didn't you?" Her hands moving swiftly, she seemed not to stop and think +what was going to be wanted, she went from one preparation to another +with swift, sure knowledge. "I'm not sure I did, myself, until I had to +stop and take what was really just a long vacation, with hardly a thing +to do. Vacations are very pleasant--for a while--but they may last too +long." + +"Evidently Dr. Leaver thought so, too. He seemed ready enough for work +again." + +"Of course he was. And work--and only work--will put him quite back where +he was before the breakdown. I fully believe, Mrs. Burns, that labour is +a condition of healthy life. And of the two evils, too much labour or too +much idleness, the latter is the greater." + +"You make me feel a drone," Ellen declared. + +Amy gave her a quick, understanding glance. + +"You? Oh, no, Mrs. Burns. You do the prettiest work in the world, and the +most necessary." + +"But yours is fine--wonderful." + +"Not fine, nor wonderful. Dr. Burns's work is that. Mine is +just--supplementary." + +"But absolutely essential. How many times has he told me what he has owed +you all these years for perfection of detail. He says he doubts if he +himself could secure such perfection if it all depended upon his care." + +Amy Mathewson bent suddenly over a strange looking instrument, whose +parts she had been examining before putting them into the bag. Her fair +cheek flushed richly. "I am glad to give him the best I can do," she +said, quietly, yet Ellen could detect an odd little thrill in her voice. + +Within herself Ellen understood the truth, which she had long ago +guessed. And with it came a fresh revelation. This was the reason why Amy +Mathewson could see, unmoved, the departure of Leaver, who had been so +closely thrown with her all that strange summer. With the deep loyalty of +a few rare natures, having once given her love, even though she received +nothing but friendship in return, she could care for no future which did +not include that friendship, dearer than the love of other men. + +Ellen was still in the office, held there by a curious fascination of +interest in Amy's rapid, skillful preparations. It meant so much, this +operating at a country house, she explained to Ellen. It meant the +working out of all manner of difficult details, that the final conditions +might as closely as possible resemble those which were to be had, ready +to hand, in the operating-room of any hospital. + +"It's a serious handicap to a surgeon's best work," she asserted, "when +he has to do it at a home. With all my precautions, I can never feel so +sure of giving him perfect cleanliness of surroundings." + +"You can, if any one can," Ellen said, feeling for the first time as she +spoke, a curious little twinge of envy of the one whom her husband had +long called, with affectionate familiarity, his "right-hand man." + +Often as she had seen the two drive away together it seemed to her to-day +that she looked at them with new eyes. Just as Amy set out the closed +hand-bags, with a box and a bundle beside them, and donned hat and +driving-coat, the Green Imp came rushing up the road and stopped in front +of the house. Burns ran in, fired half a dozen rapid questions at Amy, +nodding his head with approval at her answers, said, "All right, we're +off," and picked up the hand-bags. Then he dropped them, snatched off his +cap and strode over to his wife. + +"We're in a mess of a hurry," he apologized, and kissed her as if he were +thinking of something else, as he undoubtedly was. Then he seized the +bags, Amy the box and bundle, and the two hurried out. A moment later +Ellen saw the car start, getting under headway in twice its own length, +and disappearing down the road in a cloud of dust. + +"She would rather stay where she can help him than go away to a home of +her own with any other man," Ellen said to herself; and the little twinge +of envy became almost a pang. She stood staring out of the window, her +dark eyes heavy with her thoughts, her lips taking on a little twist of +pain. Then, presently, she lifted her head. "She will never, never let +him know. He will never discover it for himself. But if she can find +happiness in being of use to him, and he can reward her by being her good +friend, why should I mind? Can't I be generous enough for that, when I +know I have his heart? Her love for him won't hurt him. She can't take it +back, but she will never let it show so that he can feel more of it than +is good for him. It is so little for me to spare her--so much for her to +have. I will be glad, I _will_ be glad!" + +She smiled at Bobby Burns, running up the walk, but, being a woman, she +smiled through tears. + +The little lad ran in. "Oh, Auntie Ellen," he cried, "do you care 'cause +I gave my new ball away? It was a new boy came to school, all patched. +He'd never had a ball in his life. Uncle Red said I had to be good to +other boys, 'cause I've got so much more'n some of them. I sort o' wanted +to keep the ball, too," he added, regretfully. "It was a dandy ball." + +"But it was nice to give it away, too, wasn't it, Bob?" + +He nodded, looking curiously up at her. "You're cryin', Auntie Ellen," he +said, anxiously. "Does sumpin' hurt you?" + +"Nothing that ought to hurt, dear. It's too bad that being generous does +hurt sometimes. But it ought not to hurt, when we have so much more than +some of the others, ought it, Bob?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FLASHLIGHTS + + +"Please tilt your parasol back the least bit more, Miss Austin. That's +it! Now walk toward me, up this path, till you reach the rosebush." + +Miss Austin, a tall, thin young woman clad in white muslin and wearing +also a prim expression with which her photographer had been struggling +for some time in vain, obeyed these directions to the letter. Her lips +in lines of order and discretion, her skirts hanging in perfect folds, +she advanced up the straggling path, the picture of maidenly composure. +The nearer she drew to the rosebush the more fixed became the look of +meeting a serious obstacle and overcoming it by sheer force of will. + +Charlotte Ruston, standing by her camera focussed on the spot of path +beside the rosebush, drew a stifled, impatient breath. "I'm going to +scream at her in a minute," she thought, "or fall in a faint. I wonder +which would startle her out of herself most." + +"Do you mind," she said aloud, "if I tell you how perfectly charming you +look?" + +Miss Austin's lips tightened into a little set smile, more artificial +than ever. But just as she reached the rosebush a motor car rushed up the +street and came to a standstill before the gate in Charlotte's hedge. Out +of the car--a conspicuous affair of a strong yellow colour, and hitherto +unseen in the town--descended a figure in a dust-coat, a figure upon +which Miss Edith Austin had never set eyes before. Pausing by the +rosebush she looked toward the scene at the gate, and her face relaxed +into an expression of alert interest. + +The camera clicked unnoticed. Quicker than a flash Charlotte had gone +through a series of motions and had made a second exposure, smiling +delightedly to herself. + +"It's a gentleman to see you," called Miss Austin, softly, as the heavily +built figure in the dust-coat opened the gate and advanced up the path. + +Miss Ruston made all secure about her camera, and turned to meet the full +and smiling gaze of the newcomer, standing, cap in hand, just behind +her. He was a man who might have been thirty or forty--it would not have +been easy for a stranger to tell which at first glance, for his fair hair +was thick upon his head, his face fresh and unwrinkled, and his eyes +bright. Yet about him was an air of having been encountering men and +things for a long time, and of understanding them pretty well. + +"Mr. Brant!" Charlotte's tone was that of complete surprise. + +"You were not expecting me?" He shook hands, gazing at her in undisguised +pleasure. He was not much taller than she, and the afternoon sun was at +his back, so he had the advantage. + +"I certainly was not. How does it happen? A business journey?" + +"A most luckily opportune one--for me. It brought me within a hundred +miles, and my descriptions to my friend of an interesting region did +the rest." + +His eyes swerved to the figure of Miss Edith Austin, standing tensely by +the rosebush, an observer whose whole aspect denoted eager absorption in +the meeting before her. Charlotte presented him. Miss Austin expressed +herself as assured of his being a stranger to the town the moment her +eyes fell upon him. + +"And a very dusty and disreputable one, I'm afraid," Mr. Brant declared. +"I should have stopped at some hotel and made myself presentable," he +explained to Charlotte, "if I had not been afraid I should lose a minute +out of the short time Van Schoonhoven agrees to leave me here." + +Charlotte took him to the house and left him politely trying to converse +with her grandmother--at tremendous odds, for he was not a rival of Red +Pepper Burns in his fondness for old ladies, not to mention deaf ones. +The photographer returned to her sitter. + +"I have several pictures of you now, Miss Austin," she said, "and I think +among them we shall find one you will like." + +"But aren't you going to have one of this last pose?" Miss Austin +inquired, anxiously. "Of course, I know you have company now--" + +"That doesn't matter. But I have two exposures, by the rosebush, and I +think they are both good. I have kept you standing for quite a long time, +and I want you to see proofs of these before we try any more." + +"I haven't once known when you were taking me. I can't help feeling that +if you just let me know when you were going to take the picture I could +be better prepared." + +"One can be a bit too much prepared. The best one I ever had made of me +was done an instant after I had carelessly taken a seat where the +operator requested. I looked up and asked, 'How do you want me to sit?' +He answered, 'Just as pleases you. I have already taken the picture.'" + +"Dear me! How methods change! Our best photographer here is always so +careful about every line of drapery, and just how you hold your chin +I don't see how you can just snap a person and be sure of an artistic +result." + +"You can't. And perhaps you won't like these at all. But I will show you +proofs to-morrow. And if they are not right we'll try again, if you are +willing." + +Miss Austin went away, parasol held stiffly above her head, though the +sun was behind her. She was wondering, as she went, who the man was who +had come to see Miss Ruston, and she arrived without much difficulty at +the conclusion that he was probably going to marry her. His speech about +being in such haste to reach her that he couldn't take time to go to a +hotel and make himself neat seemed to her sure evidence that the two were +upon a footing more intimate than that of mere friendship. + +"If you are not too proud," said Miss Ruston to Mr. Eugene Brant, "you +may come into the kitchen and wash your hands and face. Afterward you may +stroll about my garden while I get supper." + +"I am not too proud to wash my face in your kitchen," responded Mr. +Brant, following her with alacrity, "but I shall not be willing to stroll +about your garden while you get supper. After supper, if you like, we +will explore it to its mystic end down by the currant bushes I see from +the window here." + +He accepted the basin of water Charlotte gave him, as gracefully as she +presented it, dried his face upon the little towel she handed him, and +declared himself much refreshed. She did not apologize for the lack of a +guest-room where he might remove the signs of dusty travel, nor did she +allude to the absence within the house of most of the appliances +considered necessary in these days for creature comfort. But she +dismissed him to the garden with a finality against which his pleadings +to be allowed to be of use to her proved of no avail, and only when, +after a half-hour, she appeared in the doorway with a pail, and +approached the old well nearby, did he discover a chance to show his +devotion. + +"If you knew what fun I should consider it to be carrying plates and +things around for you in there," said he, as he drew the water for her, +"you wouldn't keep me out here. What do you imagine I came a hundred +miles out of my way for--to study the possibilities of landscape +gardening as applied to miniature estates like these of yours?" + +"You might do much worse," she responded promptly. "I have spent not a +little thought on just how much trimming to give my old shrubbery and how +much to leave in a wild tangle. Will you come in now and have supper? We +will take it with Granny in the front room." + +Mr. Brant was hungry, after his long drive, and he eyed with satisfaction +the small table by the door, set out with fine old china and linen. He +consumed two juicy hot chops with keen relish, accompanied as they were +by well-cooked rice. A simple salad followed, and gave way to a dish of +choice peaches, upon which his hostess poured plenty of rich cream. She +gave him also two cups of extremely good coffee, and he rose from the +repast feeling content, though the fact that he had made a heartier meal +than either of the ladies had not escaped him. + +By and by he had his way, and took Charlotte out to the garden. Little +Madam Chase had been put to bed at what she called "early candle-light," +because such an hour best suited her. + +"Well, are you going to do me the honour of telling me all about it?" Mr. +Brant asked, as he settled himself upon the old bench by Charlotte's +side. He scanned her closely once more in the waning light. + +"What do you want me to tell you?" + +"Just what I ask--all about your coming here. How you get on. What it +means to you. Your hopes--your fears, if you have any. I realize, better +than you do, perhaps, that this is not a small venture for you to make. +I am interested--you understand how interested--to know just the +situation." + +His tone was that of a brother, warm and kind. She responded to it. + +"I am doing as well as I could expect. Almost every day I have a +sitter--sometimes two. My friends are very good; they bring me every one +who will come. People seem to like the things I do--some of them." + +"Almost every day you have a sitter!" he repeated. "Do you call that +doing well? How long have you been here?" + +"Just seven weeks. Yes, I do call that doing well. It takes time to +become established, of course. Now that I have made pictures of many +of the prominent people others will follow, I'm confident. You know this +isn't the portrait season--too many have cameras of their own and are +taking snapshots of outdoor scenes, with themselves in the foreground." + +"You don't find yourself wishing you had stayed in the city, as I +advised?" + +"Not a bit. I want more experience first. I want to be able to do work +I needn't apologize for when I really begin with a city studio." + +"You are doing finished work, in my opinion." + +"Not in mine." + +He laughed. "There is nothing weak about your will," said he. + +"I hope not. I need a strong one." + +"Granted, if you mean to persist in making your own way. But I live in +hope that when you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that you +are perfectly competent to hew out that way for yourself, you will be +willing to let some stouter pair of arms take a turn with the axe." + +His tone had meaning in it, but she turned it aside. + +"Could anybody take your studio away from you? Even though you don't do +it for a living, but only because you adore it, could you be induced to +give it up?" + +"I'm not trying to induce you to give yours up. I'll build a separate one +for you right beside mine, any time you say the word, and you shall +pursue your avocation in perfect freedom. All I object to is your making +the thing your vocation. I know of a better one for you." + +She shook her head. "We went over all this ground--over and over +it--before I came away. Why do you come out here and begin it all over +again? I don't want to talk about it." + +"I came because I had to see for myself what sort of a place you were +in. I had a notion that it wasn't good enough. It isn't. You can't be +comfortable in it, through the most of the year. Neither can Madam +Chase." + +"We can be perfectly comfortable." She spoke quickly and decidedly. "You +know absolutely that I wouldn't sacrifice what is dearest to me in the +world for the sake of having my own way. The little house is primitive, +but Granny can be made as snug in it as in any stone mansion." + +"The thing may tumble down about your ears in the first high wind." + +"It will not. Dr. Burns went over it thoroughly, and says it is much more +substantial than it looks." + +"Dr. Burns! May I ask who the gentleman is?" + +"My neighbour across the street. He is devoted to Granny, and had as many +fears as you could have before he tested the house." + +"Is he married?" + +"Certainly." It was impossible to help laughing a little at his tone, +which was that of a jealous boy. + +"Thank heaven for that! I'm suspicious of men who are devoted to your +grandmother, charming old lady though she is. But, in spite of Dr. +Burns's invaluable opinion, I must beg to differ with him. You can't be +comfortable in that chicken-coop through the winter." + +"I don't know," Charlotte said slowly, sitting up very straight in the +twilight, and looking steadily in front of her, "that you have any right +to care whether we are comfortable or not." + +"No right to care? Not the right of an old friend? Charlotte, you +wouldn't deny me that? Why, child, I saw you grow up. I was your father's +trusted friend, in spite of being much younger than he. And I'm not so +much older than you, after all--only fifteen years. You might at least +let me play at being elder brother to you." + +"I did let you play that for a long, long time. It was only when--" + +She paused. He took her up. + +"Only when I began to intimate that the relation wasn't fully satisfying +that you began to give me the cold shoulder. You haven't even written to +me since you've been here. Are you aware of that?" + +She nodded. "There was nothing to write. And I've been very busy." + +He drew in his breath, held it for a minute, and let it go again +explosively. + +"Charlotte," said he, presently, "it seems to me I've lost ground with +you. I wish I knew why. You know perfectly well that I won't bother you +with my suit if you won't listen to it,--at least, I won't bother you +with it all the time. I don't promise to give up hope. But what I can't +bear is to have you treat me as if you wouldn't have even my friendship +any longer. It hurts to hear you say I have no right to care whether you +live in a comfortable home or not." + +She turned impulsively. "Then I take it back. You have a certain right, +it's true. You have been a good friend, and I owe you much. It's because +I'm foolishly sensitive about this little cottage. I can see, of course, +that it looks like a poor place to a man who lives in one of the finest +houses in the State of Maryland, but I can't let that influence me. If +you happened to be the sort of man who loves to go off into the woods and +live in a log shack for a whole hunting-season you'd understand its charm +for me. I don't in the least mind washing my face in a tin basin. You do +mind." + +"Not when you offer it. But it's not the tin basin I object to. That +is--" + +"It _is_ the tin basin. You don't like to see a woman live in such a +plain way. But I tell you this, Mr. Brant: she can be just as much a +woman of refinement--" + +"My dear girl--" + +"Yes, I lost my temper for a minute," she admitted. "I shouldn't have +said that. I shouldn't offend you by implying that you don't know it. +What I mean is that the luxuries you consider essential are not +essential. I was brought up among them. I loved them as you do. It is +good for me to do without them--I am conscious of it every day. I shall +be a stronger woman and a better woman if I can learn not to care." + +"But you haven't wholly learned yet." He said it with satisfaction. + +"_I have learned!_" She flung it at him. "I don't mind living in +this simple way, except when a man like you comes along and tries, +deliberately tries, to make me conscious of it." + +He leaned toward her with a sudden, passionate gesture. "Charlotte, +forgive me! It is because I long so to take you away from it, to give +you the sort of home you have known in the old days. It fits you so +well--that sort of home. You were a princess in the old home; you would +be a queen in a new one." + +"Oh, don't!" + +"All right, I won't." + +There was silence between them for some time after this. Brant sat with +his hands clenched and resting upon his knees, his head bent a little. +Charlotte had turned and laid one bended arm upon the high back of the +old bench--her head rested against it. She was the first to speak, in the +light tone with which her sex is accustomed to let a situation down from +the heights of strong emotion to a more normal level. + +"What do you do with a sitter who won't let you bring out her best +points, but insists on making herself into the stiffest sort of a lay +figure?" + +"Chloroform her and relax the tension." Brant's tone was grim. Then, +suddenly, he looked up. "Will you let me go in and make a flashlight of +you by a new method I've worked out? I promise you you'll find it a trick +worth knowing." + +"I shall be delighted. You've taught me half I know, and I'm more +grateful than I seem." + +"I hope that's true," he said, still in the grim tone, as they went up +the garden path toward the house. + +Inside the house he became the exponent of the art of which he was past +master. His study was to him only a diversion, but he had become +distinguished in it as an amateur who played at being a professional +for the interest of it, and who possessed a collection of photographic +portraits of half the celebrities in the world. With eager interest +Charlotte watched him manipulate improvised screens and devices for +casting light and shadow, and when he posed her understood the result +he meant to produce. + +"Oh, that will give a new effect!" she said, delightedly. "I should never +have thought of it in the world." + +"It will almost absolutely overcome the flatness of the flashlight, as +you will see when we develop it--if you will let me stay so long. Now--" + +The flash flared and died. Brant smiled with gratification. If he knew +what he was doing he had a new portrait of Charlotte Ruston which would +surpass anything he had yet made of her. It seemed to him that during +these last weeks she had grown even more desirable than he had ever known +her. There had always been a spirit and enchantment about her personality +which had been his undoing, but there was now a quality in it which was +well nigh his despair--the quality born of self-sacrifice and endeavour, +those invisible but potent agencies in the creating of the highest type +of womanly charm. + +The pair went into the dark-room together. Here, at least, Mr. Brant +was able to give sincere approval. Although the place was cramped +no necessary detail was lacking. Charlotte had not spared expense +in transporting material or in fitting the spot with the requisite +conveniences for swift and sure work. In a very few minutes Brant was +showing his pupil the negative, which her trained eye was fully able +to appreciate. + +"Oh, that will make a perfect print," she exclaimed, everything else +forgotten in the joy of the artist over the overcoming of difficulties. +"You certainly have conquered almost the last obstacle to the making of +flashlight portraits. That will be soft as daylight. I will make the +print to-morrow and let you know." + +"You don't mean to send me merely a report of its appearance, I hope." + +She laughed. "Of course I'll make a print for you, if you want it. +Perhaps you'll admit, when you see the setting, that the old room isn't +such an inartistic choice for a photographer." + +"The old room is delightful--as a background. But when your feet are +freezing on its cold floor, in the dead of next winter--Never mind, we +won't go back to that. I admit it's a September night, and there's no use +in my borrowing trouble. Besides, I suppose I must be off in half an +hour. Let's make the most of it." + +They sat in the room in question and talked of developers and +fixing-baths, of processes and results, and Charlotte found such interest +in these technical topics that she glowed and sparkled as another woman +might have done at talk of quite different things. She knew well enough +that nobody could give her greater aid or inspiration in her work than +Eugene Brant, whose signature upon any portrait meant approval in the +large world where he was known. + +In spite of his over-heaviness of outline he was not an uninteresting +figure as he sat there. His face had not taken on superfluous flesh as +his body had acquired weight, and its lines were good to the eye of the +artist. His eye was clear, his smile full and not lacking in a certain +winning quality which spoke of sympathy and understanding. One who had +never before seen him would not doubt that here was a man worth +acquaintance, in spite of the fact that his only labour was in the +pursuit of a fancy rather than in the making of a living. + +The hour came for his reluctant departure. Standing on Charlotte's shaky +little porch he looked up at her as she stood on the threshold above him. +Against the light in the room behind her the outlines of her lithe young +figure were to him adorable. He took her hand and held it for a minute +with a strong pressure which spoke for him of his longing to keep it in +his permanent possession. + +"Will you send me off with the assurance that at least my friendship is +still something to you?" he asked her. "You can be as independent as you +like, but you need friends. Or, if that has small weight with you, let me +appeal to your generosity. I need your friendship even more than you need +mine." + +"Unhappy Mr. Brant." She was smiling. "So few friends, so few pleasures, +he needs poor Charlotte Ruston's support!" + +"Poor Charlotte Ruston is a greater inspiration to Eugene Brant's good +work than any dozen of his fashionable patrons." + +"I am honoured--truly. And, of course, we are friends, the best of +friends. I will send you the print soon. Thank you for coming. You have +helped me very much." + +With which he was obliged to be content. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN FEBRUARY + + +One cold December morning Charlotte Ruston, sweeping up her hearth after +making her fire for the day, preparatory to bringing little Madam Chase +downstairs, heard the knock upon her door which heralded Mrs. Redfield +Pepper Burns. It was a peculiar knock, reminiscent of the days at +boarding-school when certain signals conveyed deep meaning. This +particular triple tattoo meant "I have something to tell you." + +Charlotte opened the door, smiling at sight of her friend. "You are worth +looking at, in those beautiful furs, with the frost on your cheeks," she +said, drawing Ellen in to the fire, and passing a caressing hand over the +rich softness of her sleeve. "Furry hat and furry gloves--and furry +boots, too, probably--let me see? I thought so," as she examined Ellen's +footgear. "You could start on a trip to Greenland, this minute, and not +freeze so much as the tip of your nose, behind that wonderful muff." + +"It will be Greenland on the Atlantic liner next week," said Ellen, +drawing off the enveloping coat at Charlotte's motion, and seating +herself in Granny's winged chair. "The trip to Germany is on foot, at +last. Red has had to put it off so many times I began to think we +shouldn't get away this year at all. But he's taken our passage now, and +vows that nothing shall hinder. So I'm packing in rather a hurry, for we +mean to be off on Saturday, though we shall not sail until Tuesday. One +can always use a day or two in New York." + +"Lucky mortals. I wish I were going with you." Charlotte said it gayly, +but her eyes were suddenly wistful. "How long shall you stay? I shall +miss you horribly." + +"I wish you were going, dear. Nothing could make me happier. We should be +a great party then, for Dr. Leaver goes with us. It's a sudden decision +on his part. Red wrote him of certain work he wanted to do in the clinics +and urged him to go along, thinking it would be just the thing for him +now, after plunging into work again with such a will. You know they spent +a year there together, ten years ago, and Dr. Leaver wrote that the +thought of going over the old scenes with Red tempted him beyond +resistance. He's been across twice since, but only for a special purpose +of study. Of course both will do more or less observing in clinics now, +but I imagine they will get in a bit of merrymaking together. If I only +had you to go about with me while they were busy I should ask nothing +better." + +"Shall you be gone all winter?" + +"Oh, no; only two months in all. Neither Red nor 'Jack'--as he always +calls him--feel that they can spare longer than that, this time. So by +the first of March you will see us returning to our own fireside, and +probably glad enough to get back to it. German fires, as I remember them, +are by no means as hot as American ones. And that brings me to my plan +for you and Granny. I want you to come over and live in the house in our +absence. There'll be only Cynthia there, for Bob is to stay with Martha. +He will be happier over there with her boys than with Cynthia. So you +will have the whole house to yourselves and can be as snug as possible +all through the heaviest part of the winter." + +She smiled confidently at Charlotte, seeing no possible reason why her +friend should object to a plan so obviously for the comfort of all +concerned. But to her surprise Charlotte slowly shook her head. + +"It's a beautiful, kind plan, and exactly like you, but I couldn't think +of accepting it." + +"My dearest girl, will you tell me why? You would be doing me all kinds +of a favour." + +"No favour at all. Cynthia doesn't need us to help her take care of the +house. We shall be perfectly comfortable here, and--my business is here." + +"Charlotte, I'm afraid you won't be perfectly comfortable. This room +isn't really warm this morning, and it's not an extremely cold morning. +Through midwinter we're likely to have very heavy weather, as you don't +know, not having spent a winter here." + +"Have you? Isn't this your first winter North? You're just as much of a +Southerner as I am. You don't a bit know about Northern winters. You just +imagine they must be dreadful." + +"I've heard about the snowdrifts over the fences, the terrific winds, +and the intense cold. The storms will beat upon this little old house, +and I shall think about it away off in Germany--and be anxious. Please, +Charlotte, don't be unreasonable. Why in the world shouldn't you do me +a favour like this? Red wants it just as much as I do, particularly on +the grandmother's account. Think how comfortable she would be in my +living-room, and in my guest-room. And I should so love to have her +there." + +"I suppose I'm an ungrateful person, but I truly don't want to do it, +Len. Of course you know I wouldn't persist in a course that I thought +would do Granny harm, but I don't see how this can. She stays in bed in +the morning, as warm as toast, until I bring her down here, and I don't +bring her until the room is thoroughly warm. I give her her breakfast +here, and keep her perfectly comfortable all day, as she can tell you. At +night I take her up to a nest as cosy as a kitten's, and she has her hot +milk the last thing to send her off. Not a breath of discomfort touches +her beloved head." + +The two looked at each other, Charlotte's expression proudly sweet, +Ellen's charmingly beseeching. + +"I can see it's of no use," admitted Mrs. Burns, disappointedly, "but I'm +very sorry. Will you promise me this? If at any time it seems to you that +my plan is, after all, a better one for you than your own, you'll be good +and come straight over?" + +"I promise you that I'll take proper care of both of us, and love you for +a devoted friend. That ought to satisfy you. Do you know that as you sit +there, with that furry hat on your head and your cheeks glowing, you're +the prettiest thing north of Mason-and-Dixon's line?" + +"I know you're a flatterer, as you always were. If I can rival you in +that blue cotton--Charlotte, do you think you ought to wear cotton in +December?" + +"You wear gauze and low-cut gowns in the evening in January, don't +you?--and would in Labrador, if you went out to dinner. What's the +difference between silver tissue in the evening and blue cotton in the +morning?" + +"Considerable difference, as you very well know. But you're impossible to +argue with this morning, and I must run back to my packing. Red won't +hear of my taking more than a certain quite inadequate amount of luggage, +and I have to plan pretty closely accordingly." + +"That's good for you. You don't know the first thing about curtailing +your desires, and he means to teach you. Perhaps he won't limit you as to +how much you bring home." + +"I hope not. We shall stop for a week in Paris before we sail, and I mean +to bring you the loveliest evening frock you've had in a long time. It's +no use forbidding me, for I shall do it just the same." + +"I'm not going to forbid you," laughed Charlotte Ruston, with her cheek +against the furry hat. "I know when not to forbid people to do things +I want them to do. Only make it blue, my blue, and have a touch of silver +on it, and I'll wear it and think of you with adoration." + +"It's a bargain," and Ellen went away smiling, with the image of +Charlotte in the sort of blue-and-silver gown she meant to bring her, +effacing for the moment the other image of Charlotte in a blue cotton +house-dress on a freezing winter morning, in a chilly house. + +A few days later the travellers were off. When Red Pepper Burns and Ellen +came in to say good-bye in the early evening they found the little house +as warm as even the most solicitous person could desire, and both the +elder and the younger inmate looking so rosy and happy that doubts of +their continued welfare seemed unreasonable. Charlotte, expecting them, +was wearing a picturesque, if old and oft-rejuvenated, trailing frock of +dull-rose silk, whose effect was to heighten the already splendid colour +in her face. It gave her also a certain air of grand lady which seemed +hers by right, whether in the dignified old drawing-room Ellen remembered +in the Ruston house, or in this small apartment, illumined by fire and +candle-light, and graced by a little old lady in cap and kerchief of fine +lace. There were flowers on the table under the candles, and a tray with +delicate glasses and a plate of little cakes. Altogether, the whole +atmosphere of the room was so comfortably hospitable, and the charm of +Charlotte's gay manner so convincing, that both her guests went away with +the pleasant sense that they left real home happiness under the patched +shingles of the roof, and contentment greater than that found beside most +hearths. + +"Remember that James Macauley has promised to be a brother to you in +my absence, and will see you through any difficulty that may arise," +declared Burns, shaking hands. "Arthur Chester claims the same privilege +and both will be only too happy to be called on. The small boys will vie +with each other to keep your paths shovelled, and Bob wishes to be +considered guard-in-chief." + +"Cynthia will be flattered to be asked to help you in any way, dear," +Ellen urged. "She will be lonely with no one to cook for,--do make her +happy by letting her do things for you." + +"You dear people," Charlotte responded, "be assured that Granny and I +will remember all these counsels. Don't have us on your minds, but come +back to us with the first crocuses, and know that we shall be wild with +delight at seeing you." + +Burns stooped over Madam Chase's chair, and took both her small hands in +his. "What shall I bring you from Germany, dear lady?" he asked. + +She always heard him better than she heard most people, and laughed like +a pleased child at the question. "I spent a winter in Berlin, when I was +a young woman," said she. "I remember it clearly enough. There was a +little shop in one of the streets--I forget just which--where they sold +pictures of the emperor, in little carved frames. William the First, it +was then, grandfather of the present Emperor. I should like such another +little picture of the present Kaiser--and thank you!" + +"You shall have it--and something else, of my own choosing, if I may. +Good-bye, dear lady. May I kiss you good-bye?" + +She permitted the privilege, beaming with pleasure under the reverent +touch of her fair cheek. Then she gave Burns a parting admonition. + +"Take good care of that wife of yours; she is well worth it," she said. + +"I realize that more every day, Madam Chase. I'll take care of her--with +my life," he said, soberly, close to her ear. Then he bore Ellen away, +both looking back with friendly eyes at the pair they left in the +cottage, and wishing them well with all their warm hearts. + +They had barely sailed when the first heavy snowfall of the season +covered the world with a blanket of white, and this was the forerunner of +almost continuous genuine winter weather. No severe storms such as Ellen +had prophesied assailed the region until the first of February, but then +came such a one as deserved no other name than the modern term of +blizzard, a happening of which Madam Ruston and Charlotte had heard, +but had never genuinely experienced. + +"We're going to show you the real article this time," declared James +Macauley, stamping his way in out of the snow one evening, when the storm +had been in progress for twenty-four hours without intermission. "I came +over to assure you that if in the morning your roof has disappeared under +a drift you may rest easy in the knowledge that you will surely be +shovelled out before noon. My wife sent me over to find out if you had +plenty of supplies on hand." + +"We weren't provided for quite so long a siege, but I was coming over to +telephone from your house this morning. It's a great storm, isn't it? I +think it's fun, for it's my first experience. Do tell your boys to come +over and make a snow fort or something in my front yard." + +"They'll be delighted, when the storm stops. There's no use making forts +now, you know." + +"No, I didn't know. I was prepared to go out this morning and play with +them." + +Macauley looked at her. "Not in that dress, I hope," he observed, +bluntly. "It beats me, the way women wear their thinnest clothes in the +coldest weather. I wonder how I'd feel with the kind of rig you're +wearing. And it's none too warm here, it strikes me, if you don't mind my +saying it, in spite of that good-looking fire." + +"The room warms rather slowly in this extreme weather," Charlotte +admitted. She was standing close to the fire, in the unquestionably +summerlike dress of the blue cotton she chose for all her working frocks. +With its low rolling collar and short sleeves it certainly did not +suggest comfort. If Macauley had suspected that beneath it was no +compensating protection, he would have been considerably more concerned +than he was. His wife was accustomed to explain to him, when he +criticised the inadequacy of her attire, that she fully made up for it by +some extra, hidden warmth of clothing. And when he complained that anyhow +she didn't look warm she invariably replied that nothing could be more +deceiving than looks. + +He walked over to the windows. They were rattling stormily with each gust +of the tempest raging outside, and as he held his hand at their edges he +could feel all the winds of heaven raging in. + +"Jupiter!" he exclaimed. "No wonder you're cold. That stage fire of yours +can't warm all outdoors. I'll send for some window strips and nail you +up." + +"Please don't bother, Mr. Macauley. I am going to stuff them with cotton +myself, and that will do quite well. If you will be so kind as to +telephone this order to the grocery for me I shall be grateful, though +I hardly see how the delivery wagons can get about." + +He took the paper she handed him, and absently, after the manner of the +householder, his eyes scanned it. + +"Why, you want to order in larger lots than these!" he exclaimed. Then, +as he looked up and saw her smiling without reply, he reddened and +stammered hastily: "I beg your pardon; I looked without thinking. But, +if you don't mind my advising you, I'd say double each of these items, +at least; it's economy in the end. And--where's the meat order? Have you +forgotten?" + +"There are eggs on the grocery list," said Charlotte, a little flame of +colour rising in her own cheek. "Granny prefers those. But you may double +each item, if you wish. Probably you don't realize that I'm not ordering +for a family like yours, and things spoil quickly when kept in the +kitchen, as we keep ours." + +"Of course you know your own affairs," mumbled Macauley, in some +embarrassment. "But, if you'd heard R.P. Burns charging me to look after +you as if you belonged to me, you'd pardon my impertinence." + +"I appreciate your interest," Charlotte assured him, lightly. "But I'm +really enjoying the new experience of this storm and don't mind a bit how +long it lasts. Granny is warm as can be upstairs with her little stove, +and as she can't hear the wind howl her spirits aren't in the least +depressed. I admit I don't just love to hear the wind howl. If it would +be still about it I should like to see the snow bury my whole front lawn +three feet deep." + +"I'm glad you take it that way. Martha insists that such storms are very +depressing,--principally, I believe, because they keep her from running +in to see her neighbours. Well, I must be off. I'll send the youngsters +over to shovel a path to your front door; I had to wallow through +myself." + +He went away, and the storm raged on. The boys did not come over; their +labours would have been of small avail if they had worked never so +valiantly, for the drifts formed faster than they could have been +shovelled away. Night fell with Nature still unappeased, and the wind, +contrary to the prediction of the grocer's boy, when in the late +afternoon he fought his way in with his basket of supplies, did not +go down with the sun. + +In the middle of the night, Charlotte, waking from an uneasy sleep, felt +the house rocking so violently with the tempest that she became alarmed. +She wondered if the shaky frame could withstand the continued shocks. The +air of the room felt very cold to her cheek, although she had, out of +consideration for the unusual conditions, refrained from opening wide her +window. The rush of cold seemed to be coming from the door which opened +into her grandmother's room, and with a sudden fear she flew out of bed +and ran to investigate. With the first step inside Madam Chase's door her +bare foot encountered the icy touch of snow, and she realized that a +window was undoubtedly open to the full force of the storm. + +Without a thought of herself she rushed across the room, understanding +what must have happened: the shaky little old window frame had blown in, +for the tempest came straight from that direction. Yes, she stumbled upon +it, lying on the floor. She picked it up and tried to replace it, but an +instant's struggle convinced her that this was impossible. With a cry she +ran to the bed, herself chilled through, her heart beating fast with +fear. How long had Granny been lying there in the onslaught of wind and +cold? + +She seized upon the small figure huddled under the blankets, lifted it, +blankets and all, and bore it into her own room. She laid it on her own +cot, covered it with a mountain of clothing, and crushed into place the +door between the two rooms. Then, shaking with chill, her teeth +chattering, she dressed, answering the old lady's one shivering +complaint: + +"I thought I was very cold, in my dreams, Charlotte. What has happened?" + +"It's all right, Granny,--you are safe in my room. I'll get you warm in a +minute." + +She ran down to the kitchen, heated water over a spirit-lamp, and made a +stiff little hot drink, which she carried upstairs, with a hot-water +bottle. The bag at Granny's feet, the stimulating posset drunk, Charlotte +felt easier about her charge and went next at the task of making her +comfortable for the remainder of the night. She ran down again and made +up the fire in the fireplace, convinced that she must get the old lady +downstairs, now that with each blast the terrible wind was filling one +room with the storm and battling at the little old door to make an +entrance into the other. Then she put on a coat, and went up to wrestle +with Granny's bed, while the wind swept round her, and the snow flew +across the room and stung her cheeks. It was a hard task, getting the bed +apart and down the stairs, but she accomplished it, and set it up in the +living-room, far from the windows and with one side to the fire. Then she +brought down springs and mattress, warmed the latter thoroughly at the +blaze, and put it in place. + +"Now, dear," she said presently, bending over the cot, "I'm going to take +you down by the fire. It's too cold for you up here, and you'll be +perfectly comfortable there." + +Granny, wrapped in many blankets, was not quite so light a load as usual, +but Charlotte staggered down with her, and soon had her at ease in her +bed, freshly made up and warm with surrounding blankets. The room itself +could not be so quickly warmed, but Granny knew no discomfort nor +realized that her niece, with all her exertions, was still shaking now +and then with chill and excitement. She had small notion of the anxiety +Charlotte was suffering concerning her frail self. + +"You must get the window replaced at once, my dear," she remarked, +sleepily, from among her pillows. "It must be really quite a storm. +I could feel the bed shake. Down here it seems quieter." + +"Yes, Granny, much quieter. Go to sleep now, and make up for lost time." + +Her charge forgot to ask her what she meant to do herself, and presently +dropped comfortably off into a deep slumber. Charlotte piled on wood, +making a rousing fire, and sat beside it for the rest of the night, +wrapped in a blanket in the winged chair. She shivered away the hours, +unable to become warm no matter how close to the fire she crouched, and +in the morning was conscious that she had taken a severe cold, quite as +might have been expected. But, as her chief anxiety was relieved by +finding that Madam Chase awoke apparently in as good condition as ever +and not in the least the worse for her exposure, Charlotte made light to +herself of her own ill feelings. + +She struggled across the street in the morning to telephone a carpenter, +and as it was the dull season for workmen of his craft obtained one +immediately. He proved a conscientious person, who shook his head over +the ancient window frame and advised putting in a new one with a tightly +fitting sash. By night the room was secure from the weather, and Madam +Chase insisted on returning to it, in spite of Charlotte's entreaties +that she remain downstairs until the storm should be over. + +"Nonsense, child," she said firmly, "this is no place for me and my +bed. Any of our friends are likely to come in at any time, and it is +impossible to keep the room looking properly under such conditions. +Besides, I much prefer my own room." + +So at her bedtime Charlotte moved her back to her quarters, having heated +them to a summer temperature with the small oil-stove. + +"Poof!" said the little old lady, as she was brought into the room. "How +unnecessarily warm it is here! Just because a storm rages outside, dear, +why should it be necessary to heat this room so stuffily? The stove +consumes the air. When I'm in bed you must open the window and give me +something to breathe." + +"I was so frightened last night," Charlotte explained hoarsely in Madam +Chase's ear, "I feel like doing you up in cotton wool, lest such another +icy wind blow on you." + +"Why, what a cold you have, child!" cried her grandmother, recognizing +this undoubted fact more fully than she had yet done. "You must make +yourself some hot ginger tea, or some hot lemonade, and get to bed at +once. Promise me you will do it, my dear." + +Charlotte nodded, smiling in the candle-light. Then she tucked her charge +in with more than ordinary care, and spent some time in arranging the +ventilation of the room to her satisfaction. The storm outside was still +heavy, but the wind was less violent, and it had changed its quarter. + +She went downstairs again, finding it too early for her own bedtime, +weary though she was. Martha Macauley presently sent over a maid who was +commissioned to send Charlotte across for an evening with the family, the +maid herself to remain with Madam Chase. "If you have the courage to come +out in the storm," the note read. + +"I'm afraid I haven't, thank you," Charlotte wrote back, and dismissed +the maid with a word of sympathy for her necessary breasting of the +drift-blown passage across the street. + +"Oh, it's awful out," the girl said. "I don't think Mrs. Macauley knows +how bad it is, not being out herself to-day, and Mr. Macauley away." + +Charlotte made up her fire afresh, and pulling the winged chair close sat +down before it. She was cold and weary, and her head felt very heavy. She +had put on a loose gown of a thin Japanese silk--dull red in hue, a relic +of other days. Her hair was loosely braided and hung down her back in a +long, dark plait. Upon her feet were slippers, about her shoulders a +white shawl of Granny's. + +All the gay and gallant aspect of her, as her friends knew her, was gone +from her to-night, as she sat there staring into the fire. She still +shivered, now and then, in the too-thin red silk robe, and drew the shawl +closer. Her heart was as heavy as her head, her mind busy with retrospect +and forecast, neither enlivening. The courage which had sustained her +through almost four years of endeavour was at a singularly low ebb +to-night. It had ebbed low at other times, but usually she had been able +to summon it again by a mere act of the will, by a determination to be +resolute, not to be downcast, never to allow herself so much as to +imagine ultimate failure. To-night, although she told herself that her +depression was the result of physical fatigue, and fought with all her +strength to conquer the hopelessness of the mood, she found herself in +the end prostrate under the weight of thoughts heavier than the spirit +could bear. + +She sat there for an hour; then, still shivering, prepared to rake the +ashes over the remains of the fire and go to bed. It occurred to her +suddenly that before closing things up below she would see if Madam Chase +were asleep, or if she might need something hot to drink again, as +sometimes happened. She went wearily upstairs, her candle flickering in +the narrow passageway. It seemed, somehow, as if the whole house were +full of small conflicting winds pressing into it through every loose +window-frame and under each sunken threshold. + +She stooped over the bed, the candle-light falling on the small, white +face. White--how white! With all its delicate fairness, had it ever +looked like this before? With a sudden fear clutching at her heart she +held the little flame lower.... + +She groped her way half-blindly down the stairs, the candle left behind. +As she reached the foot a stamping sounded upon the porch outside the +living-room door. She ran toward it,--never had sound of human approach +been so madly welcome. Before she could reach the door a knock fell upon +it. + +She wrenched at the latch, finding the door frozen into place, as it had +been all through this weather. She tugged in vain for a moment, then a +voice called from the other side: + +"Look out! I'm going to push!" + +With a catch in her throat, her heart pounding even more wildly than it +had done before, she stood aside. What voice was that? It couldn't be +possible, of course, but it had sounded like one she knew in its every +inflection, one which did not belong to any of her nearby friends. It +could not be possible--it could not--but-- + +The door crashed open, and a mound of snow fell in with it. Striding in +over the snow came a tall figure in an enveloping great coat, covered +with white from head to foot, the face ruddy and smiling. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + + +John Leaver turned and tried to close the door, but the mound of snow +prevented. The wind was sweeping in with fury. "Go away from it," he +commanded. "I'll see to it." + +He kicked the snow out with his foot, crowded the door into place, and +turned about again. He stood still, looking at the figure before him, +with its startled face, wide eyes staring at him, breath coming short. +Charlotte's hands were pressed over her heart, she seemed unable to +speak. + +"Did I frighten you, rushing in upon you at this time of night?" The +smile upon his face died, he looked as if she had put out a hand to hold +him off. Then, as he regarded her more closely, he saw that which alarmed +him. + +"Is something wrong? Has something happened?" he asked hurriedly. + +She nodded, still staring with a strange, wild look. Then, in a breath, +she found speech and action. + +"Oh, come!" she gasped. "Granny is--something has happened to Granny!" +and ran to him and caught at his hand, like a child, pulling him. + +"Just a minute," he said, quickly, releasing himself, and pulled off his +snow-covered overcoat and frozen gloves, and threw them to one side. Then +he put out his hand to her. + +"Now!" he said, and they ran together to the stairs, and up them. At the +top Charlotte paused. + +"In there!" she whispered, and let him take the lead. + +Her hand held very tight in his he crossed the room. He took up the +candle from the dressing-table, approached the bed, and gave the candle +to Charlotte. Letting go her hand then, he bent and looked closely into +the still, peaceful old face ... made a brief, quiet examination.... + +He led her down the stairs again. She was fully blind now, seeing +nothing, conscious of but two things--the sense of a great blow having +fallen stunningly, and the sense of being held firmly by a warm, strong +hand. She clung to that hand as if it were all that lay between sea and +shore. + +In the living-room, before the fire, she felt the hand draw itself gently +away. But then she found herself clasped in two warm arms, her head +pressed gently down upon a strong shoulder. A voice spoke with a +throbbing tenderness which seemed to envelop her: + +"Don't question anything, just let me take you to my heart--where you +belong. God sent me to you at this hour, I'm sure of it. I felt it all +the way--that you needed me. I am yours, body and soul. Let me serve you +and take care of you as if it had all been settled long ago. Be big +enough for that, dear." + +She listened, and let him have his way. Whatever might come after, there +seemed nothing else to do now. The Presence in the room above seemed to +have changed everything. One could not speak or act as might have been +possible an hour ago. Only the great realities counted now. Here were +two of them confronting her at once--Death and Love. How could she be +less primitively honest in the face of one than of the other? + +He put her in the winged chair, drew the white shawl closely about her +shoulders, dropped upon one knee by her side, and, taking possession once +more of her hand, spoke low and decidedly: + +"I will go over to the Macauleys and send Mrs. Macauley to you. Then Mr. +Macauley and I will take everything in charge--with your permission?" + +He waited for her assent. She gave it with closed eyes, her head tilted +back against the wing of the chair, her lips pressed tight together that +they might not tremble. + +"You will want to take her to Washington, or on to South Carolina?" + +"South Carolina--where she was born." + +"We shall not be able to start till the storm is over. There is no train +or trolley service out from the city to-night, and there will not be +until the wind and drifting stops. My train was ten hours late. I should +have been here this morning. Meanwhile, I will stay just where you want +me. You and Mrs. Macauley can settle that. I wish for your sake Mrs. +Burns were here--and Red." + +"They are not here? Then--how did you come to--" + +"Come home before them? I couldn't stay away contentedly as long as they. +I had had an all-summer's vacation, and wanted to be at work. But I came +from the ship straight up here, to satisfy myself that all was well with +you. I found you--needing me. Can I help being thankful that I came?" + +"Dr. Leaver--?" + +"Yes?" + +Charlotte sat up suddenly, opening her eyes, pressing her free hand again +over her heart with that unconscious gesture as old as suffering. + +"If I had not insisted on keeping Granny here she would not have--would +not have--" + +She sank back, covering her face. + +"What had her being here to do with it? You took every care of her. She +was old--ripe--ready to go. The wonder is that she has lived so long, +with such a frail hold on life." + +"But--she had an exposure. This dreadful weather--night before last--her +window blew in--she was chilled--" + +Her voice broke. With difficulty she told him the story of the +experience. He lifted her hand to his lips and held it there. After +a minute he spoke very gently: + +"I doubt if that had anything to do with it. It was probably the crash of +the window blowing in that woke you, although you did not know it; she +may not have lain there but a moment. You overcame the slight chill, if +there was one, with your prompt measures. You brought her downstairs, +and carried her back. There was no strain whatever upon her, it was all +upon you. Dr. Burns has told me that her heart-action was the weakest and +most irregular he had encountered; that, at any hour, without seeming +provocation, it might stop. Why should you mourn? It was a happy way to +go--merely to stop breathing, as her attitude and expression show she +did. Her hour had come--you had nothing to do with it. Take that to your +heart, and don't blame yourself for one moment more." + +She lay back in the chair again, relaxing a little under the firm words. + +"Shall I go now and send Mrs. Macauley? It is nearly ten o'clock, time we +were letting them know. But before I go let me tell you one thing, then I +will say no more to-night. There is no more now to come between us than +there was a year ago when--listen, Charlotte--we knew--we both knew--that +we belonged to each other, and nothing waited but the spoken word. I dare +to say this to you, for I am sure, in my inmost soul, that you know as +well as I do where we stood at that time. And--the thing is gone which +came between us afterward." + +He stood up, put on his coat, said quietly: "You shall be alone but a +very short time," and went out. + +Left alone Charlotte laid both arms suddenly down upon the arm of the +chair--Granny's chair--and broke into a passion of weeping. It lasted +only for a little while, then she raised herself suddenly, threw back her +head, lifted both arms high--it was an old gesture of hers when she was +commanding her own self-control--gripping the clenched fists tight. Then, +as steps and the sound of voices were heard outside, she stood up, +holding herself quietly. + +When Mrs. Macauley came in, excitedly sympathetic and eager to comfort, +she found a quiet mourner ready to talk with her more composedly than she +herself was able to do. Martha, shocked though she was by the sudden +call, was full of curiosity as to the return of John Leaver, and only +Charlotte's reticent dignity of manner kept back a torrent of eager +questions. + +"It's certainly very fortunate he's here," she admitted. "He can take +charge of the journey South, knowing trains and routes much better than +Jim or I do. Of course we will go with you, dear. I judge from what Dr. +Leaver says he will go all the way--which will certainly be a comfort. He +seems so strong and capable--so changed from the way he acted when he +first came here, languid and indifferent. Oh, how sorry Red and Ellen +will be not to be here! Red was so fond of dear Madam Chase." + +Martha proved not unpleasant company for that first night, for her +practical nature was always getting the better of her notion that she +must speak only of things pertaining to the occasion. She went out into +Charlotte's kitchen and stirred about there, returning with a tray of +light, hot food. She had been astonished at the meagreness of the +supplies she found, but made no comment. + +"You must keep up your strength, my dear girl," she urged, when Charlotte +faltered over the food. "It's a long way between now and the time when +it will be all over. We may be delayed a day or two in getting off, and +delayed all the way down. I hear this storm is raging all over the +country." + +Her words proved true. It was two days before the little party could be +off. During that time Charlotte was overwhelmed with attention from her +neighbours. The Macauleys and Chesters could not do enough. Either +Winifred or Martha was constantly with her, and their presence was not +ungrateful. John Leaver came and went upon errands, never seeing +Charlotte alone, but making no effort to do so, conveying to her by his +look or the grasp of his hand the comradeship which she felt more +convincingly with every passing hour. His personality seemed somehow as +vital and stirring as the course of a clear stream in a desert place. + +At the short, private service which preceded the departure of the party +for the train, he came and took his place beside her in a quiet way which +had in it the quality of a right. Although he did not touch or speak to +her the sense of his near presence was to her like a strong supporting +arm. When the moment came to leave the room she heard his whisper in her +ear and felt his hand upon her arm: + +"Courage! You are not going alone, you know." + +It went to her heart. On the threshold she suddenly looked up at him +through her veil, and met in return such a look as a woman may lean upon. +Her heart throbbed wildly in response, throbbed as only a sad heart may +when it realizes that there is to be balm for its wounds. + +All through the long journey Charlotte felt Leaver's constant support, +although he made no further effort to define the relation between them, +even when for a short space, now and then, the two were alone together. +Instead he talked of his hurried trip abroad with the Burnses, and once, +when they were pacing up and down a platform, at a long stop, he told her +of his visit to a certain noted specialist in Berlin. + +"I had had a breakdown in my work last spring," he said, in a quite +simple way, as if he were speaking of something unimportant. "I had made +up my mind that I could never hope fully to recover from its effects. Dr. +Z---- told me that I was perfectly recovered, that I was as sound, +mentally and physically, as I had ever been, and that, if I used ordinary +common sense in the future about vacations at reasonable intervals, there +was no reason why the experience should ever be repeated. This assurance +was what sent me home. I found I couldn't stay in Germany and go +sightseeing with my friends after that. I wanted to be at work again." + +"I wonder that Dr. Burns didn't want to rush home with you," Charlotte +observed--though it was not of Red Pepper she was thinking. This simple +statement, she knew, was the explanation he was giving her of the thing +he had said to her last August under her apple-tree. It made clear to her +that which she had suspected before--it somehow seemed, also, to take +away the last barrier between them. + +"Burns needed the change--he hasn't had a vacation except his honeymoon +for years. By the way, he's having a second honeymoon over there." + +"I'm very glad," Charlotte responded. + +Then the summons came for the return to the train, and Mr. and Mrs. +Macauley, waving to them from the other end of the platform, met them at +the step. + +On the morning of the third day the party reached their destination. They +were met at the small station by a staid but comfortable equipage, driven +by an old family coachman with grizzled, kinky hair and a black face full +of solemnity. They were taken to the hospitable home of the owner of the +dignified old carriage and the fat, well-kept horses which had brought +them to her door, and were there welcomed as only Southern hostesses can +welcome. Mrs. Catesby's mother had been a friend of Madam Chase's youth, +and for her sake the daughter had thrown open her house to do honour to +the ashes of one whom she had never seen. + +"How glad I am," Charlotte said, soon after her arrival, standing by a +window with kind Mrs. Catesby, "to come down here where it is spring. I +could never have borne it--to put Granny away under the snow. She didn't +like the snow, though she never said so. Are those camellias down by the +hedge? Oh, may I go out and pick some--for Granny?" + +"I thought you might like them--and might want to pick them yourself, or +I should have had them ready. I sent for no other flowers. I remember my +mother telling me how Madam Chase loved them--as she herself did." + +From an upper window, in the room to which he had been assigned, Leaver +saw Charlotte go down the garden path to the hedge, there to fill a small +basket with the snowy blooms. When she turned to go back to the house she +found him beside her. + +"I see now why you wanted no other flowers," he said, as he took the +basket. "These are like her--fair and pure and fragile." + +"She was fond of them. She wore them in her hair when she was a girl. +They have no fragrance; that is why I want them for her now. How people +can bear strong, sweet flowers around their dead I can never understand." + +"I have always wondered at that, too," Leaver admitted. "My mother had +the same feeling." He looked closely at Charlotte's face, as the bright +sunlight of the Southern spring morning fell upon it. "You are very +tired," he said, and his voice was like a caress. "Not in body, but in +mind--and heart. I wish, by some magic, I could secure for you two full +hours' sleep before--the hour." + +"I couldn't sleep. But I am strong, I shall not break down." + +"No, you will not break down; that wouldn't be like you. And +to-night--you shall sleep. I promise you that." + +"I wish you could," Charlotte said, and her lips trembled ever so +slightly. "But I shall not." + +"You shall. Trust me that you shall. I know a way to make you sleep." + +However that might be, she thought, his presence was now, as all through +this ordeal, the thing which stood between her and utter desolation. A +few hours later, when he stood beside her at the place which was to +receive that which they had brought to it, she felt as if she could not +have borne the knowledge that she was laying away her only remaining +kinswoman, if it had not been for the sense of protection which, even at +the supreme moment, he managed to convey to her. Her hand, as it lay +upon his arm, was taken and held in a close clasp, which tightened +possessively upon it, minute by minute, until it was as if the two were +one in the deep emotion of the hour. + +All the beauty of spring at her tenderest was in the air, as the little +party turned slowly away, in the light of the late afternoon sun. +Somewhere in the distance a bird was softly calling to its mate. + +Behind Charlotte and Leaver, the kindly old clergyman who had been Madam +Chase's life-long friend was gently murmuring: + + "'Dust is dust, to dust returneth, + Was not written of the soul.'" + +Upon the evening of that day, spent as such evenings are, in subdued +conversation at a hearthside, Leaver came across the room and spoke to +Charlotte. + +"I am wondering," he said, "if a short walk in the night air won't make +you fitter for sleep than you look now. It is mild and fine outside. Will +you come?" + +"It will do you good, Miss Ruston," urged her hostess, who had taken a +strong liking to Dr. Leaver. The Macauleys seconded the suggestion also, +and Charlotte, somewhat reluctantly as to outward manner, but, in spite +of sorrow and physical fatigue, with a strong leap of the heart, made +ready. + +As her companion closed the door behind them Charlotte understood that +she was alone with him at last, as she had not been alone with him in all +these days, even when no person was present. She had small time in which +to recognize what was coming, for, almost instantly, it was at hand. +There was a small park opposite the house, and to the deserted walk which +circled it she found herself led. + +"Dear," Leaver's voice began, in its tenderest inflection, "I have a +curious feeling that no words can make it any clearer between us than it +already is. Last winter we knew how it was with us--didn't we? Won't you +tell me that you knew? It is my dearest belief that you did." + +"Yes, I knew," Charlotte answered, very low. + +"To me it was the most beautiful thing I had ever dreamed of, that two +people could so understand and belong to each other before a word was +said. When the time came to speak, and--the thing had happened that made +it impossible, I can never tell you what it meant to me. When I found +you there in the North it seemed as if the last ounce had been added to +the burden I was bearing. I couldn't ask for your friendship; I couldn't +have taken it if you had given it to me. I had to have all or nothing. +Can you understand that?" + +She nodded. She put up one hand and lifted the thin black veil she was +wearing, and turned her face upward to the stars. They were very bright, +that February night, down in South Carolina. + +"But now," he went on, after a moment, "it is all plain before us. +Charlotte, am I a strangely presumptuous lover to take so much for +granted? I don't even ask if you have changed. Knowing you, that doesn't +seem possible to me. I have never wooed you, I have simply--recognized +you! You belonged to me. I was sure that you so recognized me. It has +been as I dreamed it would be, when I was a boy, dreaming my first dreams +about such things. I have known many women--have had a few of them for my +very good friends. I never cared to play at love with any one; it didn't +interest me. But when I saw you I loved you. I won't say 'fell in love;' +that's not the phrase. I loved you. The love has grown with every day I +have known you--grown even when I thought it was to be denied." + +"I know," Charlotte said again, and now she was smiling through tears at +the friendly stars above her. + +"Yes, you know," he answered, happily. "That's the wonderful thing to +me--that you should know." + +A little path wound through the park, as deserted as the street. He led +her into this, and, pausing where a group of high-grown shrubs screened +them from all possible passers-by, he spoke with all the passion he had +hitherto restrained. + +"Charlotte, are you my wife? Tell me so--_in this_!" + +He laid one arm about her shoulders, his hand lifted her face as he +stooped to meet it with his own. When he raised his head again it was to +look, as she had looked, toward the stars. + +"That was worth," he said tensely, "all the pain I have ever known." Then +as he led her on he spoke again with an odd wistfulness. + +"Dearest, I have talked about our love not needing words, and yet, I find +I want to hear your voice after all. Will you tell me, in words, how it +is with you? I want to hear!" + +After a moment she answered him, softly, yet with a vibrant sweetness +in her tone. "John Leaver, it is as you say. I have known, from the +first, that I--must love you. You made me, in spite of myself. I +couldn't--couldn't help it!" + +He bent his head, with a low murmur of happiness. Then: "And I thought I +could do without words!" he said. + +For the first time in many days Charlotte's lips curved suddenly into the +little provoking, arch smile which was one of her greatest charms. + +"I never thought I could!" she said. + +He laughed. "You shall not! And now I'm going to speak some very definite +words to which I want a very definite answer. Charlotte, you are--I can't +bear to remind you--as far as kinspeople go, quite alone in the world. +There is no reason why that should be true. The nearest of all relations +can be yours to-morrow. Will you marry me to-morrow, before we go North? +Then we shall be quite free to stop in Baltimore or to go on as you +prefer. I can go with you, at once, to close up the little house, if you +wish. Is there any reason why we should stay apart a day longer?" + +"I don't know of any that would appeal to you. But there is one." + +"May I know it?" + +She hesitated. "I'm--very shabby," she said, reluctantly; "much shabbier +than you can guess." + +"We'll go by the way of New York, and you can buy all you need. That's an +objection which turns into an argument for the other side, for I want +very much to see a certain old friend in New York, who was out of town +when I landed last week. I can do it while you shop. Doesn't that +convince you?" + +"I can let it--if you really think it is best to be in such haste." + +"Why not? Why should we waste another day apart that we could spend +together? At its longest life is too short for love." + +"Yes," she murmured. + +"I'm thankful, very thankful, that you are too womanly to insist on any +prolonging of what has certainly been separation enough. I felt that you +wouldn't. Oh, all through, it has been your womanliness I have counted +on, dear,--an inexhaustible, rich mine of sense and sweetness." + +"You rate me too high," Charlotte protested, softly. "I'm only a +working-woman, now, you know. All the old traditions of the family have +been set aside by me." + +"You have lived up to their traditions of nobility understood in just a +little different way. It is these years of effort which have made you +what you are. If I had known you in the days before trouble came to you +I might have admired your beauty, but I shouldn't have loved your soul." + +"Then"--she looked up into his face--"I'm glad for everything I've +suffered." + + * * * * * + +The sunlight was pouring in again, next morning, when Charlotte awoke. +She lay, for a little, looking out into the treetops, holding the coming +day against her heart. + +"I can't believe it; oh, I can't believe it," she whispered to herself. +"A week ago so heavy and forlorn and poor--to-day, in spite of losing +Granny, so rich, rich. I'm to be--his wife--this day--his wife! O God! +make me fit for him; make me fit to take his love!" + +When she went downstairs she found him waiting at the foot, looking up at +her with his heart in his eyes, though his manner was as quiet and +composed as ever. At his side stood Martha Macauley, excited and eager. +The moment that Leaver's hand had released Charlotte's Martha had her in +her arms. + +"You dear girl!" she cried. "Of all the romantic things I ever heard of! +I'm so upset I don't know what to do or say, except that I think you're +doing just exactly right. It's as Dr. Leaver says; there isn't a thing in +the way. Why shouldn't you go back together? Only I wish Ellen and Red +were here; they're certain to feel cheated." + +"We'll try to make it up to them," Leaver said, smiling. + +"It's all right," declared James Macauley, joining them. "I like the idea +of getting these things over quietly, without any fuss over trunkfuls of +clothes. If a lady always looks like a picture, whatever she wears, why +should she need fairly to jump out of her frame because she's getting +married?" + +Upstairs, a little later, Martha, coming in upon Charlotte, as she bent +over a tiny trunk, put a solicitous question: + +"My dear, if there's anything in the world I can lend you, will you let +me do it? I have a few quite pretty things with me, and I'd love to give +them to you." + +Lifting a flushed, smiling face Charlotte answered: "That's dear of you, +but I think I have enough--of the things that really matter. I've only +this one travelling dress, but as we shall go straight to New York I can +soon have the frock or two I need. It's so fortunate I brought a trunk at +all. When I came away I was so uncertain just what would happen next, or +how long I might want to stop on the way back, that I put in all the +white things I had there." + +"And beautiful white things they are, too, if that is a sample," said +Martha, noting with feminine interest a dainty garment in Charlotte's +hands. "You're lucky to have them." + +"My mother left stores and stores of such things, and I've been making +them into modern ones ever since. They are my one luxury," and Charlotte +laid the delicate article of embroidered linen and lace in its place with +a loving little pat, as if she were touching the mother to whom it had +belonged. "Otherwise I'm pretty shabby. Yet, I can't seem to mind much." + +"You don't look shabby. You look much trimmer and prettier in that suit +and hat than I in mine, though mine were new this fall. If you knew how +I envy you that look you would be quite satisfied with your old clothes," +said Martha, generously. "And as for the husband you are getting--well--I +suppose you know you're in the greatest sort of good fortune. All the way +down here I've been watching him--Jim says I haven't done anything +else--and I certainly never saw a man who seemed so always to know how +and when to do the right thing. If ever there was a gentleman, born and +bred, Dr. Leaver is certainly that one. And he's a man, too--a splendid +one." + +"I'm so glad you recognize that," said Charlotte, a joyous ring in her +voice. + +Ten o'clock, the hour set for the marriage, came on flying feet. Before +Charlotte could fairly realize it she was walking down the street of the +small Southern village to the little old church which Mrs. Rodney +Rutherford Chase had attended as a girl. The old rector who met them +there had been a life-long friend of the Chase family. Then, in a sort +of strange dream, Charlotte found herself standing by John Leaver's side, +listening to the familiar yet quite new and strange words of the marriage +service. She heard his voice, gravely repeating the solemn vows, her own, +following them with the vows which correspond, then the old rector's deep +tones announcing that they two were one in the sight of God and man. + +She felt her husband's kiss upon her lips, and, turning, lifted her +tear-wet, shining eyes to his. At that moment they two might have been +alone in the world for all their consciousness of any other presence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE COUNTRY SURGEON + + +Redfield Pepper Burns and Mrs. Burns returned from their stay in Germany +just three months later than they had intended. The opportunities for +extended study and observation had proved so tempting to the surgeon who +had taken only a fortnight's vacation in several years that he had +decided to make the most of them. The pair had been kept fully informed +of the progress of events, had wept tears of gentle grief over the news +of Granny's sudden passing, and had smiled with satisfaction over that +which shortly followed it--the news of the marriage which had immediately +taken place. + +Charlotte had written to her friend a brief description, which--Ellen +reading it aloud to her husband--had called forth his sparkling-eyed +comment: + +"It's rather refreshing to find a woman who doesn't make clothes the most +important part of the ceremony, isn't it? No doubt at all but Jack's +found the right woman, eh?" + +"No doubt in the world," and Ellen's eyes silently went over the few +paragraphs again, reading between the lines, as a woman will, and as +Charlotte had known she would. + +"I thought I couldn't possibly sleep that night, when it had all been +arranged,"--the letter ran--"though I was so tired with all I had been +through. But in an hour I had gone straight off, and slept like a child, +my head on such a soft, soft pillow of confidence and rest. O Len,--to +lie on a pillow like that, after months of laying my unhappy head on +stones! + +"At ten next morning we went to the little stone church, all overgrown +with ivy, where Granny was a communicant so many years, and there we were +married, with Mrs. Catesby, Mr. Macauley and Martha for witnesses, and +Dr. Markham, the dear old rector, to give us his blessing. After that +John and I walked over to the place where we had laid dear Granny the day +before. + +"It wasn't sad, Len; how could it be? The flowers were still fresh +over her, and that blessed sunshine was so bright,--as it is in South +Carolina, I think, when all the rest of the world is dark. When we came +away I felt as I often have when I have put that little frail body to bed +and tucked her in and blown out her candle--as if she must surely sleep +well till morning. I am sure she will--sure! + +"Our whole party came North together as far as Harrisburg, then John and +I said good-bye to them and came over to New York, where I am writing to +you, now. I am buying a few simple clothes, just enough to begin to live +with in my new home. In a few days we go to Baltimore, where we shall +settle down in the house, which is just as it was left when John's mother +died, five years ago. He says I may change anything I wish, but from all +I know of his mother and himself I imagine that I shall not care to make +many changes in so fine an old place. He has his offices in a wing--I'm +so glad of that. She wanted him at home, and so shall I. + +"Len, you will want to know if I am happy. Do I need to tell you? All my +old readiness of speech fails me when I come to this. In spite of the way +talk bubbles from me, on ordinary subjects, you know I have never said +much of the big things of my life. I didn't tell you a word of all there +was between your guest of last summer and me. Neither can I talk about it +now. + +"Just this, to satisfy you, dear. Every time I look at his beautifully +strong, sweet, grave face, at his splendid quiet confidence of manner, +as he leaves me to go away to do some of the wonderful work he does, or +comes back to me after having done that work, I realize what it means to +be the wife of such a man. Oh, yes, I am happy, Len, so gloriously happy +I can't tell you another word about it!" + + * * * * * + +When Burns and Ellen landed in New York in late May they were met by a +telegram. Burns read it hurriedly, re-read it with a laugh, and handed +it to his wife. + +"Seems peremptory," he commented. "Shall we let Jack dictate? It will +mean only a short delay, and though I'm anxious to get home I'd like +mighty well to see them, shouldn't you?" + +The despatch read: + +"Important clinic on Thursday should like your assistance my wife urges +the necessity of seeing Mrs. Burns without further delay please take +first train for Baltimore. + +"Leaver." + +"Yes, I want to see them," Ellen agreed. "I'm quite willing to delay if +you will send Bob a telegram, all to himself, explaining and telling him +to tell the rest." + +"That will please him enough to make up for our failure to arrive on +the promised day. We'll run down for twenty-four hours with them, at +least.... I confess I'm eager to see Jack do one of his big stunts again. +And I'll wager I can show him one trick that even he doesn't know--the +last thing I got at Vienna, under W----" + +He sent off the message to Bobby Burns without delay, and despatched +another to Leaver, announcing their arrival that evening. In two hours +more they were on their way, and at six o'clock they were met in the +Baltimore station by Leaver himself. + +"See the old chap grin!" said Burns in his wife's ear, when they descried +the tall figure in the distance, coming toward them with smiling face and +alert step. "Can that be the desperately down person who came to us last +June? He looks as if--in a perfectly quiet way--he owned the city of +Baltimore!" + +"How well, how splendidly well, he looks!" Ellen agreed. + +Then they were shaking hands with Dr. John Leaver and listening to his +hearty greeting: + +"This is great of you two--great. We certainly appreciate it. Come, I'll +have you at home before you know it. Charlotte is waiting with the +warmest welcome you will find on this side of the Atlantic!" + +He hurried them away, but not so fast that Red Pepper Burns did not find +time to chuckle: "The power of association is beginning to tell already, +Jack. That was the most impetuous speech I ever heard from your lips. I +don't call such language really restrained--not from you." + +Leaver turned, laughing, to Ellen. "One would think I had been the most +solemn fellow known to history," said he. + +In two minutes he had bestowed his guests in a small but luxuriously +appointed closed car, had given the word to his chauffeur, and had taken +his place facing them. Burns examined the landau's interior with +interest. + +"The evidence of a slight but unmistakable odour tells me that this +is the jewel-box in which Baltimore's gem of a surgeon keeps his +appointments," said he. "Well, the Green Imp's beginning to show traces +of her age, but her successor will be no aristocrat of this type. I'd +rather drive myself and freeze my face to a granite image than be +transported in cotton-wool, like this." + +Leaver and Ellen laughed at his expression. + +"Of course you would," Leaver agreed. "And equally of course every friend +and patient of yours would grieve to see you shut up behind glass windows +with another hand on the steering-wheel. It's unthinkable and out of the +question for you, but for me--it's rather practical." + +Burns nodded. "Saves time--and carries prestige. I understand. You city +fellows have to play to the galleries a bit, particularly when you've +reached the top-notch and people demand that you live up to it. It's all +right. But I should feel smothered. And as for letting any young man in +a livery manage my spark and throttle,--well, not for mine, as I have +already remarked." + +Leaver looked at him as one man looks at another when he loves him better +than a brother. Then he put a question to Red Pepper's wife: "Can any one +wonder that there seems something missing in America when he spends the +winter in Germany?" + +She shook her head. "I never mean to find out what America is like when +he is out of it," said she. + +Burns regarded them both. "And I suppose you think you and Mrs. John +Leaver are just such another pair?" he said then, to his friend. + +"Just such another," was the decided answer. + +The car came to a standstill before a stately stone house, its walls +heavy with English ivy. In another minute the entrance doors were open, +and the party were inside. A radiant figure in white was clasping Ellen +Burns in eager arms, while a blithe voice cried: + +"Oh, my dear, this is so good, so good of you! We couldn't be entirely +satisfied until we had seen you here!" + +"Seeing _you_ here," declared Burns, shaking hands vigorously, when his +turn came, and regarding Charlotte with approving eyes, "reminds me of +one of Jack Leaver's favourite old maxims, which he used unsparingly +while he was chumming with me: 'A place for everything and everything in +its place.' The demonstration of that, raised to the nth power, is +certainly what I now see before me!" + +Charlotte's glowing eyes met her husband's fixed upon her. She gave him +back his smile before she answered Burns: + +"Thank you, Dr. Red Pepper. Your approval was all that was lacking." + +"Didn't I cable my approval with a reckless disregard of expense?" + +"Indeed you did. But you couldn't cable the italics that are in your +face--and it was the italics that we wanted!" + +Upstairs in the rooms of old-time elegance and comfort to which Charlotte +assigned them, Burns demanded to know how such quarters looked to his +wife. + +"You could put our whole house into that great living-room of theirs," he +asserted. "As for these two rooms, they would take in our whole upper +story. Don't you suppose stopping here will make you feel cramped at +home?" + +Ellen, arranging her hair before a low dressing-table of priceless old +mahogany, shook her head at him in the mirror. + +"Not a bit," she denied. + +"You used to live in a home like this one." + +"Not nearly so fine. Dr. Leaver is a rich man by inheritance, entirely +apart from his practice. Between the two he must have a very large yearly +income. My family was not a rich one, only--" + +"Only old and distinguished. Leaver has both--family and money. Not to +mention power. Your friend Charlotte ought to be a happy woman." + +"She surely ought, and is. But not happier than the woman you see before +you." + +Burns came close, lifted a strand of silky dark hair and drew it through +his fingers. Then he stooped and put it to his lips. + +"You stand by the country doctor, do you?" he murmured. + +"Always and forever, dear." + +"And yet you are a city woman, born and bred." + +"What has that to do with it? I should rather drive in the Green Imp over +the country hills with you than ride in the most superb limousine in +Baltimore--with any one else." + +He gathered her close in his arms for a minute. "Begone, dull envy," +said he. "From this moment I'll rejoice with Jack over every worldly +possession and envy him nothing, not even the power to give his wife +everything the world counts riches." + +They went down to such a dinner as such homes are famous for. The +candle-light from the fine old family candelabra fell upon four faces +brilliant with the mature youthfulness which marks the years about the +early thirties, the richest years of all yet lived. The splendid colour +of the crimson roses in the centre of the table was not richer in its +bloom than that in Charlotte's cheeks, nor the sparkle of the lights more +attractive than that in Ellen's dark eyes. As for the two men--all the +possible achievement of forceful manhood seemed written in their faces, +so different in feature and colouring, so alike in the look of dominant +purpose and the power born of will and untiring labour. + +During dinner a telephone call summoned Leaver to a consultation. +Immediately at its close he went away, carrying Burns with him. + +"You can't take me to a consultation, Jack," Burns had objected, with, +however, a betraying light of eagerness in his eye. He had been four +months away from work--he was hungry for it as a starving man for food. + +"Can't I?" Leaver answered, coolly. "Come along and see. It's a chance +to give the patient the opinion of an eminent specialist just back from +Berlin." + +"I'm no specialist." + +"Aren't you? I think you are. Specialist in human nature, which, if the +reports of this case are true, is the particular sort of diagnosis called +for. Trust me, Red, and--put on your gloves!" + +Burns had grinned over this suggestion. He hated gloves and seldom +wore them, but out of consideration for his friend--and Baltimore--he +extracted a pair of irreproachable ones, fresh from Berlin, and donned +them, with only a derisive word for the uselessness of externals as +practised by city professionals. + +Left alone with Charlotte, in a pleasant corner of a stately library, by +an open window through which she had watched the departure of the two men +in the landau, Ellen turned to her. + +"I can't tell you," she said, "how happy it makes me to see your +happiness. John Leaver is so exactly the man, out of all the world, who +is the husband for you. From all I know of you both, it seems to me +I never saw a pair more perfectly mated." + +"I'm glad it looks so from the outside," breathed Charlotte, softly. She +too had watched the departing pair; waving her hand as her husband, under +the electric light at the entrance, had turned to lift his hat and signal +farewell. She still stood by the window, through which the soft air of +the May night touched her warm cheek and stirred the lace about her white +shoulders. "From the inside--O Len,--I can't tell you how it looks! I +didn't know there was such glory in the world!" + + * * * * * + +"What do you think this fellow has done?" cried Red Pepper Burns, +returning with his host at midnight. He towered in the doorway, looking +in at his wife and Charlotte. From over his shoulder Leaver looked in +also, smiling. "He's arranged for me to operate on one of his most +critical cases to-morrow morning at his clinic. The country surgeon! Did +you ever hear of such effrontery? I may be ridden out of town on a rail +by to-morrow noon!" + +"Hear the man! He looks like a country surgeon, doesn't he?" challenged +Leaver, advancing. "London-made clothes, Bond-street neckwear, scarfpin +from Rome, general air of confidence and calm. I assure you I was +nowhere, when the family of my patient saw the lately arrived specialist +from Berlin." + +"It's not on that patient I'm to do violence," Burns explained, at +Ellen's look of astonishment. "He's just mixing things up on purpose. +It's a charity case for mine--but none the less honour, on that account. +I have a chance to try out a certain new method, adapted from one I saw +used for the first time abroad. If it doesn't work I'll--drop several +pegs in my own estimation, and in self-confidence." + +"It will work," said Leaver, "in your hands. The country surgeon is going +to surprise one or two of my colleagues to-morrow." + +The morrow came. Charlotte and Ellen drove with the two men to the +hospital, and watched them disappear within its bare but kindly walls. + +"How they can do it!" observed Charlotte, as the car went on. "I'm +proud of them that they can, but the eagerness with which they approach +such work, the quiet and coolness, and the way they bear the suspense +afterward when the result is still doubtful,--oh, isn't it a wonderful +profession?" + +At noon they returned in the car to the hospital. It was some time before +Leaver and Burns emerged, but when they did it was easy for the two who +awaited them to infer that all had gone well. + +"It's a pity to bring this suggestive odour out to you untainted ones," +said Burns, as he took his place opposite Charlotte, "but it can't be +helped. And as we bring also the news that Jack Leaver has brought down +the hospital roof with applause this morning, you won't mind." + +"What did he do?" Charlotte asked, eagerly. + +Burns briefly described the case--without describing it at all--after the +manner of the profession when enlightening the laity. He brought out +clearly, however, the fact that Leaver had attacked with great skill and +success several exceedingly difficult problems, and that his fellow +surgeons had been generous enough to concede to him all the honour which +was his due. + +"And now--what about your case?" Charlotte asked, realizing suddenly what +the morning's experience was to have been to Burns himself. + +"Died on the table," said Burns, with entire coolness. His face had +sobered at the question, but his expression was by no means crestfallen. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Charlotte began, earnestly. + +But her husband interrupted her. "No condolences are due, dear. He gave a +dying man the most merciful sort of euthanasia, and at the same time +demonstrated a new method as daring as it was triumphant. With a case +taken a month earlier it would have saved a life. The demonstration is a +contribution to science. If he received no applause it was because we +don't applaud in the presence of death, but there was not a man there +who didn't realize that in certain lines the country surgeon could give +them a long handicap and still win." + +Burns looked out of the window without speaking. His sea-tanned face +showed a deeper shade under Leaver's praise. Leaver himself smiled at the +averted profile of his friend, and went on, while Ellen looked at him as +if he had given her something which money could not buy. + +"I wish," said John Leaver, laying a firm-knit hand on Burns's knee, +"you'd come to Baltimore, Red. Between us we'd do some things pretty well +worth doing. Without undue conceit I think I could promise you a backing +to start on that would give you a place in a twelvemonth that couldn't be +taken away from you in a decade. Why not? It's a beautiful city to live +in. Your wife is a Southerner, born and bred; it would be home to her +among our people. My wife and I care more for your friendship than for +that of any other people on earth. What is friendship for, if not to make +the most of?" + +Burns turned and looked at him, then at his wife, then back at Leaver. +There was a strange expression in his hazel eyes; they seemed suddenly on +fire beneath the heavy dark eyebrows. He took off his hat and ran his +hand through his coppery thick locks. Then: + +"Are you serious, Jack?" he questioned. "Or are you trying the biggest +kind of a bluff?" + +"Absolutely serious. How should I be anything else? You taught me certain +values up at your home last summer--you and Mrs. Burns. One was, as I +have said, the worth of a big, true friendship. I've been thinking of +this thing a long time. It's not the result of your performance this +morning. If you had failed entirely in that particular attempt my faith +in you would not have been shaken a particle, nor my desire to have you +associated with me here. But there's no denying that what you did this +morning would easily make an entering wedge for you. Why not take +advantage of it? Will you think it over?" + +Burns looked again at his wife. Her eyes held an expression as beautiful +as it was inscrutable. He could not read it. + +He turned back to Leaver. "Yes, we'll think it over," he said briefly. +Then he looked out of the window again. "What's the name of this park?" +he asked. + +The conversation veered to follow his lead. It was not resumed during the +drive home, nor again that day, between the four. It cannot be denied +that the subject was discussed by John Leaver and Charlotte through +varying degrees of hopefulness and enthusiasm. As for Burns and Ellen-- + +In their own quarters that night Burns threw a plump silk couch-pillow +upon the floor at Ellen's feet, and himself upon it, by her knee, as +she sat in a big chair by the open window. She was still wearing the +Parisian-made gown of the evening, with which she had delighted the eyes +of them all. It was the one such gown she had allowed herself to bring +home, treating herself to its beauty for its own sake, rather than +because she could find much use for it in her quiet home. + +Burns put up one hand and gently smoothed the silken fabric upon Ellen's +knee. + +"This is a beauty of a frock," said he. "I can't tell you what you look +like in it; I've been trying to find a simile all the evening. Yet it's +not the clothes that become you; you become the clothes." + +"Thank you. That's a dear compliment--from a husband." + +"It's sincere. You've worn such clothes a lot, in your life, before I +knew you. You are used to them--at home in them. If we came to Baltimore, +and I made good, you would have plenty of use for dresses like this. You +would queen it, here." + +She smiled, shaking her head. "Taking one's place in society in any +Southern city isn't quite such a foregone conclusion, dear," she said. +"Not for strangers from the North." + +"With the Leavers to vouch for us, and your own personality, I don't +imagine it would be a matter of tremendous difficulty. Even the country +surgeon could get along without smashing many usages, under your tuition. +Besides, you have the acquaintance of some of the--what do they call +them?--'best people,' was the term, I believe, Jack used to me. It's a +curious phrase, by the way, isn't it? Doesn't mean at all what it says!" + +"Not quite--always." + +He looked at her. "Would you like to come?" he asked, bluntly. + +"What about you?" + +"I would rather you answered first." + +"I decline to answer first. The offer is made to you, not me. You are the +head of the house, the breadwinner. It is for you to decide." + +"I can't decide without reference to you." + +"You needn't. When you tell me what you want I will tell you what I +want." + +He was silent for a little. Then suddenly he got to his feet, walked up +and down the room a few times, and came back to stand before her. + +"My little wife," he said, "if I thought you would be happier--" + +"I shouldn't." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Absolutely. If you wanted very much to come it would influence me, of +course. But doubting that--" + +"Why do you doubt it? Shouldn't I be lacking in ambition if I failed to +take advantage of such a chance? It is a chance, Ellen,--the chance of a +lifetime. Jack means precisely what he says, and he could give me such a +backing as would insure me a tremendous start." + +"Just the same, Red, you don't want to come!" + +"No, I don't," he owned, bluntly. "But why don't I? Is something wrong +with me?" + +"Not at all. You have made a large place for yourself at home; you do all +any man could do anywhere. And you are happy there. You wouldn't be happy +here, because you would have to alter your simple way of living. And if +you were not happy, neither should I be. Why should we change conditions +in which we are both entirely content, and in which you are accomplishing +just as much benefit to humanity as you could anywhere?" + +"Ah, but that's the question. Couldn't I accomplish more here?" + +"Is human life more valuable here than there?" + +"Not a whit." + +"Could you save more of it?" + +"I doubt it." + +"We should have to leave Sunny Farm." She looked up at him with a smile. + +"We should." He shook his head. "You would be sorry to do that?" + +"So sorry that I can't possibly think of it. Dear,--make your decision!" + +"I will. We will stay where we are." + +He gathered her close and kissed her tenderly. + +"A place for everything, and everything in its place," he quoted once +more. "The place for Jack and Charlotte is here--unquestionably. The +place for Ellen and Red is there. I believe it. Jack's offer didn't shake +my belief for a minute, as far as I am concerned. It did put into my mind +the question whether I ought not to make the change for your sake." + +"I don't believe," she said slowly, "that a man is often called upon to +leave the place where he can be most useful, on account of his wife's +tastes or preferences--providing nothing more serious is involved. And, +when her tastes and preferences are on his side of the question, there +can be no doubt at all. You may be at rest, Red, for I'm sure I'm +happiest to live your life with you, just as it is best for you to live +it. And I love my country surgeon so well I don't want him made over into +anything else. I can't believe he'd be so satisfactory in any other +shape!" + +Red Pepper Burns gently released himself from his wife's arms, walked +over to the window, and stood there looking out into the thick branches +of a magnolia tree, the ends of which came so close he could almost put +out a hand into the night and touch them. There was suddenly upon him a +deep realization of just how much her words meant. He felt unworthy of a +love like that, even though he knew that all there was of him to give was +wholly hers. + +She stood, motionless, looking after him, her eyes touched with a lovely +light, but she did not move. And, presently, when he had conquered the +curious stricture which had unexpectedly attacked his throat, he turned +and saw her there, an exquisite figure in the French gown which she could +seldom have occasion to wear where she had chosen to live out her life +with him. Both understood that the decision they had made was made for +a lifetime, as such decisions are. + +"I believe I could take it better," said he, somewhat unsteadily, "if you +weren't wearing that confounded dress. It makes me feel like what Jim +Macauley dubbed me once--a Turk. Who am I, that I should keep you hidden +away in my little old brick house?" + +She turned and caught up a long gauzy scarf of white silk with heavy +fringed ends. She drew it lightly about her shoulders, veiling the +delicate flesh from his sight. Then she flung one end of the scarf up +over her head and face, and came toward him, her dark eyes showing +mistily through the drapery, her lips smiling. + +"I'm not sure I don't like being guarded by my Turk, Red," she said. +"And--about the frock." She came closer still, standing before him with +downbent head, and speaking low, through the veiling, silken gauze. +"Please don't mind about that. I'm going to leave it behind with +Charlotte. I shall not care to wear it. When next May comes I hope I +shall be wearing only simple frocks that--little hands can't spoil!" + +With a low ejaculation he tore off the scarf, seizing her head in both +his hands and gently forcing her face upward that he might look into it. +For a minute his eyes questioned hers, then-- + +"And you're happy about it?" he asked of her breathlessly. + +"I was never so happy in my life.... O Red--are you so glad as that?" + +"I think I've been waiting for that all my life," confessed Red Pepper +Burns. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + + +OTHER BOOKS BY GRACE S. RICHMOND + +Red Pepper Burns + +Strawberry Acres + +Brotherly House + +A Court of Inquiry + +On Christmas Day in the Morning + +On Christmas Day in the Evening + +Round the Corner in Gay Street + +With Juliet in England + +The Indifference of Juliet + +The Second Violin + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Red Pepper, by Grace S. 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Richmond + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mrs. Red Pepper + +Author: Grace S. Richmond + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. RED PEPPER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>Mrs. Red Pepper</h1> + +<h2>By Grace S. Richmond</h2> + +<p>Author of "Red Pepper Burns," "The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet +in England," "Strawberry Acres," Etc.</p> + +<h3>1913</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. Wholly Given Over to Sentiment</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. The Way to Attain an End</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. Burns Does His Duty</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. A Red Head</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. More Than One Opinion</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. Broken Steel Wires</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. Points of View</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. Under the Apple Tree</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. A Practical Artist</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. A Runaway Road</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. After Dinner</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. A Challenge</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. A Crisis</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. Before the Lens</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. Flashlights</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. In February</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. From the Beginning</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. The Country Surgeon</a><br /> +<a href="#Other_Books_by_Grace_S._Richmond">Other Books by Grace S. Richmond</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="MRS_RED_PEPPER" id="MRS_RED_PEPPER"></a>MRS. RED PEPPER</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>WHOLLY GIVEN OVER TO SENTIMENT</h3> + + +<p>The Green Imp, long, low and powerful, carrying besides its two +passengers a motor trunk, a number of bulky parcels, and a full share +of mud, drew to one side of the road. The fifth April shower of the +afternoon was on, although it was barely three o'clock.</p> + +<p>Redfield Pepper Burns, physician and surgeon, descended from the car, a +brawny figure in an enveloping gray motoring coat. He wore no hat upon +his heavy crop of coppery red hair—somewhere under the seat his cap was +abandoned, as usual. His face was brown with tan—a strong, fine face, +with dark-lashed hazel eyes alight under thick, dark eyebrows. From head +to foot he was a rather striking personality.</p> + +<p>"This time," said he, firmly, "I'm going to leave the top up. It's +putting temptation in the way of something very weak to keep lowering the +top. We'll leave it up. There'll be one advantage." He looked round the +corner of the top into the face of his companion, as his hands adjusted +the straps.</p> + +<p>"When we get to the fifty-miles-from-the-office stone, which we're going +to do in about five minutes, I can take leave of my bride without having +to observe the landscape except from the front."</p> + +<p>"So you're going to take leave of her," observed his passenger. She did +not seem at all disturbed. As the car moved on she drew back her veil +from its position over her face, leaving her head covered only by a +close-fitting motoring bonnet of dark green, from within which her face, +vivid with the colouring born of many days driving with and without +veils, met without flinching the spatter of rain the fitful April wind +sent drifting in under the edge of the top. Her black eyelashes caught +the drops and held them.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm going to say good-bye to her at that stone," repeated Burns. +"She's been the joy of my life for two weeks, and I'll never forget her. +But she couldn't stand for the change of conditions we're going to find +the minute we strike the old place. It's only my wife who can face +those."</p> + +<p>"If the bride is to be left behind, I suppose the bridegroom will stay +with her? Together, they'll not be badly off."</p> + +<p>Burns laughed. "Ye gods! Is that what I've been—a bridegroom? I'm glad +I didn't realize it; it would have made me act queerer than I have. Well, +it's been a happy time—a gloriously happy time, but—"</p> + +<p>He paused and looked down at her for an instant, rather as if he +hesitated to say what was in his mind. He did not know that he had +already said it.</p> + +<p>But she knew it, and she smiled at him, understanding—and sympathizing. +"But you are glad you are on your way back to your work," said she. "So +am I."</p> + +<p>He drew a relieved breath. "Bless you," said he. "I'm glad you are—if +it's true. It's only that I'm so refreshed by this wonderful fortnight +that I—well—I want to go to work again—work with all my might. I feel +as if I could do the best work of my life. That doesn't mean that I don't +dread to see the first patient, for I do. Whoever he is, I hate the sight +of him! Can you understand?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "It will be like the first plunge into cold water. But once +in—"</p> + +<p>"That's it. Of course, if he happened to be lying on my lawn, all mangled +up and calling for me to save his life, I'd welcome the sight of him, +poor chap. But he won't be interesting, like that. He'll be a victim of +chronic dyspepsia. Or worse—she'll be a woman who can't sleep without a +dope. I have to get used to that kind by degrees, after a vacation; I +don't warm up to 'em, on sight."</p> + +<p>"Yet they're very miserable, some of those patients who are quite able to +walk to your office, and very grateful to you if you relieve them, aren't +they?"</p> + +<p>Red Pepper chuckled. "I can foresee," he said, "that you're going to take +the side of the unhappy patient, from the start—worse luck for me! Yes, +they're grateful if I can relieve them, but the trouble is I can't +relieve them—not the particular class I have in mind. They won't do as I +order. And as long as I can't get them comfortably down in bed, where the +nurse and I have the upper hand, they'll continue to carry out half of my +directions—the half they approve, and neglect the other half—the really +important half, and then come round and tell me I haven't helped them +any—and why not? Oh, well—far be it from me to complain of the routine +work, much as I prefer the sort which calls for all the skill and +resource I happen to possess. And the dull part is going to take on a new +interest, now, when I can escape from the office into my wife's quarters, +between times, where no patient can follow me."</p> + +<p>She smiled, watching a big cloud, low on the horizon before them, break +into fragments and dissolve into blue sky and sunshine. "I hope," said +she, "to be able to make those quarters attractive. You remember I +haven't seen them yet—not even the bare rooms."</p> + +<p>"That's bothered me a good deal, in spite of the assurance you gave me, +when we discussed it by letter. If I hadn't been so horribly busy, and +had had the faintest notion of what to do with them—or if you had wanted +Martha and Winifred to put them in shape for you—"</p> + +<p>"But I didn't! It's going to be such fun to work it out, you and I +together."</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "Don't count on me, dear. I probably shan't +have time to do more than take you in to town and drop you in the +shopping district. You'll have to do it all. You've married a doctor, +Ellen—that's the whole story. And it's the knowledge of that fact +that makes me realize that I may as well leave my bride at the +fifty-mile-stone. It'll take my wife that fifty miles to prepare herself +for the thing that's going to strike her the minute we are home. And, by +the fates, I believe that's the stone, ahead there, at the curve of the +road!"</p> + +<p>He brought the Green Imp's pace down until it was moving very slowly +toward the mile-stone. Then he turned and looked steadily down into the +face beside him. "Shall you be sorry to get there?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I don't want to be a bride. They are useless persons. And I +don't care much for bridegrooms, either. I prefer a busy husband. And +I shall enjoy getting those rooms in order, quite by myself. To tell the +truth I'm not at all sure I don't prefer to do them alone. I've had one +enlightening experience, shopping with you, you know."</p> + +<p>"So you have." He laughed at the remembrance. "Yet I thought I was pretty +meek, that day. Well, so you don't mind getting to the mile-stone?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit."</p> + +<p>They were beside it now. Burns stopped the car. It was a country road, +although it was the main highway between two large cities, and on this +April afternoon it was deserted by motorists. Only in the distance could +be discerned anything in the nature of a vehicle, and that was headed the +other way.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'm a sentimental chap," he observed. "But in one way I've +been rather dreading getting home, for your sake. It's come over me, +since we turned our faces this way, that not a thing has been done to +make my shabby old place fit for you—except to clean it thoroughly. +Cynthia's seen to that. Does it seem as if I hadn't cared to give you +a fit welcome home?"</p> + +<p>His eyes were a little troubled, as they searched hers. But they +grew light again as they read in her serene glance that she did not +misunderstand him.</p> + +<p>"Red," said she—and her hand slipped into his—"I like best to come into +your house, just as it is. Take me in—that's all I ask—and trust me to +make my own home there—and in your heart. That's all I want."</p> + +<p>"You're in my heart," said her husband, "so close and warm there's not +much room for anything else."</p> + +<p>"Then don't worry about the house. It will be a dear delight to fill the +empty rooms; I've a genius for that sort of thing. Wait and see. And +meanwhile"—she smiled up into his nearing face—"say good-bye to your +bride. She's quite ready to go—and give place to your wife."</p> + +<p>So Redfield Pepper Burns kissed his bride, with the ardour of farewell. +But the next minute, safe in the shelter of the deep-hooded top, he had +welcomed his wife with his heart of hearts upon his lips, and a few +low-spoken words in her ear which would make the fiftieth-from-the-office +mile-stone a place to remember for them both.</p> + +<p>Then he drove on, silently, for a while, as if the little roadside +ceremony had left behind it thoughts too deep for expression. And, quite +unconsciously, his hand upon the throttle was giving the Imp more and +more power, so that the car flew past the succeeding mile-stones at such +short intervals that before the pair knew it they were within sight of +the city on the farther side of which lay the suburban village which was +their home.</p> + +<p>"I might stop at the hospital and see how things are," said Burns as they +entered the city's outskirts. "But it would be precisely my luck to find +something to detain me, and I think I owe it to you to take you home +before I begin on anything else."</p> + +<p>"Stop, if you want to, Red," said Ellen. "I expected you would."</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to. I might have to send some one else to drive you out +to the house, and that would break me up. I want to see you walk in at +the door, and know that you belong there. Then, if you like, and not till +then, I'll be content to go on duty at the old job."</p> + +<p>So he took her home. As they approached the village the ninth April +shower of the afternoon came blustering up, accompanied by a burst of +wind and considerable thunder and lightning, so that when they caught +sight of the low-lying old brick house, well back from the street, which +was Red Pepper Burns's combined home and office, after the fashion of the +village doctor, it was through a wall of rain.</p> + +<p>But the house was not the only thing they saw. In the street before +the house stood a row of vehicles. One electric runabout, hooded and +luxurious; two "buggies," of the village type, drawn by single horses +standing dejectedly with drooping ears and tails; one farmer's wagon, +filled with boxes and barrels, its horses hitched to Burns's post by a +rope: this was the assemblage.</p> + +<p>Red Pepper drew one long, low whistle of dismay, then he burst into a +laugh. "Confound that blundering angel, Cynthia," he ejaculated. "She's +let it out that we're coming. And Amy Mathewson—my office nurse—not due +till to-morrow, to protect us! I was prepared, in a way, to pitch into +work, but, by George, I didn't expect to see that familiar sight to-day! +Hang it all!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind." Ellen was laughing, too. "Remember you've left the bride +behind. Your wife will soon be used to it."</p> + +<p>"We'll run in by the Chesters' driveway, and sneak in at the back door," +and Burns suited the action to the word by turning in at the gateway of +his next door neighbour. "I rather wonder Win or Martha didn't go over +and drive away my too-eager clientele."</p> + +<p>"Possibly they thought it would look more like home to you with an office +full of patients."</p> + +<p>"It certainly will, though I could dispense with them to-night without +much sorrow. But—where am I going to put you? You can get to my room, +but you won't want to stay there. The part of the house that will be +the living part for you is either empty or cluttered up with wedding +presents. By all that's crazy, Ellen, I'm just waking up to the fact +that there isn't any place to put you, when there are patients in the +house—which there ever-lastingly are—except the dining-room and +kitchen! Lord Harry! what am I going to do? And what will you think +of me? Dolt that I am!"</p> + +<p>He had heard her laugh before. A low and melodious laugh she had, and he +had often listened to it and joined in with it, and rejoiced at the +ability she possessed to laugh where many women would cry. But he had +never heard her laugh as she was laughing now. Her understanding of the +situation which had only just struck him was complete. She knew precisely +how busy he had been in the weeks preceding the wedding, and how +thankfully he had accepted her suggestion that she come to his home just +as it was, and plan for herself what disposal she would make of the empty +rooms in a house of which he had used only the wing. Until he had seen +that row of vehicles before the gate he had not comprehended the fact +that almost the entire furnished portion of the house was the public +property of his patients whenever they chose to come. And they were there +now!</p> + +<p>The car stopped behind the house, close by the French window opening upon +a small rear porch. The window led to the large, low-ceiled room which +was Burns's own, leading in turn to his offices, and having only these +two means of entrance. Burns looked down at his wife, her expressive face +rosy with her laughter.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you see it that way," said he. "That sense of humour is going +to help you through a lot, tied up to R.P. Burns, M.D. Will you go into +my room, by this window? Or will you accept Cynthia's hospitality in the +dining-room? Or—maybe that's the best plan—will you just run over to +Martha's? I remember she begged us to come there, and now I see why. Want +to stay there a couple of weeks, till we can get your living-rooms +straightened out?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "I've come to your home, Red," said she. "I'm not +going to be sent away! Go in and see your patients, and don't bother +about me. Cynthia and I will discover a place for me."</p> + +<p>His face very red with chagrin, Burns took her in. The downpour of +rain had covered all sounds of the car's approach, so that neither the +Macauleys on the one side, the Chesters on the other, nor the housekeeper +herself, were aware of the arrival of the pair.</p> + +<p>"For mercy's sake, Doctor!" cried Cynthia, and hurried across the neat +and pleasant kitchen to meet them. "I wasn't expecting you yet for an +hour. Mrs. Macauley and Mrs. Chester wasn't either. They was over here +ten minutes ago, planning how to get rid o' the folks in there that's +insisting on setting and waiting for you to come."</p> + +<p>"Never mind them, Cynthia," said her new mistress, shaking hands. "The +Doctor will see them and I will stay with you. I've so much to plan +with you. What a pleasant kitchen! And how delicious something smells! +Cynthia, I believe I'm hungry!"</p> + +<p>"Well, now, you just come and set right down in the dining-room and I'll +give you something," cried the housekeeper, delighted.</p> + +<p>"That's right, Cynthia," approved Burns, much relieved. "Look after her +till I'm free." And he vanished.</p> + +<p>"I reckon that'll be a pretty steady job," Cynthia declared, "if I'm to +do it 'till he's free.' He won't be free, Mrs.—Burns, till the next time +you get him out of town."</p> + +<p>She led the way into the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Macauley wanted to have you come to dinner there, to-night, and +Mrs. Chester wanted you, too. But Mr. Macauley said this was the place +for you to have your first dinner in—your own home, and he made the +women folks give in. So the table's all set, and I can hurry up dinner +so's to have it as soon as the Doctor gets those folks fixed up—if there +ain't a lot more by that time. Since Miss Mathewson went I've been +answering the telephone, and it seems 'sif the town wouldn't let him have +his honeymoon out, they're so crazy to get him back. Now—will you set +down and let me give you a bit o' lunch? It's only five o'clock, and I've +planned dinner for half-past six."</p> + +<p>"It would be a pity to spoil this glorious appetite, Cynthia, though I'm +sorely tempted. I think I'll use the time getting freshened up from my +long drive—we've come a hundred and sixty miles to-day, through the mud. +Then I'll find Bob and be ready to have dinner with the Doctor."</p> + +<p>"I'll have to take you round by the porch to get to the Doctor's +room—you wouldn't want to go through the office, with such a raft of +folks."</p> + +<p>Ellen's bag in hand, Cynthia led the way. In at the long window she +hurried her, out of the rain which was dashing against it.</p> + +<p>"I expect you'll think it smells sort o' doctorish," she said, +apologetically. "Opening out of the office, so, it's kind o' hard to keep +it from getting that queer smell, 'specially when he's always running in +to do things to his hands. But, land! his windows are always open, night +and day, so it might be worse."</p> + +<p>"I think it's beautifully fresh and pleasant here. Oh, what a bunch of +daffodils on the dressing-table! Did you put them there?"</p> + +<p>"I did—but 'twas Mrs. Macauley sent 'em over. You'll find clean towels +in the bathroom. Oh, and—Mrs. Burns,"—Cynthia hesitated,—"the Doctor +forgot to say anything about it, but I've fixed up this little room off +his for Bobby. He used to have the little boy sleep right next him, +in a crib, but I knew—of course,"—her face crimsoned,—"you wouldn't +want—" She paused helplessly.</p> + +<p>But Ellen helped her with quick assent. "I'm so glad the little room is +so near. Bob won't be lonely, and I shall love to have him there. I can +hardly wait to see him."</p> + +<p>Cynthia went away, rejoicing that her arrangements were approved. She was +devotedly fond of little Bob, Burns's six-year-old protégé, by him +rescued, a year before, from an impending orphan asylum, and now the +happy ward of a guardianship as kind as an adoption. She had been +somewhat anxious over the child's future status with her employer's wife, +but was now quite satisfied that he was not to be kept at arm's length.</p> + +<p>"Some would have put him off with me," she said to herself, as she +returned to her kitchen, "though I didn't really think it of her that +took so much notice of him before. She's a real lady, Mrs. Burns is—and +prettier than ever since she married the Doctor, as why shouldn't she be, +with him to look pretty for?"</p> + +<p>Left alone Ellen looked about her. Yes, this was the room in which he +had lived the sleeping portion of his bachelor's life, so long. It gave +her an odd sense of what a change it was for him, this having a woman +come into his life, share his privacy,—he had so little privacy in his +busy days and nights,—and occupy this room of his, this big, square, +old-fashioned room with its open windows, the one spot which had been his +unassailable place of retreat. She felt almost as if she ought to go and +find some other room at once, ought not to take even temporary possession +of this, or strew about it her feminine belongings.</p> + +<p>The room was somewhat sparsely furnished, containing but the necessary +furniture; no draperies at the open windows, few articles on the high old +mahogany bureau, an inadequate number of nearly threadbare rugs on the +waxed floor, and but three pictures on the walls. She studied these +pictures, one after another. One was a little framed photograph of +Burns's father and mother, taken sitting together on their vine-covered +porch. One was a colour drawing of a scene in Edinburgh, showing a view +of Princes Street and the Castle,—one which must have become familiar to +him from a residence of some length during the period of his studies +abroad. The third picture—it surprised and touched her not a little to +find it here—was a fine copy of a famous painting, showing the Christ +bending above the couch of a sick man and extending to him his healing +touch. The face was one of the best modern conceptions of the Divine +personality. She realized that the picture might have meant much to him.</p> + +<p>She could hear his voice, as she set about her dressing. He was in his +private office, talking with a patient whose deafness caused him to raise +his own tones considerably; the closed door between could not keep out +all the sound. She felt her invasion of his life more keenly than ever +as she realized afresh how close to him her own life was to be lived. +Marrying a village doctor, whose home contained also his place of +business, was a very different matter from marrying a city physician with +a downtown office and a home into which only the telephone ever brought +the voice of a patient. It was to be a new and strange experience for +them both.</p> + +<p>She sat before the dressing-table, having slipped into a little lilac and +white negligée. The half-curling masses of her black hair covered her +shoulders as she brushed them out—slowly, because she was thinking so +busily about it all, and had forgotten to make haste. Suddenly the door +leading into the office flew open—and closed as quickly. Steps behind +her, pausing, made her turn, to meet her husband's eyes.</p> + +<p>He came close. An unmistakably "doctorish" odour accompanied him—an +odour not disagreeable but associated with modern means for securing +perfect cleanliness. He wore his white jacket, fresh from Cynthia's +painstaking hands. His eyes were very bright, his lips were smiling.</p> + +<p>His arms came about her from behind, his head against hers gently forced +it back to face the mirror. In it the two pairs of eyes met again, hazel +and black.</p> + +<p>"To think that I should see <i>that</i> reflected from my old glass!" +whispered Red Pepper Burns.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE WAY TO ATTAIN AN END</h3> + + +<p>Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns stood in the doorway of her living-room and +studied it with a critical eye. Within the room, on either side, stood +her sister Martha, Mrs. James Macauley, and her friend Winifred, Mrs. +Arthur Chester. In precisely these same relative positions were they +also her neighbours as to their own homes. Their husbands were Red +Pepper's best friends, outside those of his own profession. It was +appropriate that they should have stood by her during the period of +fitting and furnishing that part of the old house which her husband had +termed her "quarters."</p> + +<p>"It's the loveliest room in this town," declared Winifred Chester, "and +I'm going to have all I can do not to be envious."</p> + +<p>"I doubt if very many people in this little town will think it the +loveliest," said Ellen's sister. "Its browns and blues will be too dull +for them, and Ellen's old Turkey carpet too different from their polished +floors and 'antique' rugs. By the way, Ellen, how old do you suppose that +carpet is, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"It's been on Aunt Lucy's floors since before the Civil War. Isn't it +beautifully faded?—it furnishes the keynote of the whole room. Isn't it +fortunate that the room should be so long and low, instead of high and +square? Is it a restful room, girls? That's what I'm after."</p> + +<p>"Restful!" Mrs. Chester clasped her hands in a speaking gesture. "Red +will forget every care, the minute he steps into it. When are you going +to show it to him?"</p> + +<p>"To-night, when the fire is lighted and evening office-hours are over. If +he hadn't been so busy it would have been hard to keep him away, but he +hasn't had an hour to spare even for guessing what I've been doing."</p> + +<p>"I hope he'll have an hour to spare, to stay in it with you. How you both +will hate the sound of the office-bell and the telephones!"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to try hard not to, but I suppose I shall dread them, in spite +of myself," Ellen owned.</p> + +<p>"This great couch, facing the fire, with all these lovely blue silk +pillows, is certainly the most comfortable looking thing I ever saw," +sighed Winifred Chester, casting her plump little figure into the +davenport's roomy depths and clasping her hands under her head in an +attitude of repose.</p> + +<p>"If Red doesn't send out word that he's not at home and can't be found, +when a call finds him stretched out here, he's a stronger character than +I think him."</p> + +<p>"Now let's go up and look at the guest-rooms." Ellen led the way, an +engaging figure in a fresh white morning dress, her cheeks glowing with +colour like a girl's.</p> + +<p>"If you didn't know, would you ever dream she had been wife and widow, +and had lost her little son?" murmured Winifred in Martha's ear.</p> + +<p>Martha Macauley shook her head. "She seems to have gone back and begun +all over again. Yet there's a look—"</p> + +<p>Winifred nodded. "Of course there is—a look she wouldn't have had if she +hadn't gone through so much. It's given her such a rich sort of bloom."</p> + +<p>The guest-rooms were airy, attractive, chintz-hung rooms, one large, one +somewhat smaller, but both wearing a hospitable look of readiness.</p> + +<p>"I like the gray-and-rose room best," announced Winifred, after a +critical survey, as if she were inspecting both rooms for the first time +instead of the fortieth. She had made the gray-and-rose chintz hangings +herself, delighting in each exquisite yard of the fine imported material.</p> + +<p>"I prefer the green-leaf pattern, it looks so cool and fresh." Martha +eyed details admiringly. "This is your bachelor's room, you say, Ellen? +Oh, you've put a desk in it! The bachelor will want to stay forever. Who +do you suppose he will be?"</p> + +<p>"The first friend of Red's who comes. He says he's always wanted to ask +certain ones, and never had a place to put them, except at the hotel."</p> + +<p>"He'd better be careful whom he asks—now. They'll all fall in love with +you. By the way, do you know Red has a terribly jealous streak?" Winifred +glanced quickly at Ellen as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"No—what nonsense! How do you like my idea of a book-shelf by the bed, +and a drop-light?"</p> + +<p>"Pampering—pure pampering of your bachelors. You'll never be rid of +them. But he can be jealous, Ellen."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think so? I never saw a trace of it," cried Martha +Macauley.</p> + +<p>"It's there—you mark my words. He couldn't help it—with his hair and +eyes."</p> + +<p>Ellen laughed. "Hair and eyes! What about my black locks and eyes? Shall +I not make a trustful wife, because I happen to have them? Oh!"—she ran +to the window—"there comes the Imp! You'll excuse me if I run down? +Red's been away all night and all morning."</p> + +<p>She disappeared as the Green Imp's horn vociferated a signal of greeting +from far down the road.</p> + +<p>"They'll never get time to grow tired of each other," commented Martha, +as the two friends descended the old-time winding staircase. "Isn't this +old hall delightful, now? I never realized the possibilities of the +house, with this part closed so long."</p> + +<p>"One more peep at the living-room, and then we'll go. Isn't it just like +Ellen? Such a charming, quiet room, without the least bit of ostentation, +yet simply breathing beauty and refinement. She is the most wonderful +shopper I know. She made every dollar Red furnished go twice as far as I +could. I don't suppose he would let her spend a penny of her own on this +house."</p> + +<p>"He's too busy to know or care what she does—till he sees it. I'll +venture she has slipped in a penny or two. That magnificent piano +is hers, you know,—and two or three pieces of furniture. All he'll +realize is that it's delightful and that she's in it. It's all so funny, +anyhow,—this bringing home a bride and having her fall to work to +furnish her own nest."</p> + +<p>"She's enjoyed it. I'd like to be on the scene to-night, when she shows +it to him."</p> + +<p>"No chance of that. When Red does get her to himself for ten minutes he +quite plainly prefers to have the rest of us depart. Have you noticed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. I only hope that state of things will last." And Winifred +smiled and sighed at once, as if she were skeptical concerning of the +permanency of married bliss.</p> + +<p>Office-hours were full ones that evening, and it was quite nine o'clock +before R.P. Burns, M.D. closed the door on the last of his patients. The +moment he was free he turned to Miss Mathewson, his office nurse, with a +deep breath of relief.</p> + +<p>"Let's put out the lights and call it off," he said. "Run home and get an +hour to yourself before bedtime, and never mind finishing the books. Do +you know,"—he was smiling down at her, where she sat, a trim white +figure at her desk, an assistant who had been his right hand for nine +years, and who perhaps knew his moods and tempers better than anybody in +the world, though he did not at all realize this,—"do you know, I find +it harder to settle down to work again than I thought I should? Curious, +isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all curious, Doctor Burns." Miss Mathewson spoke in her usual +quiet tone, smiling in return. "It is distracting, even to me, to know +that a person so lovely as your wife is under the same roof."</p> + +<p>This was much for this most reserved associate of his to say, and Burns +recognized it. He regarded her with interested astonishment. "So she's +got you, too!" he ejaculated. "I'm mighty glad of that, for it will tend +to make you sympathetic with my wish to have an hour to myself—and +her—now and then. I'm to see my home to-night, for the first +time,—if—"</p> + +<p>Steps sounded upon the office porch. Burns made a flying leap for the +door into his private office, intent on getting to his room and +exchanging his working garb for one suited to the evening he meant +to spend with Ellen. When he had swiftly but noiselessly closed the door, +Miss Mathewson answered the knock.</p> + +<p>A tall countryman loomed in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"Doctor in?"</p> + +<p>"He is in," said the office nurse, who would tell lies to nobody, "but he +is engaged. Office-hours are over. Please give me any message for him."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see him," said the countryman, doggedly.</p> + +<p>"I don't wish to disturb him unless it is quite necessary," explained +Miss Mathewson.</p> + +<p>"I call it necessary," said the countryman, "when a fellow has a broken +leg. Got him out here in the wagon. Now will you call the Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"I surely will," and Miss Mathewson smiled sympathetically.</p> + +<p>She called her employer, who came out, frowning, still in his white coat.</p> + +<p>"Confound you, Jake," said he, "don't you know it's against the law to +break legs or mend them after office-hours?"</p> + +<p>Miss Mathewson, in the brief interval consumed by the men in bringing the +injured man in from the street, slipped across the hall.</p> + +<p>"It will be another hour, Mrs. Burns," said she, at the door of the +living-room. "But after that I shall not be here to answer the door or +the telephone, and the Doctor can ignore them, if he will."</p> + +<p>Ellen rose, smiling, and came across the room to her. The two +figures, one in the severe white of a uniform, the other in the filmy, +lace-bordered white of a delicate house gown, met in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"You dear, kind little person," said Red Pepper's wife, with her warm +hand on the nurse's arm, "how good it is of you to care! But I can wait. +Can't you stay in here with me, while the Doctor sees his patient?"</p> + +<p>"I must help him. It's a broken leg, and I must go this minute," said +Miss Mathewson. But she paused for an instant more, looking at Ellen. +The nurse was the taller, and looked the older of the two, but the +affectionate phrase "little person" had somehow touched a heart which was +lonelier even than Ellen guessed—and Ellen guessed much more than Red +Pepper had ever done. Red Pepper's wife leaned forward.</p> + +<p>"You and I must be good friends," said she, and Miss Mathewson responded +with a flush of pleasure. Then the nurse flew back to the office, while +Ellen, after listening for a little to the sounds of footsteps in the +office, turned back to the fire.</p> + +<p>"How does it happen," said she musingly to herself, as she stood looking +down into the depths of the glowing heart of it, "that one woman can be +so rich and one so poor—under the same roof? She sees more of him than +I,—lives her life closer to him, in a way,—and yet I am rich and she is +poor. How I wish I could make her happy—as happy as she can be without +the one thing that would have made her so. O Red!—and you never saw it!"</p> + +<p>The hour went by. The broken leg was set and bandaged, the injured man +was conveyed back to the wagon which had brought him; and Red Pepper +Burns took a last look at his patient, in the light of the lantern +carried by the countryman.</p> + +<p>"You've been game as any fighting man, Tom," said he, cheerily. "The +drive home'll be no midsummer-night's-dream, but I see that upper lip of +yours is stiff for it. Good-night—and good luck! We'll take care of the +luck."</p> + +<p>As he turned back up the path the front door of his house swung open. It +was a door he had never entered more than once, his offices being in the +wing, and the upright portion having been totally unused since he had +owned the place. With an exclamation he was up the steps in two leaps, +and standing still upon the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Come in a little farther, please, dear," said a voice from behind the +door, "so I can close it."</p> + +<p>Burns shut the door with a bang, and turned upon the figure in the +corner. But his extended arm kept his wife away from him. "Let me go and +refresh," he begged. "I can't bear to touch you after handling that +unwashed lumberjack. Just five minutes and I'll be back."</p> + +<p>He was as good as his word. In five minutes he was no longer a busy +professional man, but a gentleman of leisure, with hands cleaner than +those of any fastidious clubman, and clothes which carried no hint of +past usage in other places less chaste than his wife's private +living-rooms.</p> + +<p>"Now I'm ready for you," he announced, returning. "And I'll be hanged if +I'll see another interloper to-night. A man has some rights, if he is a +doctor. Morgan, up the street there, is the new man in town, and he has a +display of electric lights in front of his office which fairly yells +'come here!' Let 'em go there! I stay here."</p> + +<p>He took his wife in his arms and kissed her hungrily, then stood holding +her close, his cheek against her hair, in absolute contentment. He seemed +to see nothing of the new quarters, though he was now just outside the +living-room door, in the hall which ran between the two parts of the +house. Presently she drew him into the room.</p> + +<p>"Look about you," said she. "Have you no curiosity?"</p> + +<p>"Not much, while I have you. Still—by George! Well!"</p> + +<p>He stood staring about him, his eyes wide open enough now. From one +detail to another his quick, keen-eyed glance roved, lingering an instant +on certain points where artful touches of colour relieved the more +subdued general tone of the furnishings. The room suggested, above all +things, quiet and repose, yet there was a soft and mellow cheer about +it which made it anything but sombre. Its browns and blues and ivories +wrought out an exquisite harmony. The furniture was simple but solid, the +roomy high-backed davenport luxurious with its many pillows. The walls +showed a few good pictures—how good, it might not be that Red Pepper +fully understood. But he did understand, with every sense, that it was +such a room as a man might look upon and be proud to call his home.</p> + +<p>But he was silent so long that Ellen looked up at him, to make sure that +there was no displeasure in his face. Instead she found there deeper +feeling than she expected. He returned her look, and she discovered that +he was not finding it easy to tell her what he thought of it all. She led +him to the couch and drew him down beside her. He put his arm about her, +and with her head upon his shoulder the pair sat for some time in a +silence which Ellen would not end. But at length, looking into the fire, +his head resting against hers, Burns broke the stillness.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'm an impressionable chap," he said, "but I wasn't prepared +for just this. I knew it would be a beautiful room, if you saw to it, but +I had no possible notion how beautiful it would be. There is just one +thing about it that breaks me up a bit. Perhaps you won't understand, but +I can't help wishing I could have done the work for you instead of you +for me. It isn't the work, either, it's the—love."</p> + +<p>"And you couldn't have spared enough of that to furnish a room with?"</p> + +<p>He laughed, drawing her even closer then he had held her before. "I'll +trust you to corner me, every time," he said. "Yes, I could have spared +love enough—no doubt of that. But it seems as if it were the man who +should put the house in order for the woman he brings home."</p> + +<p>"You have excellent taste," said she demurely, "but I never should +credit you with the discriminations and fastidiousnesses of a decorator. +And why should you want to take away from me the happiness of making my +own nest? Don't you know it's the home-maker who finds most joy in the +home? Yet—it's the home-comer I want to have find the joy. Do you think +you can rest in this room, Red?"</p> + +<p>He drew a deep, contented breath. "Every minute I am in it. And from +the time I first begin to think about it, coming toward it. Home! It's +Paradise! This great, deep, all-embracing blue thing we're sitting in—is +it made of down and velvet?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely that. Velvet to cover it, down in the pillows. I hope you'll +have many a splendid nap here."</p> + +<p>"You'll spoil me," he declared, "if you let me sleep here. I'm used to +catching forty winks in my old leather chair in the office, while I wait +for a summons."</p> + +<p>Her face grew very tender. "I know. James Macauley has told me more than +one tale of hours spent there, when you needed sounder sleep. It's a hard +life, and it's going to be my delight to try to make it easier."</p> + +<p>Red Pepper sat up. "It's not a hard life, dear,—it's one of many +compensations. And now that I have one permanent compensation I'm +never going to think I'm being badly used, no matter what goes wrong. +Come, let's stroll about. I want to look at every separate thing. This +piano—surely the sum I gave you didn't cover that? It looks like one of +the sort that are not bought two-for-a-quarter."</p> + +<p>"No, Red, that was mine. It came from my old home with Aunt Lucy—that +and the desk-bookcase, and two of the chairs. And Aunt Lucy gave me this +big rug, made from the old drawing-room carpet. I built the whole room on +the rug colourings. You don't mind, do you, dear?—my using these few +things that belonged to me in my girlhood, in South Carolina?"</p> + +<p>"In your girlhood? Not—in your Washington life?"</p> + +<p>"No, Red."</p> + +<p>She looked straight up into his eyes, reading in the sudden glowing of +them under their heavy brows the feeling he could not conceal that he +could bear to have about his house no remote suggestion of her former +marriage.</p> + +<p>"All right, dearest," he answered quickly. "I'm a brute, I know, +but—you're mine now. Will you play for me? I believe I'm fond of music."</p> + +<p>"Of course you are. But first, let's go upstairs. I'm almost as proud of +our guest-rooms as of this."</p> + +<p>"Guest-rooms?" repeated Burns, a few minutes later, when he had examined +everything in the living-room and pronounced all things excellent. "We're +to have guests, are we? But not right away?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd be eager to entertain those bachelor friends you +mentioned, so I lost no time in getting a second room ready for them."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know." Burns was mounting the stairs, his arm about his +wife's shoulders. "By the way, Ellen, I don't believe I ever went up +these stairs before. Comfortable, aren't they? I'm glad there's covering +on them. I never like to hear people racketing up and down bare stairs, +be they never so polished and fine. That comes of my instincts for quiet +on my patients' account, I suppose. About the guests—we don't need to +have any for a year or two, do we?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Red!" Ellen began to laugh. "I thought you were the most hospitable +man in the world."</p> + +<p>"All in good time," agreed her husband, comfortably. He looked in at the +door of the gray-and-rose room, as he spoke. "Well, well!" he ejaculated. +"Well, well!"</p> + +<p>And again he was silent, staring. When he spoke:</p> + +<p>"Would you mind going over there and sitting down in that willow chair +with the high back?" he requested.</p> + +<p>His wife acceded, and crossing the room smiled back at him from the +depths of the white willow chair, her dark head against its cushioning of +soft, mingled tints of pale gray and glowing rose. Red Pepper nodded at +her.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," said he. "This is no guest-room. This is your room."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, dear. My place is downstairs, with you—unless—you don't want +me there."</p> + +<p>He crossed the room also and stood before her, his hands thrust into his +pockets. "This is your room," he repeated. "It's easy enough to recognize +it. It looks just like you. I've been uncomfortable about you downstairs, +whenever I had to leave you. You'll be safe here, with every window wide +open."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him, mutely smiling, but something in her eyes told him +that all was not yet said. Red Pepper leaned still lower and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"It will be easy enough to have an extension of the telephone brought up +here," he added—and found her arms about his neck. But she shook her +head. "Don't settle it so quickly," she urged.</p> + +<p>"You said there was another guest-room," he reminded her presently. "The +bachelor's room. Is it next door?"</p> + +<p>They went together to look at the bachelor's room. Burns surveyed it with +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"The jolliest room for the purpose I ever saw," he confessed. "And I know +the bachelor who will sleep in it. He's downstairs now, in the small room +out of ours."</p> + +<p>"Bob? Why, Red—"</p> + +<p>"We'll have a door cut through. The telephones shall be in there, then +they won't disturb you. They won't bother Bob a minute. And when I come +in at 2 a.m. I can slip in here, shove the boy over against the wall, and +be asleep in two minutes."</p> + +<p>"Red! All my preparations for the bachelor! The desk,—the reading-light +by the bed—"</p> + +<p>"They suit me admirably. I never saw a better arrangement. The two rooms +together make a perfect suite—when the door is cut through."</p> + +<p>"And where will you put our guests? There's only one more room on this +floor, of any size."</p> + +<p>"Let's go and see."</p> + +<p>Catching up a brass candlestick from the bachelor's desk, Burns lit it +and proceeded to explore, Ellen following. There were dancing lights in +her eyes as she watched him.</p> + +<p>"Here's your fourth room," said he, throwing open a door at the back of +the hall.</p> + +<p>"This box? It can't be made a really comfortable room, even if I do my +best with it. Your bachelor will not stay long."</p> + +<p>"Best not make him too comfortable. Nobody wants him to stay long." And +Red Pepper closed the door again, with an air of having settled the +matter to his entire satisfaction. "Besides," he added, "if he's really a +desirable chap, and we want him around more than a day or two, he can +bunk in my old room downstairs. When he's not there I'll use it for an +annex to my offices. Somebody's always needing to be put to bed for an +hour or two. Amy Mathewson will revel in that extra space. Her long suit +is making people comfortable, and smoothing the upper sheet under their +chins."</p> + +<p>"Redfield Pepper, please consider this carefully," said his wife, as they +returned to the gray-and-rose room. "Remember how long you have had that +downstairs room,—you are attached to it, perhaps, more than you think. +You have been a bachelor yourself a good while—"</p> + +<p>"And am supposed to be old and set in my ways," interpolated her +listener. He stood before her with folded arms, a judicial expression on +his brow. Beneath his coppery hair his black eyebrows drew together a +little above a pair of hazel eyes which sparkled with a whimsical light +which somewhat impaired the gravity of the expression.</p> + +<p>"You are wonted to your ways—naturally," Ellen pursued. "It will not be +so convenient for you, having your rooms up here. I am quite contented +there, with you, and not in the least afraid with Cynthia sleeping down +there too—and the little bachelor. Think twice, Red, before you decide +on this arrangement."</p> + +<p>He glanced at the wall between the two rooms. "Where would be a good +place to have the door cut through? What's behind that curtain? A +clothes-press?"</p> + +<p>He advanced to the curtain and swept it aside. It hung in a doorway, and +was of a heavy gray material, with an applied border of the gray-and-rose +chintz. As he moved it light burst through from the other side of the +wall, and Burns found himself looking into the "bachelor's room" next +door.</p> + +<p>He turned, with a shout of laughter. "You witch!" he cried, and returning +to his wife laid a hand on either richly colouring cheek, gently forcing +her face upward, so that he could look directly into it. "You meant it, +all the while!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be too sure of that. If this room looks like me, the one +downstairs certainly looks like you. I don't want to take you out +of your proper environment."</p> + +<p>"My environment!" he repeated, and laughed. "What is it, now, do you +think? Not bachelor apartments, still?"</p> + +<p>But she persisted, gently. "Keep the downstairs room, dear, just as it +is. Don't make it a public room, except for necessity. Sometimes you'll +be glad to take refuge there, just as you're used to doing. Leave those +three pictures on your walls, and look at them often, as you've always +done. And be sure of this, Red: I shall never be hurt when you show me +that you want to fight something out alone, there. It must be your own +and private place, just as if I hadn't come."</p> + +<p>Sober now, he stood looking straight down into her eyes, which gave him +back his look as straightly. After a minute he spoke with feeling:</p> + +<p>"Thank you, dearest. And bless you for understanding so well. At the same +time I'm confident you understand one thing more: That by leaving a man +his liberty you surely hold him tightest!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>BURNS DOES HIS DUTY</h3> + + +<p>"Excuse me for coming in on you at breakfast," Martha Macauley, Ellen's +sister and next-door neighbour, apologized, one morning in late May. "But +I wanted to catch Red before he got away, and I saw, for a wonder, that +there was no vehicle before the door."</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in," urged Burns, while Ellen smiled a greeting at her +sister, a round-faced, fair-haired, energetic young woman, as different +as possible from Ellen's own type. "Have a chair." He rose to get it for +her, napkin in hand. "Will you sit down and try one of Cynthia's +magnificent muffins?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. And I'll plunge into my errand, for I know at any minute +you may jump up and run away. You may, anyway, when you hear what I want! +Promise me, Red, that you won't go until you've heard me out."</p> + +<p>"What a reputation I have for speed at escape!" But Burns glanced at his +watch as he spoke. "Fire away, Martha. Five minutes you shall have—and +I'm afraid no more. I'm due at the hospital in half an hour."</p> + +<p>"Well, I want to give a reception for you." Martha took the plunge. "I +know you hate them, but Ellen doesn't,—at least, she knows such things +are necessary, no matter how much you may wish they weren't. I don't mean +a formal reception, of course. I know how you both feel about trying to +ape city society customs, in a little suburban village like this. But I +do think, since you had such a quiet wedding, you ought to give people a +chance to come in and greet you, as a newly married pair."</p> + +<p>Burns's eyes met his wife's across the table. There was a comical look of +dismay in his face. "I thought," said he, "you and I agreed to cut out +all that sort of thing. As for being a newly married pair—we aren't. +We've been married since the beginning of time. I can't conceive of +existence apart from Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns, nor recall any period +of my life when she wasn't a part of it."</p> + +<p>"You've been married just seven weeks and three days, however," retorted +his sister-in-law, with a touch of impatience, though she smiled, "and +not a quarter of the people in town have ever met Ellen. You'll find that +it's not the same, now that you're married. They won't flock to your +office, just out of admiration for you, unless you show them some +attention."</p> + +<p>Burns chuckled. "Won't they? By George, I wish they wouldn't! Then I +could find time to spend an uninterrupted hour with my wife, at least +once a day."</p> + +<p>"Do be reasonable, Red. Ellen, will you make him see it's a very simple +thing I'm asking of him? Just to stand by you and shake hands for a +couple of hours. Then he can go out and stand on his head on the lawn, +if he wants to."</p> + +<p>"To relieve the tension?" her victim suggested. "That's an excellent +idea—real compensation. But as the blood will be all at the top, anyway, +after two hours' effort at being agreeable, saying the same idiotic +things over and over, and grinning steadily all the time, I think I'd +prefer soaking my head under a pump."</p> + +<p>"Do what pleases you, if you'll only let me have my way."</p> + +<p>Burns looked at Ellen again. "What do you say, dear? Must these things +be? Do you want to be 'received'?"</p> + +<p>"Martha has set her heart on it," said she, gently, "and it's very dear +of her to want to take the trouble. She promises really to make it very +informal."</p> + +<p>"Informal! I wish I knew what that word meant. Don't I have to wear my +spike-tail?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you do—since Martha wants it in the evening. The men in a +place like this are not available for afternoon affairs."</p> + +<p>"If I must dress, then I don't see what there is informal about it," +argued her husband, with another glance at his watch. "My idea of +informality is not a white necktie and pumps. But I suppose I'll have +to submit."</p> + +<p>He came around the table, and Ellen rose to receive his parting kiss. +With his arm about her shoulder, and his chin—that particularly resolute +chin—touching her hair, he looked at Martha. "Go on with your abominable +society stunt," said he. "I'll agree to be there—if I can."</p> + +<p>His eyes sparkled with mischief, as Martha jumped up, crying anxiously:</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's just it, Red! You <i>must</i> be there! We can't have any excuses +of operations or desperately sick patients. We never yet had you at so +much as a family dinner that you didn't get up and go away, or else +weren't even there at all. Even your wedding had to be postponed three +hours. That won't do at this kind of an affair. Ellen can't be a bridal +pair, all by herself!"</p> + +<p>"Can't she?" His arm tightened about his wife's shoulders. "Well, I'll +tell you what I'll do. If I have to leave suddenly I'll take her with me. +That'll make it all right and comfortable. If you and Jim will retire +too, the company can have a glorious time talking us over."</p> + +<p>He stooped, whispered something in Ellen's ear, laughing as he did so, +then kissed her, nodded at Martha, and departed. From the other side of +the closed door came back to them a gay, whistled strain from a popular +Irish song.</p> + +<p>"He's just as hopeless as ever," Martha complained. "I thought you would +have begun to have some effect on him, by this time. The trouble is, he's +been a bachelor so long and has got into such careless notions of having +his own way about everything, you're going to have a bad time getting him +just to behave like an ordinary human being."</p> + +<p>"What an outlook!" Ellen laughed, coming over to her sister, and stopping +on the way to help little Bob insert a refractory napkin in its silver +ring. "Perhaps I'd better not waste much time trying to make him over. He +really suits me pretty well, as he is,—and it doesn't strike me he's so +different from the average man, when it comes to receptions. Is Jim +enthusiastic over this one?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jim isn't making any fuss about it," evaded Martha. "He'll be good +and amiable, when the time comes. Of course, any man likes better just +having a group of men smoking round the fire, or sitting down to a stag +dinner, but Jim understands the necessity of doing some things just +because they're expected. I really think that having a perfectly informal +affair of this sort is letting them off easily. They might have had to +stand a series of 'At Homes.'"</p> + +<p>"Not in this little place. Everybody would have come to the first one, +and there would have been nobody left for the rest. As it is, you will +have a houseful, won't you? It's lovely of you to do it, Martha dear, and +Red and I will be good, and stand in line as long as you want us."</p> + +<p>"And you won't let him get away?"</p> + +<p>"He won't try,—though if an urgent call comes, it's not I who can keep +him. But don't worry about that. It doesn't always happen, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Pretty nearly always. But I'll hope for the best."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Macauley went away with her head full of plans for the success of +the affair she was so sure ought to take place. It was difficult for her +to understand how Ellen, who had known so much of the best social life in +a city where there is no end to the round of formal entertaining, could +be now as indifferent as Martha understood she really was to all +experience of the sort. It was association with Redfield Pepper Burns +which had done it, Martha supposed. But was he to do all the influencing, +and Ellen to do none? It looked like it—to Martha.</p> + +<p>Left alone with Bob, Ellen made him ready for the little village +kindergarten which he had lately begun to attend. Before he went he put +up both arms, and she bent to him.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to be a pretty good boy to-day, Aunt Ellen," said he. "I +promised Uncle Red I would. But I don't like to skip in the circle with +girls. Why need I?"</p> + +<p>"Would you rather skip with boys, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Lots rather. But the girls keep asking me. Why do they, when I don't ask +them?"</p> + +<p>Ellen smiled down into the questioning little face, its dark eyes looking +seriously up into hers through long and curly lashes. Bob was undoubtedly +a handsome little lad, and the reason why the girls—discerning small +creatures, true to their femininity—should be persistent in inviting him +to be their partner was obvious enough.</p> + +<p>"Because that's part of the skipping game, Bobby. I'd ask the girls +sometimes—and, do you know, I think it would be fine to ask some of +the little girls whom the other boys don't ask. Do you know any?"</p> + +<p>Bob considered. "I guess I do. But why do I have to ask them?"</p> + +<p>"Because they're not having as much fun as the others. You wouldn't like +never to be asked by anybody, would you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care 'bout any girls ever asking me," Bob insisted stoutly. "I +like boy games better—'circus' and 'grandfather's barn.' Only they let +the girls play those too," he added, disgustedly.</p> + +<p>He started away. But he came back again to say, soberly, "I'll ask Jennie +Hobson, if you want me to, Aunt Ellen. She's some like a boy, anyway. Her +hair's cut tight to her head—and her eyes are funny. They don't look at +you the same."</p> + +<p>"Do ask her, Bob. And tell me how she liked it." And Ellen looked +affectionately after the small, straight little figure trudging away +down the street.</p> + +<p>Martha's plans for her reception went on merrily. On the day set she came +hurrying over before breakfast, to administer to her brother-in-law a +final admonition concerning the coming evening.</p> + +<p>"I hope this isn't going to be the busiest day of your life?" she urged +Burns.</p> + +<p>"It's bound to be,—getting things clear for to-night," he assured her, +good-humouredly.</p> + +<p>"Promise me you won't let anything short of a case of life or death keep +you away?"</p> + +<p>"It's as serious as that, is it? All right, I'll be on hand, unless the +heavens fall."</p> + +<p>He was good as his word, and at the appointed hour his hostess, keeping +an agitated watch on her neighbour's house, saw him arrive, in plenty of +time to dress. She drew a relieved breath.</p> + +<p>"I didn't expect it," she said to James Macauley, her husband.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Red's game. He won't run away from this, much as he hates it. Like +the rest of us married men, he knows when dodging positively won't do," +and Macauley sighed as he settled his tie before the reception-room +mirror, obtaining a view of himself with some difficulty, on account of +the towering masses of flowers and foliage which obscured the glass.</p> + +<p>When Burns and Ellen came across the lawn, Martha flew to meet them.</p> + +<p>"You splendid people! Who wouldn't want to have a reception for such a +pair?"</p> + +<p>"We flatter ourselves we do look pretty fine," Burns admitted, eying his +wife with satisfaction. "That gauzy gray thing Ellen has on strikes me as +the bulliest yet. If I could just get her to wear a pink rose in her hair +I'd be satisfied."</p> + +<p>"A rose in her hair! Aren't you satisfied with that exquisite coral +necklace? That gives the touch of colour she needs. The rose would overdo +it—and wouldn't match, besides." Martha spoke with scorn.</p> + +<p>"Yes, a rose would be maudlin, Red; can't you see it?" James Macauley +gave his opinion with a wink at his friend. "With the necklace your wife +is a dream. With a rose added she'd be a—waking up! Trust 'em, that's my +advice. When they get to talking about a 'touch of' anything, that's the +time to leave 'em alone. A touch of colour is not a daub."</p> + +<p>"Who's lecturing on art?" queried Arthur Chester, from the doorway.</p> + +<p>His wife, Winifred, entering before him, cried out at sight of the pale +gray gauze gown.</p> + +<p>"O Ellen! I thought I looked pretty well, till I caught sight of you. Now +I feel crude!"</p> + +<p>"Absurd," said Ellen, laughing. "You are charming in that blue."</p> + +<p>"There they go again," groaned Macauley to Burns. "Winifred feels crude, +when she looks at Ellen. Why? I don't feel crude when I look at you or +Art Chester. Neither of you has so late a cut on your dress-coat as I, +I flatter myself. I feel anything but crude. And I don't want a rose in +my hair, either."</p> + +<p>"You're a self-satisfied prig," retorted Burns. "Hullo! Somebody's +coming. Tell me what to do, Martha. Do I run to meet them and rush them +up to Ellen, or do I display a studied indifference? I never 'received' +at a reception in my life."</p> + +<p>"Get in line there," instructed Macauley. "Martha and I'll greet them +first and pass them on to you. Don't look as if you were noting symptoms +and don't absent-mindedly feel their pulses. It's not done, outside of +consulting rooms."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to remember." R.P. Burns, M.D. resignedly took his place, +murmuring in Ellen's ear, as the first comers appeared at the door, +"Promise you'll make this up to me, when it's over. I shall have to blow +off steam, somehow. Will you help?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, laughing. He chuckled, as an idea popped into his head; then +drew his face into lines of propriety, and stood, a big, dignified +figure—for Red Pepper could be dignified when the necessity was upon +him—beside the other graceful figure at his side, suggesting an +unfailing support of her grace by his strength to all who looked at them +that night. He had declared himself ignorant of all conventions, but +neither jocose James Macauley nor fastidious Arthur Chester, observing +him, could find any fault with their friend in this new rôle. As the +stream of their townspeople passed by, each with a carefully prepared +word of greeting, Burns was ready with a quick-wittedly amiable +rejoinder. And whenever it became his duty to present to his wife those +who did not know her, he made of the act a little ceremony which seemed +to set her apart as his own in a way which roused no little envy of her, +if he had but known it, in the breasts of certain of the feminine portion +of the company.</p> + +<p>"You're doing nobly. Keep it up an hour longer and you shall be let off," +said Macauley to Burns, at a moment when both were free.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm having the time of my life," Burns assured him grimly, mopping +a warm brow and thrusting his chin forward with that peculiar masculine +movement which suggests momentary relief from an encompassing collar. +"Why should anybody want to be released from such a soul-refreshing +diversion as this? I've lost all track of time or sense,—I just go on +grinning and assenting to everything anybody says to me. I couldn't +discuss the simplest subject with any intelligence whatever—I've none +left."</p> + +<p>"You don't need any. Decent manners and the grin will do. Had anything to +eat yet?"</p> + +<p>"What's got to be eaten?" Burns demanded, unhappily.</p> + +<p>"Punch, and ices—and little cakes, I believe. Cheer up, man, you don't +have to eat 'em, if you don't want to."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for that. I'll remember it of you when greater favours have been +forgotten. Martha has her eye on me—I must go. I'll get even with Martha +for this, some time." And the guest of honour, stuffing his handkerchief +out of sight and thrusting his coppery, thick locks back from his +martyred brow, obeyed the summons.</p> + +<p>The next time Macauley caught sight of him, he was assiduously supplying +a row of elderly ladies with ices and little cakes, and smiling at them +most engagingly. They were looking up at him with that grateful +expression which many elderly ladies unconsciously assume when a handsome +and robust young man devotes himself to them. Burns found this task least +trying of all his duties during that long evening, for one of the row +reminded him of his own mother, to whom he was a devoted son, and for her +sake he would give all aging women of his best. Something about this +little group of unattended guests, all living more or less lonely lives, +as he well knew them in their homes, touched his warm heart, and he +lingered with them to the neglect of younger and fairer faces, until his +host, again at his elbow, in a strenuous whisper admonished him:</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake, Red, don't waste any more of that rare sweetness on +the desert air. Go and lavish your Beau Brummel gallantry on the wives +of our leading citizens. Those new Winterbournes have sackfuls of +money—and a chronic invalid or two always in the family, I'm told. A +little attention there—"</p> + +<p>"Clear out," Burns retorted shortly, and deliberately sat down beside the +little, white-haired old lady who reminded him of his mother. As he had +been standing before, this small act was significant, and Macauley, with +a comprehending chuckle, moved away again.</p> + +<p>"Might have known that wouldn't work," he assured himself. He strolled +over to Ellen, and when, after some time, he succeeded in getting her +for a moment to himself, he put an interested question.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of your husband as a society man? A howling success, +eh? He's been sitting for one quarter of an hour by the side of old Mrs. +Gillis. And a whole roomful of devoted patients, past and future, looking +daggers at him because he ignores them. How's that for business policy, +eh? Can't you bring him to his senses?"</p> + +<p>"Are you sure they're looking daggers? I passed Mrs. Gillis and Red just +now, and thought they made a delightful pair. As for business policy, +Jim,—a man who would be good to an old lady would be good to a young +one. Isn't that the natural inference,—if you must think about business +at all at such an affair. I prefer not to think about it at all."</p> + +<p>"You may not be thinking about it, but you're capturing friends, right +and left. I've been watching you, and knew by the expression on the faces +of those you were talking to that you were gathering them in and nailing +them fast. How does a woman like you do it?—that's what I'd like to +know!"</p> + +<p>"Go and do your duty like a man, Jimmy. Flattering the members of your +own family is not a part of it." Dismissing him with a smile which made +him more than ever eager for her company, she turned away, to devote +herself, as her husband was doing, to the least attractive of the guests.</p> + +<p>The evening wore away at last, and at a reasonably early hour the hosts +were free. The last fellow citizen had barely delivered his parting +speech and taken himself off when Red Pepper Burns turned a handspring +in the middle of the deserted room, and came up grinning like a fiend.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye—good-bye—'tis a word I love to speak," he warbled, and +seizing his wife kissed her ardently on either cheek.</p> + +<p>"Hear—hear!" applauded James Macauley, returning from the hall in time +to see this expression of joy. "May we all follow your excellent +example?"</p> + +<p>"You may not." Red Pepper frowned fiercely at Mr. Macauley, approaching +with mischievous intent. "Keep off!"</p> + +<p>"She's my sister-in-law," defended Macauley, continuing to draw near, and +smiling broadly.</p> + +<p>"All the more reason for you to treat her with respect." Burns's arm +barred the way.</p> + +<p>Macauley stopped short with an unbelieving chuckle. Arthur Chester, +Winifred, his wife, and Martha Macauley, coming in from the dining-room +together, gazed with interest at the scene before them. Ellen, herself +smiling, looked at her husband rather as if she saw something in him she +had never seen before. For it was impossible not to perceive that he was +not joking as he prevented Macauley from reaching his wife.</p> + +<p>"Great snakes! he's in earnest!" howled Macauley, stopping short. "He +won't let me kiss his wife, when I'm the husband of her sister. Go 'way, +man, and cool that red head of yours. Anybody'd think I was going to +elope with her!"</p> + +<p>"Think what you like," Burns retorted, coolly, "so long as you keep your +distance with your foolery. You or any other man."</p> + +<p>"Red, you're not serious!" This was Martha. "Can't you trust Ellen to +preserve her own—"</p> + +<p>"Dead line? Yes—in my absence. When I'm on the spot I prefer to play +picket-duty myself. I may be eccentric. But that's one of my notions, +and I've an idea it's one of hers, too."</p> + +<p>"Better get her a veil, you Turk."</p> + +<p>Macauley walked away with a very red face, at which Burns unexpectedly +burst into a laugh, and his good humour came back with a rush.</p> + +<p>"Look here, you people. Forget my heroics and come over to our house. +I'll give you something to take the taste of those idiotic little cakes +out of your hungry mouths. No refusals! I'm your best friend, Jim +Macauley, and you know it, so come along and don't act like a small boy +who's had his candy taken away from him. You've plenty of candy of your +own, you know."</p> + +<p>He was his gay self again, and bore them away with him on the wave of his +boyish spirits. Across the lawn and into the house they went, the six, +and were conducted into the living-room and bidden settle down around the +fireplace.</p> + +<p>"Start a fire, Jim, and get a bed of cannel going with a roar. You'll +find the stuff in that willow basket. Open all the windows, Ches. Then +all make yourselves comfortable and await my operations. I promise you +a treat—from my point of view."</p> + +<p>And he rushed away.</p> + +<p>"It's my private opinion," growled Macauley, beginning sulkily to lay +the fire, "that that fellow is off his head. He always did seem a trifle +cracked, and to-night he's certainly dippy. What's he going to do with a +fire, at 11 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, on a May evening, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever it is, it will be refreshing." Winifred Chester, reckless of +her delicate blue evening gown, curled herself up in a corner of the big +davenport and laid her head luxuriously down among the pillows. "Oh, I'm +so tired," she sighed. "Seems to me I never heard so many stupid things +said, in one evening, in my life."</p> + +<p>Arthur Chester, having thrown every window wide—though he discreetly +drew the curtains over those which faced the street—sat down in a great +winged chair of comfortable cushioning, and stretched his legs in front +of him as far as they would go, his arms clasped behind his head. He also +drew a deep sigh of content.</p> + +<p>"I don't recall," said he, wearily, "that I have sat down once during the +entire evening."</p> + +<p>"How ridiculous!" cried Martha Macauley, bristling. "If you didn't, it +was your own fault. I took away hardly any chairs, and I arranged several +splendid corners just on purpose for those who wished to sit."</p> + +<p>"As there were a couple of hundred people, and not over a couple of dozen +chairs—" began Chester, dryly.</p> + +<p>But Martha interrupted him. "I never saw such a set. Just as if you +hadn't been going to affairs like this one all your lives,—and Ellen, +especially, must have been at hundreds of them in Washington,—and now +you're all disgusted with having to bear up under just one little +informal—"</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, my children," called Burns, reentering. He was garbed in +white, which his guests saw after a moment to be a freshly laundered +surgical gown, covering him from head to foot, the sleeves reaching only +to his elbows, beneath which his bare arms gleamed sturdily. He bore a +wire broiler in one hand, and a platter of something in the other, and +his face wore an expression of content.</p> + +<p>"Beefsteak, by all that's crazy!" shouted James Macauley, eying the +generous expanse of raw meat upon the platter with undisguised delight. +He forgot his sulkiness in an instant, and slapped his friend upon the +back with a resounding blow. "Bully for Red!" he cried.</p> + +<p>"Well, well! Of all the wild ideas!" murmured Arthur Chester. But he sat +up in his chair, and his expression grew definitely more cheerful.</p> + +<p>Winifred laughed out with anticipation. "Oh, how good that will taste!" +she exclaimed, hugging herself in her own pretty arms. "It is just what +we want, after wearing ourselves out being agreeable. Who but Red would +ever think of such a thing, at this time of night?"</p> + +<p>"I believe it will taste good," and Martha Macauley laid her head back at +last against the encompassing comfort of the chair she sat in, and for +the first time relaxed from the duties of hostess and the succeeding +defence of her hospitality.</p> + +<p>"Don't you want my help, Red?" his wife asked him, at his elbow.</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at the gray gauze gown. "I should say not," said he. +"Lie back, all of you, and take your ease, which you have richly earned, +while I play <i>chef</i>. Nothing will suit me better. I'm boiling over with +restrained emotion, and this will work it off. Lie back, while I imagine +that it's one of the male guests who bored me whom I'm grilling now. I'll +do him to a turn!"</p> + +<p>He proceeded with his operations, working the quick fire of cannel which +Macauley had started into a glowing bed of hot coals. He improvised from +the andirons a rack for his broiler, and set the steak to cooking. While +he heated plates, sliced bread, and brought knives, forks, and napkins, +he kept an experienced eye upon his broiler, and saw that it was +continually turned and shifted, in order to get the best results. And +presently he was laying his finished product upon the hot platter, +seasoning it, applying a rich dressing of butter, and, at last, preparing +with a flourish of the knife to carve it.</p> + +<p>It was at this to-be-expected moment that the office-bell rang. Miss +Mathewson summoned her employer, and Burns stayed only to serve his +guests, before he left them hungrily consuming his offering and bewailing +his departure.</p> + +<p>"Only," Martha Macauley said, "we ought to be thankful that for once he +got through an evening without being called out."</p> + +<p>Ellen had placed her husband's portion where it would keep hot for him, +and the others had nearly finished consuming their own, when Burns came +in. He made for the fire, amid the greetings and praises of his guests, +and served his own plate with the portion remaining on the platter, +covering it liberally with the rich gravy. Then he cut and buttered two +thick slices of bread and laid them on the plate.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, sit down, man!" urged Macauley, as his host rose to his feet. +"We're waiting to see you enjoy this magnificent result of your cookery. +It's the best steak I've had in a blue moon."</p> + +<p>"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take mine in the office," Burns +explained. "Can't leave my patient just yet." And he went away again, +carrying his plate, napkin over his arm.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later Macauley, putting down his empty plate, got up and +strolled out into the hall. A moment afterward he was heard abruptly +closing the office door, saying, "Oh, I beg pardon!" Then he returned to +the company. He was whistling softly as he came, his hands in his pockets +and his eyebrows lifted.</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> dippy," he said, solemnly. "No man in his senses would act like +that."</p> + +<p>"You eavesdropper, what did you see?" Winifred Chester looked at him +expectantly.</p> + +<p>"I saw the worst-looking specimen of tramp humanity who has come under my +observation for a year, with a bandage over one eye. He is sitting in +that big chair with a plate and napkin in his lap, and his ugly mouth is +full of beefsteak."</p> + +<p>"And isn't Red having any?" cried Martha, with a glance at the empty +platter.</p> + +<p>"Not a smell. He's standing up by the chimney-piece, looking the picture +of contentment—the idiot. But he modified his benevolent expression +long enough to give me a glare, when he saw me looking in. That's the +second glare I've had from him to-night, and I'm going home. I can't +stand incurring his displeasure a third time in one day. Come, Martha, +let's get back to our happy home—what there is left of it after the +fray. We'll send over a plate of little cakes for the master of the +house. A couple of dozen of them may fill up that yawning cavity of his. +Of all the foolishness!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>A RED HEAD</h3> + + +<p>"Marriage," said James Macauley, looking thoughtfully into his coffee +cup, as he sat opposite his wife, Martha, at the breakfast-table, "is +supposed to change a man radically. The influence of a good and lovely +woman can hardly be overestimated. But the question is, can the temper +of a red-headed explosive ever be rendered uninflammable?"</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" Martha inquired, with interest. "Ellen and +Red? Red <i>is</i> changed. I never saw him so dear and tractable."</p> + +<p>"Dear and tractable, is he? Have you happened to encounter him in the +last twenty-four hours?"</p> + +<p>"No. What's the matter? He and Ellen can't possibly have had +any—misunderstanding? And if they had, they wouldn't tell you about it."</p> + +<p>"Well, they may not have had a misunderstanding, but if Ellen succeeds in +understanding him through the present crisis she'll prove herself a +remarkable woman. As near as I can make it out, Red is mad, fighting mad, +clear through, with somebody or something, and he can no more disguise +it than he ever could. I don't suppose it's with anybody at home, of +course, but it makes him anything but an angel, there or anywhere else."</p> + +<p>"Where did you see him? Hush—Mary's coming!"</p> + +<p>Macauley waited obediently till the maid had left the room again. Then he +proceeded. He had not begun upon the present subject until the children +had gone away, leaving the father and mother alone together.</p> + +<p>"I ran into his office last night, after those throat-tablets he gives +me, and heard him at the telephone in the private office. Couldn't help +hearing him. He was giving the everlasting quietus to somebody, and I +thought he'd burn out the transmitter."</p> + +<p>"Jim! Red doesn't swear any more. He surely hasn't taken it up again?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't do any technical swearing, perhaps, but he might as well. He +can put more giant-powder into the English language without actually +breaking any commandments than anybody I ever heard. When he came out he +had that look of his—you know it of old—so that if I'd been a timid +chap I'd have backed out. He gave me my throat-tablets without so much as +answering my explanation of how I came to be out of them so soon. Then I +got away, I assure you. He had no use for me."</p> + +<p>"He's probably all right this morning. Ellen could quiet him down."</p> + +<p>"She didn't get the chance. The light in his old room burned all +night,—and you know he's not sleeping there now."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry for her." Martha rose, her brow clouded. "But I'd never +dare to ask her what the trouble was, and she'll never tell, so there it +is."</p> + +<p>"It certainly is—right there. Oh, well, he'll get over it, if you give +him time. Queer, what a combination of big heart and red head he is."</p> + +<p>At the moment of this discussion the red head was still in the +ascendency. R.P. Burns, M.D., had come out of his old quarters downstairs +that morning with lips set grimly together, heavy gloom upon his brow. He +met his wife at the breakfast-table with an effort at a smile in response +to her bright look, and kissed her as tenderly as usual, but it was an +automatic tenderness, as she was quick to recognize. He replied +monosyllabically to her observations concerning matters usually of +interest to him, but he evidently had no words to spare, and after a +little she gave over all effort to draw him out. Instead, she and Bob +held an animated discussion on certain kindergarten matters, while Red +Pepper swallowed his breakfast in silence, gulped down two cups of strong +coffee, and left the table with only a murmured word of apology.</p> + +<p>"Red,—" His wife's voice followed him.</p> + +<p>He turned, without speaking.</p> + +<p>"Do you mind if I drive into town with you this morning?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, and turned again, striding on into his office and closing the +door with a bang. She understood that his nod meant acquiescence with her +request, rather than affirmation as to his objecting to her company. She +kept close watch over the movements of the Green Imp, suspecting that in +his present mood Burns might forget to call her, and when the car came +down the driveway she was waiting on the office steps.</p> + +<p>It would have been an ill-humoured man indeed, whose eyes could have +rested upon her standing there and not have noted the charm of her +graceful figure, her face looking out at him from under a modishly +attractive hat. Ellen's smile, from under the shadowing brim, was as +whole-heartedly sweet as if she were meeting the look of worshipful +comradeship which usually fell upon her when she joined her husband on +any expedition whatever. Instead, she encountered something like a glower +from the hazel eyes, which did, however, as at breakfast, soften for an +instant at the moment of meeting hers.</p> + +<p>"Jump in! I'm in a hurry," was his quite needless command, for she was +ready to take her place the instant the car drew to a standstill, and the +delay she made him was hardly appreciable.</p> + +<p>In silence they drove to town, and at a pace which took them past +everything with which they came up, from lumbering farm-wagon to +motor-cars far more powerful and speedy than the Imp. Ellen found herself +well blown about by the wind they made, though there was none stirring, +and wished she had been dressed for driving instead of for shopping. But +the trip, if breezy, was brief, though it did not at once land her at her +destination.</p> + +<p>Drawing up before a somewhat imposing residence, on the outskirts of the +city, Burns announced: "Can't take you in till I've made this call," and +stopped his engine with a finality which seemed to indicate that he +should be in no haste to start it again.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter in the least. I shall enjoy sitting here," his wife +responded, still outwardly unruffled by his manner. She looked in vain +for his customary glance of leave-taking, and watched him stride away up +the walk to the house with a sense of wonder that even his back could +somehow look so aggressive.</p> + +<p>She had not more than settled herself when a handsome roadster appeared +rushing rapidly down the road from the direction of the city and came to +a stop, facing her, before the house. She recognized in the well-groomed +figure which stepped out, case in hand, one of the city surgeons with +whom her husband was often closely associated in his hospital work, Dr. +Van Horn. He was a decade older than Red, possessed a strikingly +impressive personality, and looked, to the last detail, like a man +accustomed to be deferred to.</p> + +<p>Descending, he caught sight of Ellen, and came across to the Imp, hat in +hand, and motoring-glove withdrawn.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mrs. Burns,—accompanying your husband on this matchless morning? He +is a fortunate man. You don't mind the waiting? My wife thinks there is +nothing so unendurable,—she has no patience with the length of my +calls."</p> + +<p>"I've not had much experience, as yet," Ellen replied, looking into the +handsome, middle-aged face before her, and thinking that the smile under +the close-clipped, iron-gray moustache was one which could be cynical +more easily than it could be sympathetic. "But, so far, I find the +waiting, in such weather, very endurable. I often bring a book, and then +it never matters, you know."</p> + +<p>"Of course not. You are familiar with Balzac's 'Country Doctor'? There's +a tribute to men like your husband, who devote their lives to the humble +folk." He glanced toward the house. "I mustn't keep my colleague waiting, +even for the pleasure of a chat with you. He's not—you'll pardon me—so +good a waiter as yourself!"</p> + +<p>He went away, smiling. Ellen looked after him with a little frown of +displeasure. From the first moment of meeting him, some months ago, she +had not liked Dr. James Van Horn. He was the city's most fashionable +surgeon, she knew, and had a large practice among folk the reverse of +"humble." She had seen in his eyes that he liked to look at her, and knew +that in the moment he had stood beside her he had lost no detail of her +face. He had also, after some subtle fashion, managed to express his +admiration by his own look, though with his smoothly spoken words he had +not hesitated to say a thing about her husband which was at once somehow +a compliment and a stab.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine Dr. Van Horn taking much pains with 'humble folk,'" +Ellen said to herself. "Yet he's evidently consulting with Red at this +house, which doesn't seem exactly a 'humble' abode. I wonder if they get +on well together. They're certainly not much alike."</p> + +<p>The wait proved to be a long one. Ellen had studied her surroundings with +thoroughness in every direction before the house-door opened at last, and +the two men came down the walk together. They were talking earnestly as +they came, and at a point some yards away they ceased to advance, and +stood still, evidently in tense discussion over the case just left. They +spoke in the low tones customary with men of their profession, and their +words did not reach Ellen's ears. But it was not difficult to recognize, +as she watched their faces, that they were differing, and differing +radically, on the matter in hand.</p> + +<p>They had turned to face each other, and neither looked her way, so +it was possible for Ellen to study the two without fear of intrusion. +They made an interesting study, certainly. Dr. Van Horn's face was +impassive as to the play of his features, except that he smiled, from +time to time,—a smile which bore out Ellen's previous feeling concerning +its possibilities for cynicism rather than sympathy. His eyes, however, +steely blue and cold in their expression, told more than his face of +antagonism to the man with whom he spoke. But his command of manner, to +the outward observer, who could not hear his words, was perfect.</p> + +<p>As for R.P. Burns, M.D., there was no disguising the fact that he was +intensely angry. That he strove, and strove hard, to control his manner, +if not his anger, was perfectly evident to his wife, but that he was +succeeding ill at the task was painfully apparent. His colour was +high—it nearly matched his hair; his eyes burned like consuming fires +under their dark brows; his lips spoke fast and fiercely. He kept his +voice down—Ellen was thankful for that—and his gestures, though +forceful, were controlled; but she feared at every moment that he would +break out into open show of temper, and it seemed to her that this she +could not bear.</p> + +<p>She had never before seen Red Pepper really angry. She had been told, +again and again since her first meeting with him, by her sister and her +sister's husband, and by the Chesters, that Burns was capable of getting +into a red rage in which nobody could influence or calm him, and in which +he could or would not control himself. They invariably added that these +hot exhibitions of high temper were frequently over as suddenly as they +had appeared, and usually did nobody any harm whatever. But they hinted +that there had been times in the past when Red had said or done that +which could not be forgiven by his victims, and that he had more than +once alienated people of standing whose good-will he could not afford to +lose.</p> + +<p>"He keeps a woodpile back of the house," James Macauley had told her +once, laughingly, in the last days before she had married Burns, "where +he works off a good deal of high pressure. If you catch a glimpse of +him there, at unholy hours, you may know that there's murder in his +heart—for the moment. Art Chester vows he's caught him there at +midnight, and I don't doubt it in the least. But—a woodpile isn't always +handy when a man is mad clear through, and when it isn't, and you happen +to be the one who's displeased His Pepperiness, look out! I give you fair +warning, smiles and kisses won't always work with him, much as he may +like 'em when he's sane!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid, thank you, Jim," Ellen had answered, lightly. "Better a +red-hot temper than a white-cold one."</p> + +<p>She thought of the words now, as she saw her husband suddenly turn away +from Dr. Van Horn, and march down the walk, ahead of him. The action +was pretty close to rudeness, for it left the elder man in the rear. +Evidently, in spite of his irritation, Burns instantly realized this, for +he turned again, saying quickly: "I beg your pardon, Doctor, but I've got +a lot of work waiting."</p> + +<p>"Don't apologize, Doctor," returned the other, with perfect courtesy. "We +all know that you are the busiest man among us."</p> + +<p>His face, as he spoke, was as pale as Burns's was high-coloured, and +Ellen recognized that here were the two sorts of wrath in apposition, the +"red" sort and the "white." And looking at Dr. Van Horn's face, it seemed +to her that she still preferred the red. But as his eyes met hers he +smiled the same suave smile which she had seen before.</p> + +<p>"Not tired of waiting yet, Mrs. Burns?" he said, as he passed her. "You +must be a restful companion for a man harassed by many cares."</p> + +<p>She smiled and nodded her thanks, with a blithe word of parting,—so +completely can her sex disguise their feelings. She was conscious at the +moment, without in the least being able to guess at the cause of the +friction between the two men, of an intense antipathy to Dr. James Van +Horn. And at the same moment she longed to be able to make her husband +look as cool and unconcerned as the other man was looking, as he drove +away with a backward nod—which Red Pepper did not return!</p> + +<p>It was not the time to speak,—she knew that well enough. Besides, though +she was not the subject of his resentment, she did not care to incur any +more of the results of it than could be helped. She let Burns drop her at +a corner near the shopping district without asking him to take her to the +precise place she meant to visit first, and left him without making any +request that he return for her,—a courtesy he was usually eager to +insist upon, even though it took him out of his way.</p> + +<p>At night, when he returned, she met him with the hope that he would be +able to spend the evening with her,—a thing which had not happened for +a week. Her arms were about his neck as she put the question, and he +looked down into her face with again a slight softening of his austere +expression. She had seen at the first glance that he was not only still +unhappy, he was suffering profound fatigue.</p> + +<p>"No, I've got to go back to that infernal case." It was the first time he +had disclosed even a hint as to what was the matter.</p> + +<p>"The one where I stopped with you this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Each time I go I vow I'll not go again. To-night, if I find things +as they were two hours ago, I'll discharge myself, and that will end it."</p> + +<p>"Red, you're just as tired and worn as you can be. Come in to the big +couch, and let me make you comfortable, until dinner. You'll eat the +better for it—and you need it."</p> + +<p>He yielded, reluctantly,—he who was always so willing to submit to her +ministrations. But he threw himself upon the couch with a long sigh, and +let her arrange the pillows under his head. She sat down beside him.</p> + +<p>"Can't you tell me something about it, dear?" she suggested. "Nothing I +ought not to know, of course, but the thing which makes you so miserable. +It can't be because the case is going wrong,—that wouldn't affect you +just as this is doing."</p> + +<p>"You've seen it, I suppose. I thought I'd kept in, before you." Burns +shut his eyes, his brows frowning.</p> + +<p>She could have smiled, but did not. "You have—only of course I have seen +that something was wearing you—keeping you on a tension. You've not been +quite yourself for several days."</p> + +<p>"I am myself. I'm the real fellow—only you haven't known him before. The +other is just—the devil disguised in a goodly garment, one that doesn't +belong to him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!"</p> + +<p>"No question of it. I'm so swearing mad this minute I could kill +somebody,—in other words, that foul fiend of a James Van +Horn—smooth-tongued hypocrite that he is!"</p> + +<p>"Has he injured you?"</p> + +<p>"Injured me? Knifed me in the back, every chance he got. Always has—but +he never had such a chance as he has now. And plays the part of an angel +of light in that house—fools them all. I'm the ill-tempered incompetent, +he's the forbearing wise man. The case is mine, but he's played the game +till they all have more confidence in him than they have in me. And he's +got all the cards in his hand!"</p> + +<p>He flung himself off the couch, and began to pace the room. Speech, once +unloosed, flowed freely enough now,—he could not keep it back.</p> + +<p>"The patient is a man of prominence—the matter of his recovery is a +great necessity. If he were able to bear it he ought to be operated upon; +but there isn't one chance in a hundred he'd survive an operation at +present. There's at least one chance in ten he'll get well without one. +I'm usually keen enough to operate, but for once I don't dare risk it. +Van Horn advises operation—unreservedly. And the deuce of it is that +with every hour that goes by he lets the family understand that he +considers the patient's chances for relief by operation are lessening. +He's fixing it so that however things come out he's safe, and however +things come out I'm in the hole."</p> + +<p>"Not if the patient gets well."</p> + +<p>"No, but I tell you the chance for that is mighty slim—only one in ten, +at best. So he holds the cards, except for that one chance of mine. And +if the patient dies in the end it's because I didn't operate when he +advised it—or so he'll let them see he thinks. Not in so many words, but +in the cleverest innuendo of face and manner;—<i>that's</i> what makes me so +mad! If he'd fight in the open! But not he."</p> + +<p>"Would he have liked to operate himself?"</p> + +<p>Burns laughed—an ugly laugh, such as she had never before heard from his +lips. "Couldn't have been hired to, not even in the beginning, when he +first advocated it. And I couldn't have let him, knowing as well as I +know anything in life that the patient would never have left the table +alive. Don't you see I've had to fight for my patient's very life,—or +rather for his slim chance to live,—knowing all the while that I was +probably digging my own grave. Easy enough to let Van Horn operate, in +the beginning, and kill the patient and prove himself right,—if he would +have done it. Easy enough to pull out of the case and let them have +somebody who would operate on Van Horn's advice."</p> + +<p>"Is the patient going down?"</p> + +<p>"No, he's holding his own fairly well, but the disease isn't one that +would take him off overnight. It'll be a matter of two or three days yet, +either way. How I'm going to get through them, with things going as they +are;—meeting that Judas there at the bedside, three times a day, and +trying to keep my infernal temper from making me disgrace myself—"</p> + +<p>"Red, dear,—"</p> + +<p>She rose and came to him, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking +straight up into his face.</p> + +<p>"That's where Dr. Van Horn is stronger than you, and in no other way. He +can control himself."</p> + +<p>"Not inside! Nor outside—if you know him. He's exactly as mad as I am, +only—"</p> + +<p>"He doesn't show it. And so he has the advantage."</p> + +<p>"Do you think I don't know that? But I'm right and he's wrong—"</p> + +<p>"So you are the one who should keep cool. You've heard the saying of some +wise man—<i>'If you are right you have no need to lose your temper—if +you are wrong you can't afford to.'</i>"</p> + +<p>Red Pepper laid hold of the hands upon his shoulders, and looked down +into his wife's eyes with fires burning fiercely in his own.</p> + +<p>"You can give me all the wise advice you want to, but the fact +remains.—I have reason to be angry, and I am angry, and I can't help it, +and won't help it! Great heavens, I'm human!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, you're human, and so am I. You have great provocation, and +I think I'm almost as angry, in my small way, with Dr. Van Horn, as +you are, now that I know. But—I want you somehow to keep control of +yourself. You are a gentleman, and he is not, but he is acting like a +gentleman—hush—on the outside, I mean—and—you are not!"</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>"Dear, <i>are</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"What do you know about it?"</p> + +<p>"From the little I saw outside the house this morning."</p> + +<p>He grasped her arms so tightly that he hurt her. "Lord! If you mean that +I ought to grin at him, as he does at me, the snake in the grass—"</p> + +<p>"I don't mean that, of course. But I do think you shouldn't allow +yourself to look as if you wanted to knock him down."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing in life that would give me greater satisfaction!"</p> + +<p>He relaxed his grasp on her arms, and she let them drop from his +shoulders. She turned aside, with a little droop of the head, as if she +felt it useless to argue with one so stubbornly set on his own +destruction.</p> + +<p>He looked after her. "A big brute, am I not? Didn't know me before, did +you? Thought I was all fine, warm heart and blarneying words. Well, I'm +not. When a thing like this gets hold of me I'm—well, I won't shock your +pretty ears by putting it into words."</p> + +<p>He walked out of the room, leaving her standing looking after him with a +strange expression on her face. Before she had moved, however, the door +burst open again, and he was striding across the floor to her, to seize +her in his arms.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> a brute, and I know it, but I'm not so far gone as not to realize +I'm wreaking my temper on the one I love best in the world. Forget it, +darling, and don't worry about me. I've been through this sort of thing +times enough before. Best not try to reform me—let me have my fling. I'm +no Job nor Moses,—I wasn't built that way."</p> + +<p>She lifted her head, and the action was full of spirit. "I don't want you +a Job or a Moses, but a man! It's not manly to act as you are acting +now."</p> + +<p>He threw up his head. "Not manly! That's a new one. According to your +code is there no just anger in the world?"</p> + +<p>"Just anger, but not sane rage. You have reason to be angry but there's +no reason in the world why you should let it consume you. Red, dear, why +not—<i>bank the fires</i>?"</p> + +<p>He stared down into her upturned face. He had thought he knew her, +heart and soul, but he found himself thoroughly astonished by this new +attitude. He was so accustomed to a charming compliance in her, he could +hardly realize that he was being brought to book in a manner at once so +felicitous yet so firm. She gave him back his scrutiny without flinching, +and somehow, though she put him in the wrong, he had never loved her +better. Here was a comrade who could understand and influence him!</p> + +<p>"Bank the fires, eh?" he growled. "Not put them out? I should suppose you +would have wanted them drowned out in a flood of tears of repentance for +letting them burn."</p> + +<p>"No! You are you, and the fires are warming—when they are kept under +control. You're fighting the harder for your patient's life because the +fight's a hard one. But when you let the Devil fan the flame—"</p> + +<p>He burst into a great, unexpected laugh and caught her to his breast +again. "That's what I'm doing, is it? That ever I should have lived to +hear you use a phrase like that! But it's a true one, I admit it. I've +let his Satanic Majesty have his own way with me, and bade him welcome, +too. I may again, when I get away from you. But—well—I know you're +right. I—I'll try to bank the fires, little wife. Only don't expect too +much."</p> + +<p>"Red," said she,—and it was not at all the sort of rejoinder he might +have expected after his concession,—"why is there no woodpile now behind +the house?"</p> + +<p>"Woodpile?" He was clearly puzzled. "Why, there's plenty of wood in the +cellar, you know, if you want fires. You can't be suffering for them, +this weather?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I wish there were a woodpile there. Did you think you wouldn't +need one any more after you were married? You should have laid in a +double supply."</p> + +<p>"But, what for? Oh!—" Light dawned upon him. "Somebody's told you how I +used to whack at it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I saw you once myself, only I didn't know what put the energy +into your blows. It was a splendid safety-valve. Red,—send for a load +of wood to-day, please!"</p> + +<p>"In July! You hard-hearted little wretch! Do you want me reduced to a +pulp?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "Better that than burning like a bonfire. And better than +running the Imp sixty miles an hour. That doesn't help you,—it merely +helps your arch enemy fan the flames."</p> + +<p>He laughed again, and the sound of his own laughter did him good, +according to the laws of Nature. "Bless you, you've put him to rout for +the moment at least, and that's more than any other human soul has ever +done for mine, before."</p> + +<p>He kissed her, tenderly, and understanding what he did. In his heart he +adored her for the sweetness and sense which had kept her from taking +these days of trial as a personal affront and finding offence in them.</p> + +<p>They went out to dinner, and Burns found himself somehow able to forget +sufficiently to enjoy the appetizing dishes which were served to him, and +to keep his brow clear and his mind upon the table talk. When he went +away, afterward, back to the scene of his irritation and anxiety, he bore +with him a peculiar sense of having his good genius with him, to help him +tend those devastating fires of temperament which when they burned too +fiercely could only hinder him in the fight he waged.</p> + +<p>It was almost daybreak when he returned. Ellen was not asleep, although +she did not expect him to come upstairs, if only for fear of disturbing +her at that hour. But presently the cautious opening of her door caused +her to raise her head and lift her arms. Her husband came to her, and sat +down close beside her.</p> + +<p>"I've discharged myself from the case," he said. He spoke quietly, but +his voice vibrated with feeling. "It was the only thing to do. No man +could keep on with a case where the family were secretly following the +consultant's directions, instead of those of the physician in charge. +But,—for your sake, little wife, I've done something I never would have +believed I'd do."</p> + +<p>She sat up, her eyes fixed on the dim outlines of his face. "Tell me!" +she urged.</p> + +<p>"To begin with, I had it out with them, and let them know I understood +the situation perfectly—and had understood it all along. That I couldn't +stay with people who had lost faith in me. That if I were out of it they +could have the full benefit of Van Horn's orders, and the nurses would be +relieved of a mighty difficult situation. I suppose you don't know—few +people do—that it's a bad breach of professional ethics for a consultant +to conduct himself so that he throws doubt on the ability of the man in +charge? In this case it was a piece of outrageous—" He caught himself +up. "I can't get going on that, or—those fires won't stay banked!"</p> + +<p>She had his hand in both hers, and she lifted it to her lips. He drew a +smothered breath or two, and went on.</p> + +<p>"They were glad enough to see me out of it. Van Horn was—also glad! +You see,—within the last few hours the patient had lost ground—Van's +prognosis was being verified. But, when it came to taking leave of the +patient, there was the dickens to pay. His pulse jumped and his +temperature went up, and there was trouble for fair. He begged me not to +leave him. From the start his faith has been pinned tight to me. The +family hadn't reckoned with that. They found themselves obliged to reckon +with it. They saw I must be kept, or the game would be up in short +order."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you <i>had</i> to stay!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had to stay—but—I couldn't! Van Horn was in charge, and the +family wanted him in charge."</p> + +<p>"But the patient would die if you didn't stay. You couldn't let +professional etiquette—"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you, though? You've got to observe the rules of the game, +Ellen, or you'll be in a worse mess than if you disregard them. After I +had resigned the case, unless Van Horn took himself out of it I could +have no recognized place in the house. He could have invited me, in the +emergency, to share responsibility equally with himself—but would he do +that? Never! There was just one thing I could do,—let the patient think +I was still in charge, and continue to see him, while Van Horn ran things +and so satisfied the family."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Red, they couldn't ask you to do that?"</p> + +<p>"That was what they did ask. I saw 'red' then, for a minute, I can tell +you. You can't understand just what a humiliation that would be,—it's +more than you could expect of any man—"</p> + +<p>"But with the patient needing you—"</p> + +<p>"I know,—but it's an anomalous position, just the same—an unbearable +one. Not one man in a thousand would consider it for an instant. But it's +the one I've accepted—for you!"</p> + +<p>He drew her into his arms, and had his reward. He had not known she would +be so deeply touched, and his heart grew very warm.</p> + +<p>"Bless you!" he murmured. "Do you care so much about seeing those fires +banked? They would never burn <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Care? Oh, how I care! But, Red, you haven't accepted an 'anomalous +position.' It's a clearly defined one,—the position of the man who is +big enough to take second place, because it is his duty. And I'm so proud +of you—so proud! And prouder yet because you've controlled that fiery +temper."</p> + +<p>"Don't praise me yet,—it may break out again. The test is coming in the +next forty-eight hours."</p> + +<p>"You will stand it,—I know you will."</p> + +<p>"You would put backbone into a feather-bed," said Red Pepper, with +conviction, and they laughed and clung together, in the early dawn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Two days later Burns came home again as the first light of the morning +was breaking over the summer sky. It had been the third consecutive night +which he had spent at the bedside of the patient who would not let him +go,—the patient who, every time his weary eyes lifted, during the long +stretches of the night, wanted to rest them upon a halo of coppery red +hair against the low-burning light. The sick man had learned what it +meant to feel now and then, in a moment of torture, the pressure of a +kind, big hand upon his, and to hear the sound of a quiet, reassuring +voice—<i>"Steady—steady—better in a minute!"</i></p> + +<p>As he entered his office his eyes were heavy with his vigils, but his +heart was very light. He looked at a certain old leather chair, into +which he had often sunk when he came in at untimely hours, too weary +to take another step toward bed. But now he passed it by and noiselessly +crossed the hall into the living-room, where stood the roomy and +luxurious couch which Ellen had provided with special thought of hours +like these.</p> + +<p>He softly opened the windows, to let in the morning breeze and the +bird-songs of the early risers outside, then threw himself upon the +couch, and almost instantly was sound asleep.</p> + +<p>Two hours later, before the household was astir, Ellen came down. She was +in flowing, lacy garments, her hair in freshly braided plaits hanging +over her shoulders, her eyes clear and bright with the invigoration of +the night's rest. As if she had known he would be there, she came +straight to her husband's side, and stood looking down at him with +her heart in her eyes.</p> + +<p>He looked almost like a big boy, lying there with one arm under his head, +the heavy lashes marking the line of the closed eyes, the face unbent +from the tenser moulding of waking hours, the whole strong body relaxed +into an attitude of careless ease. Even as she looked, though she had +made scarcely a breath of noise, his eyes unclosed. He was the lightest +of sleepers, even when worn out with work. He lay staring up at her for a +minute while she smiled down at him, then he held out his arms.</p> + +<p>"He's passed the danger point," he exulted, and he took hold of the two +long plaits and wound them about her head. Then he sat up and began +deliberately to unbraid her hair, while she submitted laughing.</p> + +<p>"At two this morning he had a bad turn," said he, his fingers having +their way with the dusky locks. "The nurse gave him Van Horn's drugs,—he +grew worse. I rose up and took charge." He laughed at the thought. "We +had things doing there that would have made Van's hair curl. Everybody's +hair curled but mine. Mine stood up straight. I waved my arms like a +semaphore. I said <i>'Do this!'</i> and they did it. I sent every one of Van's +emergency orders to thunder and tried my own. They were radical—but they +worked. The patient pulled out,—he'll live now,—I'll warrant him. +They got Van there just as the thing was over. He and I looked each other +in the eye—and I won. <i>Ah—h!—it was worth it!</i>"</p> + +<p>He drew her hair all over her face, like a veil; then he gently parted it +and kissed her happy lips.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I'm the hungry boy," said he. "Can't we have breakfast—<i>now</i>?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>MORE THAN ONE OPINION</h3> + + +<p>"I want an opinion," said Burns, one night at dinner, "that shall +coincide with mine. Where do you suppose I'm going to find it?"</p> + +<p>He had been more or less abstracted during the entire dinner. He now +offered, in a matter-of-fact tone, this explanation of his abstraction +much as he might have observed that he would like a partridge, if it had +happened to be in season.</p> + +<p>"What's a ''pinion,' Uncle Red?" inquired his small ward, Bob. Bob's +six-year-old brain seemed to be always at work in the attempt to solve +problems.</p> + +<p>"It's what somebody else thinks about a thing when it agrees with what +you think. When it doesn't agree it's a prejudice," replied Burns. He +forestalled further questioning from Bob by refilling his plate with the +things the boy liked best, and by continuing, himself:</p> + +<p>"Grayson's idea about a certain case of mine is prejudice—pure +prejudice. Van Horn's is bluster. Field's is non-committal. Buller would +like to back me up—good old Buller—but is honestly convinced that I'm +making an awful mess of it. I want an opinion—a distinguished opinion."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you send for it?" his wife asked.</p> + +<p>Burns frowned. "That's the trouble. The more distinguished the opinion +I get the more my patient will have to pay for it, and he can't afford +to pay a tin dollar. At the same time—By George! There's Leaver! I +heard the other day that Leaver was at a sanitorium not a hundred miles +away,—there for a rest. I'll wager he's there with a patient for a few +days—at a good big price a day. Leaver never rests. He's made of steel +wires. I believe I'll have him up on the long-distance and see if I can't +get him to run over."</p> + +<p>"Is it Dr. John Leaver of Baltimore you speak of?"</p> + +<p>"It surely is. Do you happen to know him?"</p> + +<p>"Slightly, and by reputation—a great reputation."</p> + +<p>"Great? I should say so. Jack's been sawing wood without resting for ten +years. We were great chums in college, though he was two classes ahead +of me. I was with him again for a winter in Germany, when we were both +studying there. If I can get him over here for a day, I'll have an +opinion worth respecting, whether it happens to agree with mine or not. +And if it doesn't, I'll not call it prejudice."</p> + +<p>He left the table to put in a long-distance call. Between the salad +and the dessert he was summoned to talk with his friend. Presently he +returned, chuckling.</p> + +<p>"It must be fully ten minutes since I thought of Leaver, and now I have +him promised for to-morrow. I'll meet him in the city, give him the +history of the case at luncheon at the Everett, take him to the hospital +afterward, bring him out here to discuss things, and give him one of your +dinners. Then for a fine evening at our fireside. He's agreed to stay +overnight. I didn't expect that. He's usually in too much of a hurry to +linger long anywhere."</p> + +<p>"He has never seemed in a hurry, when I have seen him," Ellen observed. +"He has such a quiet manner, and such a cool, calm way of looking at one, +I always thought he must have a wonderful command of himself."</p> + +<p>"I always envied him that," admitted Red Pepper, stirring his coffee with +a thoughtful air. "I used to wish it were contagious, that splendid calm. +He never loses his head, as I do. Takes plenty of time to consider +everything, and plenty to get ready in. But when he does come to the +point of operating,—he's a wonder. Talk about rapidity and brilliancy! +And he never turns a hair. I've often wanted to count his pulse at a +crisis, when he'd found something unexpected—one of those times that +sends mine racing like a dynamo. He's as cool as a fish—outwardly, at +any rate. Well, it will be jolly to see him. I could hardly get his voice +to sound natural, over the 'phone. It seemed weak and thin. Poor service, +I suppose,—though he had no difficulty in hearing me, apparently."</p> + +<p>"Shall I put him in the small guest-room or the large, comfortable one? +Which will appeal to him most, space or a reading-light over his bed?"</p> + +<p>"Put him in the big room and give him all the comforts of home. I doubt +if he gets many of the really homelike sort, living alone with servants, +in the old family mansion, since his mother died. I've often wondered why +he hasn't married."</p> + +<p>"As you've only just married yourself I should think you would be quite +able to supply a reason," suggested Ellen, with a sparkle of her dark +eyes under their heavy lashes.</p> + +<p>"He's had plenty of opportunities. Many fair ladies have made it easy for +him to propose to them. But he's not the sort that kindles into flame at +the sight of a match in the distance. Yet he's by no means a cold-blooded +proposition. His heart is as warm as anybody's, under that reserve of +his. That's why I know he'll see my patient for the love of science and +humanity, and charge him nothing."</p> + +<p>Ellen found herself particularly interested, next day, in making +preparations for the reception of her husband's friend, the first +bachelor who should spend a night in the house. It was a fortnight since +Red Pepper had insisted upon having the telephones extended to the +upstairs rooms, and during that period two more rooms had been furnished +and put in readiness for the guests whom it was a part of Mrs. Burns's +hospitable creed to expect. The larger of these was a charming apartment, +in blue and white, and possessed a small fireplace, in front of which +stood a low couch, luxurious with many pillows.</p> + +<p>"It's rather a feminine looking room for so manly a man as Dr. Leaver," +Ellen reflected, as she looked in at it, an hour before his arrival, "but +perhaps he's not above enjoying little softnesses of comfort. I believe +I'll have a small fire for him, June though it is. It's a cold June, and +it looks like rain. It <i>is</i> raining." She crossed to the window and +looked out. "Why, it's pouring! What a pity! We shall have to stay +indoors."</p> + +<p>As she stood contemplating the downpour, it quite suddenly increased, and +in the course of a minute or two became a deluge. In the midst of it she +discovered a white-clad figure running across the lawn, and recognized +Miss Mathewson, evidently caught in the shower as she was returning to +Burns's office.</p> + +<p>"She must be soaked through and through," thought Ellen, and ran +downstairs to meet her, herself clad in dinner dress of the pale lilac +which suited her so well, and for which her husband had conceived a +special fondness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't come near me, please, Mrs. Burns," expostulated Miss +Mathewson, as she stood, dripping, on the porch outside the office, while +Ellen, in the open door, motioned her within. "I'll just stay here until +the worst is over, and then run home and change."</p> + +<p>"Indeed you'll come in. Nothing can hurt this floor, and it's turned ever +so cold, as I can feel. It may rain for an hour. I'll give you everything +you need, and be delighted."</p> + +<p>There was no resisting Red Pepper's wife; she was accustomed to have her +way. Miss Mathewson, reluctant but shivering, came inside, and when her +clothing had ceased to drip moisture, followed Ellen upstairs. Presently, +dry-clad, she was taken into Ellen's own room and confronted with an +invitation which was rather a command.</p> + +<p>"You're to stay and have dinner with us. I've laid out a frock which I'm +confident will fit you. Please don't say no. It's a special providence, +for I've been wishing all the afternoon I had asked somebody to make a +fourth at our table, to meet Dr. Leaver. And now I shall have the +pleasure of dressing you for the occasion, since you can't possibly go +home through this, and wouldn't have time to dress and come back, if you +could."</p> + +<p>"But, Mrs. Burns,—" Amy Mathewson began, flushing after a fashion she +had which made her for the moment almost pretty and certainly attractive, +"there's no real reason why you need me, and I—"</p> + +<p>"I do need you. Three is such a stupid number. You will enjoy Dr. Leaver +and he will enjoy you. Come, my dear girl, don't spend any more time +remonstrating, but do your hair and put on this simple frock, which I'm +confident will just suit you. You're a bit taller, I know, but the dress +is long for me, and will be quite the right length for you. Sit down here +at my dressing-table, and let me help you dry that beautiful hair. I've +often longed to see it all unconfined, and now I'm going to have the +chance."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she slipped on a loose protecting garment above her lilac +daintiness, and waved an inviting hand to her guest, smiling so coaxingly +that Miss Mathewson yielded without another word of protest. When the +hairpins came out, and the mass of fair hair fell upon the shoulders, +Ellen exclaimed with hearty admiration:</p> + +<p>"I knew it was wonderful hair, but I didn't dream there was such a +wealth. My dear, why do you wear it in such a tight fashion, as if you +wanted everybody to think there wasn't much of it? Do let me try dressing +it for you in a way I know, which it seems to me would just suit your +face. Have you always worn it coiled on top of your head, and shall you +feel very strange and uncomfortable if I arrange it lower?"</p> + +<p>"Do it as you like, Mrs. Burns, since you will be so kind. But don't +expect me not to feel strange, wearing your clothes and staying to +dinner. Do you realize how far from society I've lived, all these years +that I've been nursing for Dr. Burns?"</p> + +<p>"I know you are a lady, and that is quite enough. And our simple dinner +isn't 'society,' it's home. Now, please keep quite still, and don't +distract my mind, while I lay these smooth strands in place. I want every +one to lie in just this shining order."</p> + +<p>Ellen worked at her self-appointed task with all the interest of the born +artist, who has an ever-present dream of things as they ought to look. +When the last confining pin was in place she viewed the fair head before +her from every point, then clapped her hands delightedly, and presented +Miss Mathewson with a hand-mirror.</p> + +<p>"You must get the side view, then you'll recognize how these new lines +bring out that distinguished profile that's been obscured all this time. +Do you see? Do you know yourself, my dear? Won't you always wear it this +way, to please me?"</p> + +<p>"But I never could do it myself, in the world," pleaded Amy Mathewson, +her cheeks again flooding with colour at the strange sight of herself.</p> + +<p>"It's perfectly simple, and I'll teach you with pleasure,—only not now, +for we must hurry. I'll slip the frock over your head without disturbing +a hair, and then we'll go down, for I want a bit of a blaze on the hearth +in the living-room, to offset this dull-gray sky."</p> + +<p>On went the frock in question, a "simple" one, undoubtedly, but of +the sort of simplicity which tells its own story to the initiated. +Whether its new wearer recognized or not its perfection of detail, she +could but see that it suited her to a nicety, both in hue—a soft apricot +shade—and in its absence of elaboration. Its effect was to soften every +line of the face above it, and to set off its wearer's delicate colouring +as the white uniforms could never do.</p> + +<p>"Don't you quite dare to look at her?" questioned the self-appointed +lady's maid, merrily, as she led her charge to stand in front of a long +mirror, set in a door.</p> + +<p>"Hardly." Miss Mathewson raised eyes grown suddenly shy to view her own +image in the glass, gave her back a picture such as she had never dreamed +could be made by herself, under any conditions whatever. Over her +shoulder her employer's wife smiled at her.</p> + +<p>"She looks very charming, to me, however she looks to you. But I won't +force her to stare long at such a stranger. It might make it difficult +for her to forget the stranger afterward, which is what I want her to +do."</p> + +<p>Ellen ran away to make herself ready once more, and returning put her arm +about her guest's waist, in the friendly way of her own which came still +more naturally now that the uniform was gone. Together the two descended +the stairs to the living-room, there to await the arrival of Burns and +his friend.</p> + +<p>This took place about three quarters of an hour after it was to be +expected, as Red Pepper's arrivals usually did, whether accompanied or +not by invited guests. The two came in laughing together over some +reminiscence, and Ellen recognized the tall, distinguished figure she +well remembered, with the clean-cut features, the fine eyes rather deep +set under heavy brows, the firm yet sensitive mouth. Yet, after a moment, +as Dr. John Leaver stood talking with her, she observed a careworn look, +a dimming of the fresh, clear colour she had noted on former meetings; +altogether in his whole aspect she found more than a suggestion of undue +fatigue, and when the smile ceased to light his face, even of sadness +quite unwonted.</p> + +<p>While he was in his room before dinner, she held a hasty consultation +with her husband, as he dressed with the speed of which he was master +through long practice.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Leaver can't be quite well, Red,—to look like that?"</p> + +<p>"I should say not. I haven't asked him a question and he hasn't said a +word, but it shows all over him. He's not my old friend Jack Leaver, at +all, and it upsets me. I'm hoping he'll unload, and tell me what's wrong, +though I can guess fairly well for myself. I could see, all through our +consultation, that he held himself in hand with an effort. The old +keenness was there, but not the old command. He's worn out, for one +thing,—though there may be more than that. But, see here,—do you mean +to tell me that's Amy Mathewson you've got downstairs? Never! It might be +her younger sister—six years younger—but not my staid nurse. Not even +you could bring about such a miracle."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful? Yet—it isn't, at all. She's always worn her hair +strained back from her face and put up into that tight coil on the top of +her head. Dressing it properly has made two thirds of the difference and +the apricot frock makes the other third. Isn't it delightful?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt of that. She's a mighty good girl, and if she can make shift to +be a good-looking one as well, there may be a bit of fun left in life for +her yet. She's by no means old, and you've made her young,—bless your +generous heart! I don't know how you ever managed to get her consent, +though. She thinks that uniform is her shell, and can't be doffed. But I +don't think she's likely to get much fun out of Leaver to-night. He's +just about fit for bed, or I'm no diagnostician."</p> + +<p>"Then let's put him there," said Ellen, promptly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mean that literally. One of your dinners ought to set him +up, and Amy Mathewson won't make any exacting demands on his brilliancy."</p> + +<p>"Won't she? You can't tell what pretty clothes may do for her. She will +surprise you some time, in spite of the fact that you know her so well."</p> + +<p>"Wise woman. She will, if you have a hand in the game. You can be trusted +to bring out every one's best. Bother this tie—it acts like original +sin."</p> + +<p>"I won't offer to tie it for you. I can't imagine Redfield Pepper Burns +allowing his wife to tie his cravat for him."</p> + +<p>"Can't you? That is to say, won't you?" He came close.</p> + +<p>She shook her head, and moved away, smiling. "It would destroy a certain +ideal. Stop laughing! One of your most powerful charms for me is your +independence."</p> + +<p>He groaned and continued to struggle with the bow of black silk which +eluded his efforts to fasten it securely. "I thought all women delighted +in getting their husband's neckwear adjusted according to their own +notions. Another dream shattered!—Well, here goes for the last time. If +I can't get it right now I'll go in and implore Jack to do it for me. It +will open his eyes as to how far hopes may be slain by realities. There! +That's a pretty good result, at last. I'll go across now, and see if he +wants any of my assistance."</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later both men appeared in the living-room. In his evening +attire Dr. Leaver looked a tall and sombre figure, and the contrast +between him and his friend, as Red Pepper stood beside him on the +hearth-rug, the picture of ruddy health, was startling.</p> + +<p>"You must be pretty heavy, Red," Leaver said considering his host. "Not a +particle of superfluous fat, but good, solid structure, I should say. One +wouldn't want to try to pass you against your will, in a narrow alley, on +a dark night."</p> + +<p>"It strikes me you could glide by me in the shadow and never attract my +attention," Burns replied, his keen eyes on his friend's face. "The +difference between us is that every inch of you represents concentrated +energy, while my plant spreads all over the landscape without producing +half as much power."</p> + +<p>Leaver smiled. There was both strength and sweetness in his smile, but +there was depression in it also. "That sounds like you," he said. "I +suppose many men envy other men the possession of some supposed source of +efficiency. Just now I find myself envying you your home—and its +occupants. What a delightful room."</p> + +<p>He turned to his hostess and her friend. While they talked together Burns +regarded Amy Mathewson, his long-time associate, with renewed wonder, and +presently found himself addressing her from an entirely new point of +view. This fair girl with the graceful head and the glowing blue eyes +could not possibly be the sedate young woman who was accustomed to hand +him instruments and sutures, ligate arteries, and attend to various minor +matters from the other side of his operating-table. He wondered why he +had never before noticed how much real individuality she possessed, nor +how really attractive she was of face and person. He decided afresh that +his wife was the most wonderful woman in the world, to be able to see at +a glance that which had escaped his attention for so long, and he +congratulated Miss Mathewson, in his mind, on the possibilities he for +the first time saw ahead of her. Clearly after all she was a woman, not a +machine!</p> + +<p>The party went out to dinner, and Burns looked to see his friend enjoy, +as he thought he must, the cleverly planned and deliciously cooked meal +which came, perfectly served, upon the table. It was such a dinner as he +himself delighted in, unostentatious but satisfying, with certain +touches, here and there, calculated to tempt the most capricious +palate,—such as he shrewdly judged Leaver, in his presumably lowered +state of vitality, to possess.</p> + +<p>But to his surprise and dismay the guest barely touched most of the +dishes, and ate so sparingly of others that Burns felt himself, with his +hearty, normal appetite, a gormandizer. Nobody made any comment whatever +upon Dr. Leaver's lack of appetite, but all three noted, with growing +concern, that there were moments when he seemed to keep up with an +effort. Instinctively the others made short work of the later courses, +and felt a decided relief when it became possible to leave the table and +return to the living-room.</p> + +<p>By a bit of clever management Ellen was able to put the guest's tall form +into a corner of the big davenport, among the blue pillows, where he +could receive more support than was possible in any other place. After a +little he seemed less fatigued, and charmed them all with his pleasant +discourse. Burns himself was soon summoned to the office. He would not +allow Miss Mathewson to take up her duties there, though she followed him +to offer eagerly to run home and change her attire.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," Burns assured her, in the hall. He regarded her with +mischief in his eyes. "Cinderella isn't due at home till the clock +strikes twelve," he whispered. "Besides,—the Prince isn't in his usual +form to-night. He may need her services as nurse at any minute, judging +by his appearance."</p> + +<p>That sent her back into the room, as he knew it would. It was, for her, +a wonderfully interesting hour which followed, for Dr. Leaver and Mrs. +Burns fell to discussing life in a certain great city, as both knew it +from quite different standpoints, and she herself had only to listen and +observe. She thought the pair upon the davenport made a striking picture, +the woman in her rich and still youthful beauty, her smile a thing to +wonder at, her voice low music to the ear; the man, though no older than +Burns, worn and grave, yet with a strangely winning personality, and eyes +which seemed to see far beneath the surface. In all Amy Mathewson's +experience with the men of Burns's profession, she had never met just +such a one as John Leaver. The sense of his personal worth and dignity +was strong upon her as she watched him; his evident fatigue and weakness +appealed to her sympathies; and she forgot herself more completely than +she had imagined she could when first summoned to the unaccustomed part +she was this evening playing.</p> + +<p>But, quite suddenly, the scene changed. In the act of speaking Dr. Leaver +suddenly stopped, put one hand to his side, and lay back against the high +end of the davenport, breathing short, his face turning pallid, ashen. +Ellen rose to her feet in dismay, but Amy Mathewson sprang toward him, +drew him with strong arms gently down to a position more nearly +recumbent, and with fingers on his pulse said in a low voice, "Call the +Doctor, please."</p> + +<p>Ellen ran, and in a minute had Burns there, striding in, in his white +office jacket, his face tense with sudden anxiety. Leaver was panting for +breath as Burns felt his pulse and nodded at Amy, who hurried quietly +away. She was back very quickly, handing Burns a tiny instrument ready +for use. In a moment more the supporting drug was on its way to lend aid, +and Burns was bending over his friend again, laying a gentle hand upon +the damp forehead, and saying with quiet assurance:</p> + +<p>"All right, old boy. We'll have you comfortable in no time. You were too +tired to play society man to-night, and we oughtn't to have allowed it."</p> + +<p>It was not very long before Leaver was breathing more easily, and a trace +of colour had come back to his face. He moved his head and tried to speak +naturally:</p> + +<p>"I am—rather—ashamed of myself—"</p> + +<p>"You've no business to be. When a fellow is played out Nature takes her +innings—and she takes all that's coming to her. You're going up to bed +in a few minutes, and you're going to stay there till the rest has had a +chance to get in some work. Miss Mathewson will stay with you for a bit. +She's a famous nurse."</p> + +<p>Leaver's head moved in surprised protest, and Miss Mathewson spoke:</p> + +<p>"He doesn't know, Dr. Burns, that that is my profession."</p> + +<p>Burns laughed. "Oh, I see. That was a bit startling, for a fact. But she +is, Leaver, the most accomplished of her guild, and my right-hand man. +She can make you more comfortable in an hour than I can in a week."</p> + +<p>Upstairs, while she released Amy from the apricot frock, that something +more in keeping with the duties of a nurse might be donned, Ellen +questioned anxiously:</p> + +<p>"The Doctor must think him really ill, to speak of keeping him in bed. Do +you know what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"His heart action is weak. I don't know the cause, of course. He seems +worn out; that showed plainly all the evening. I'm going to run home, +Mrs. Burns; my wet things must be quite dry, now. There'll be time, I'm +sure. The Doctor won't bring him upstairs for a little yet."</p> + +<p>She hurried away, and was back within the half hour. Although she no +longer looked the part of the fine lady, the old rôle seemed hardly hers. +The new fashion of her hair had changed her appearance very completely, +and the youthful look it had restored to her remained, to Ellen's no +little pleasure. Her cheeks were still flushed with the evening's +excitement, and her eyes were charmingly bright and happy.</p> + +<p>When everything was in readiness, Burns, in spite of all remonstrance +from his friend, lifted him in his powerful arms and carried him +upstairs. The exertion made him breathe a little heavily for a moment, +but that was all. Leaver was not a light burden, in spite of his +thinness, for his frame was that of a man who should carry many pounds +more than he now bore.</p> + +<p>"You strong man, how I envy you," Leaver said, sadly, as Burns laid him +upon the bed.</p> + +<p>"Your envy of me can't be a circumstance to that I've felt, many a time, +when I've watched you. But you've been working like a slave too long. +Rest is all you need, man."</p> + +<p>But Leaver slowly shook his head. He did not reply to this confident +statement, and Burns knew better than to try to argue it out with him +just then. Instead, with a warm grip of the hand, he turned his new case +over to the care of his nurse, and went away, his heart heavy at sight of +a strong man prone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>BROKEN STEEL WIRES</h3> + + +<p>"But I can't stay here," John Leaver protested, a few days afterward. He +was still in bed, much against his will, but not, as he was forced to +admit, against his judgment, when he allowed it consideration. "I can't +impose on Mrs. Burns's and your kindness like this. I shall soon be fit +for travel, and then—"</p> + +<p>"Would you mind listening to me?" R.P. Burns, M.D., sat comfortably back +in a large willow chair, by the bedside, and crossed one leg over the +other in a fashion indicative of an intention to settle down to it and +have it out. "Just let me state the case to you, and try to look at it +from the outside. Of course that's a difficult thing to do, when it +happens to be your own case, but you have a judicial mind, and you can +do the trick, if anybody can."</p> + +<p>Leaver was silent. He lay staring out of the open window beside which his +bed had been drawn, his thin cheek showing gaunt hollows, his eyes heavy +with unrest. All the scents and sounds of June were pouring in at the +three windows of the room; a tangle of rose vines looked in at him from +this nearest one. Just before Amy Mathewson had left him, a few minutes +ago, for her afternoon rest, she had brought him one wonderful bloom, +the queen, it seemed, of all the roses of that June. It lay upon the +window-sill, now, within reach of his hand.</p> + +<p>Burns began to speak. His tone was matter-of-fact, yet it held +inflections of tenderness. His friend's case appealed to him powerfully; +his sympathy with Leaver's state of mind, as he was confident he +understood it, was intense. "If it were I!" he had said to himself—and +to Ellen—and had groaned in spirit at the thought. If it had been his +own case, it seemed to him he could not have endured it.</p> + +<p>"You were at that sanitorium," Burns began. "Sanitoriums are useful +institutions, some of them get splendid results. But they have their +disadvantages. It's pretty difficult to eliminate the atmosphere of +illness. And, for a man whose training and instincts lead him to see +behind every face he meets in such a place, it's not an ideal spot at +all. What you need is a home, and that's what we're offering you, for as +long as you need it."</p> + +<p>"And I appreciate it more than any words can express," Leaver said +gratefully. He turned his head now, and looked at his host. "Just to know +that I have such friends does me good. And I know that you mean all you +say. If I were a subject for a cure I might almost be tempted to take you +at your word."</p> + +<p>"You are a subject for a cure."</p> + +<p>Leaver shook his head, turning it away again. "Only to a certain point," +he said, quietly. "Of course I know that rest and quiet will put my heart +right, because there's no organic lesion. Probably I shall build up and +get the better of my depression of mind—to a certain extent. But, +there's one thing I'm facing I haven't owned to you. You may as well know +it. I shall never be able to operate again.... Perhaps you can guess what +that means to me," he added. His voice was even, but his breathing was +slightly quickened.</p> + +<p>Burns was silent for a time, his own heart heavy with sympathy for +Leaver. Guess what a conviction like that must mean to a man of Leaver's +early eminence in the world of distinguished operative surgery? He surely +could. It had been his almost certain knowledge that this was his +friend's real trouble which had made him say to himself with a groan, "If +it were I!" So he did not answer hastily to persist in assurance that all +would yet be well. He knew Leaver understood that sort of professional +hypnosis too thoroughly to be affected by it.</p> + +<p>Burns got up and took a turn or two up and down the room, thinking things +out. His face was graver than patients usually saw it; there was in it, +however, a look of determination which grew, moment by moment, as he +walked. Presently he came back to the bedside and sat down again.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you tell me all about it, Jack," said he. "You haven't done me +that honour, yet, you know. Will it be too hard on you? Just to make a +clean breast of every thought and every experience which has led you to +this point? I know I'm rather forcing myself upon you as your physician. +If you prefer, I'll withdraw from the case, in favour of any better man +you may choose, and send for him to-day."</p> + +<p>Leaver's head turned back again. "I know no better man," he said, and +their eyes met.</p> + +<p>"There are plenty of better men," Burns went on, "but I confess I want +this case, and am ready to take advantage of having it in my house, for +the present, at least. Well, then,—if you can trust me, why not do as +I suggest?"</p> + +<p>Leaver shivered a little, in the warm June light, and put one hand for a +moment over his eyes.</p> + +<p>"You don't know what you ask, Red," he said, slowly.</p> + +<p>"Don't I? Perhaps not. Yet—I have a notion that I do. It would be a +trifle easier to face the rack and thumbscrew, eh? Well, let's get it +over. Possibly telling will ease you a bit, after all. It works that way +sometimes."</p> + +<p>By and by, persisting, gently questioning, helping by his quick +understanding of a situation almost before Leaver had unwillingly +pictured it, he had the whole story. It was almost precisely the story +he had guessed,—an old story, repeated by many such sufferers from +overwork and heavy responsibility, but new to each in its entirety of +torture, even to this man, who, still in his youthful prime, had himself +heard many such a tale from the unhappy lips of his patients, yet to whom +his own case seemed unique in its suffering and hopelessness.</p> + +<p>The recital culminated in an incident so painful to the subject of it +that he could recount it only in the barest outlines. His listener, +however, by the power of his experience and his sympathy, could fill in +every detail. A day had come, some six weeks before, when Leaver, though +thoroughly worn out by severe and long continued strain, had attempted +to operate. The case was an important one, the issue doubtful. Friends of +the patient had insisted that no one else should take the eminent young +surgeon's place, and, although he had had more than one inner warning, in +recent operations, that his nerve was not what it had been, his pride had +bid him see the thing through. He had given himself an energizing +hypodermic,—he had never done that before,—and had gone into it. There +had come a terrible moment.... Leaver's lips grew white as he tried to +tell it.</p> + +<p>He felt his friend's warm, firm hand upon his own as he faltered. +"Steady, old fellow," said Burns's quiet voice. "We've got this nearly +over. You'll be better afterward."</p> + +<p>After a little Leaver went on.</p> + +<p>He had come upon an unexpected complication—one undreamed of by himself +or the consulting surgeons. "You know—" said Leaver. Burns nodded, +emphatically. "You bet I know," said he, and his hand came again upon +Leaver's, and stayed there. Leaver went on again, slowly.</p> + +<p>Instant decision had been necessary, instant action. It was such a moment +as he had faced hundreds of times before, and his quick wit, his +surgeon's power of resource, his iron nerve, had always come to the +support of his skill, and together these attributes had won the day for +him. Fear, at such crises, had never possessed him, however much, +afterward, reviewing the experience, he had wondered that it had not. But +this time, fear—fear—a throttling, life-destroying fear had sprung upon +him and gripped him by the throat. Standing there, entirely himself, +except for that horrible consciousness that he could not proceed, he had +had to beckon to the most experienced of the surgeons present who +surrounded him as onlookers, and say to him: "Get ready—and take this +case. I can't go on."</p> + +<p>There had been no apparent physical collapse on his part, no fainting nor +attack of vertigo, nothing to help him out in the eyes of that wondering, +startled company of observers. He had been able to direct his assistants +how to hold the operation in suspension until the astonished, unwilling +colleague could make ready to step into the breach, cursing under his +breath that such an undesired honour should have been thrust upon him. +Then Leaver had walked out of the room, quite without assistance, only +replying wanly to those who questioned, "There's nothing to say. I +couldn't go on with it. Yes, I am perfectly well."</p> + +<p>It had not got into the papers. They had been kind enough to see to +that, those pitying professional colleagues who had witnessed his +dispossession. The patient had lived. If he had died the thing must have +come out. But he had lived. The situation could not have been as +desperate a one as it had seemed. The other man had handled it,—and he +was by no means a man eminent in his profession. There had been no +excuse, then, for such a seizure,—no excuse. It meant—the end.</p> + +<p>Well, it was certainly the end of recounting it, for when he had reached +this point Leaver's power to endure the thought of it all failed him, and +he lay back upon his pillows, his brow damp and his breath short.</p> + +<p>Burns silently ministered to him, pain in his eyes, his lips drawn tight +together. His sympathy for his friend was intense.</p> + +<p>It seemed to him incredible that this shaken spirit before him could be +John Leaver—Leaver, whom, as he had told his wife, he had often envied +his perfect self-command, his supposed steadiness of pulse, his whole +strong, cool personality, unaffected by issues such as always keyed Burns +himself up to a tremendous tension, making him pale with the strain. +"Leaver's made of steel wires," had been his description of his friend to +Ellen. Well, the steel wires were stretched and broken, now, no doubt of +that. The question was whether they could ever be mended and restrung.</p> + +<p>When Leaver was comfortable again,—comfortable as far as an evenly +beating heart and a return of blood to the parts which needed it could +make him,—Burns spoke to him once more.</p> + +<p>"We won't talk about this any more to-day, Jack," he said. "You've had +enough for now, and I have what I needed,—the facts to work upon. Just +let me say this much. I'm not discouraged by anything I've heard to-day. +I'll not try any bluffs or jollyings with you, because I know they +wouldn't work, but I do say this, honestly: I'm not discouraged. And I'm +interested—interested to the bottom of my heart. I'm going to put the +best there is in me into this problem. I never tackled anything in my +life that appealed to me more powerfully. If that's any comfort just now, +I offer it. If you were my brother I couldn't be more anxious to pull you +out of this ditch. Now, trust me, and try to go to sleep."</p> + +<p>Leaver did not look up at the kind, almost boyishly tender face above +him, but he pressed the hand which grasped his own, and Burns saw a tear +creep out from under the closed lids of the eyes under which the black +shadows lay so deeply. The well man took himself away from the sick one +as quickly as he could after that,—he couldn't bear the sight of that +tear! It was more eloquent of Leaver's weakness than all his difficult +words.</p> + +<p>When he met Miss Mathewson, an hour afterward, in the hall, on her way +back to her patient, he delayed her.</p> + +<p>"I want you to do more than nurse this case, Amy," he said, fixing her +with a certain steady look of his with which he always gave commands. +"I want you to put all your powers, as a woman, into it. Forget that you +are nursing Dr. Leaver, try to think of him as a friend. You can make one +of him, if you try, for you have in you qualities which will appeal to +him—if you will let him see them. You have hardly let even me see +them,"—he smiled as he said it,—"but my eyes have been opened at last. +I'm inclined to believe that you can do more for our patient than even my +wife or I,—if you will. Suppose,"—he spoke with a touch of the +dangerously persuasive manner he could assume when he willed, and which +most people found it hard to resist,—"you just let yourself go, and +try—deliberately try—to make Dr. Leaver like you!"</p> + +<p>She coloured furiously under the suggestion. "Dr. Burns! Do you realize +what you're saying?"</p> + +<p>"Quite thoroughly. I'm asking you not to hesitate to make of yourself a +woman of interest and charm for him, for the sake of taking him out of +himself. Isn't that a perfectly legitimate part for a nurse to play when +that happens to be the medicine needed? You have those powers,—how +better could you use them? Suppose you are able, through your effect of +sweetness and light, to minister to a mind diseased;—isn't that quite as +worthy an occupation as counting out drops of aconite, or applying +mustard plasters?"</p> + +<p>Amy Mathewson shook her head. "Do you realize, Dr. Burns, that a man +like—your guest—is so far beyond me in mind and—tastes—in every way, +that I could never—interest him in the way you speak of—even if I were +willing to try?"</p> + +<p>She spoke with difficulty. As Burns studied her downbent face, the +profile his wife had brought out by her skill at hair-dressing showing +like a fine cameo against the dark background of the wall, he was +thinking that unless Leaver were blind he must find her rather satisfying +to the eye, at least. He answered her with confidence.</p> + +<p>"He's a man of education, it's true. But what are you? Come,—haven't I +found all sorts of evidences, about my office, that you are a woman of +education? It doesn't matter whether you got that education in a college +or from the books I know you have read,—you have it. I'll trust your +ability to discuss six out of a dozen subjects Leaver may bring up—or, +if you can't discuss them all, you can do what is better—let him +instruct you. Don't tell me you can't handle those cards every +fascinating woman understands so well. If there's anything a man likes to +do it's to teach an interested woman the things she cleverly professes +she wants to know—and the best of it is that no matter how often you +play that game on us we're always caught by it. Leaver will be caught by +it, just as if he hadn't had it tried on him a thousand times. And while +he's playing it with you, he'll forget himself, which is the first step +on the road I want him to travel."</p> + +<p>She looked up. "Do you mean that I am to keep on attending him after he +is able to leave his room? Is he going to stay with you after that? He +told me only to-day that he intends to go as soon as he is able to +travel."</p> + +<p>"We shall keep him as long as we can possibly persuade him to stay. +Meanwhile, my plan is to have you settle down and stay with us, as a +member of the family. We'll have someone else attend to the office. You +can go with me, as usual, when I operate, but I shall put you on no case +but Dr. Leaver's, and the greater part of your time will be his."</p> + +<p>"But what will he think? Doesn't he know that I'm your office nurse?"</p> + +<p>"How should he know it—unless you have taken pains to tell him?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "He only knows that I am your assistant at +operations. The other point hasn't come up."</p> + +<p>"Good. Then he will accept whatever situation he finds, and never think +of questioning it. The way is clear enough. And it's the only way I know +of to insure his having what he needs—the close companionship of a +sympathetic—yet not too sympathetic—woman—with a face like yours," +he added, slyly.</p> + +<p>The quick colour answered this, as he knew it would. "Dr. Burns! You know +I'm not even good looking! Please don't say such things."</p> + +<p>"I only said 'a face like yours.' That may imply a face as plain as you +think Amy Mathewson's is—and as my wife and I know it is not. It's time +you waked up, girl, to your own attractions. You ought to have faith in +them when I'm asking the use of them for this patient of mine. I'd give +about all I own to put him on his feet again."</p> + +<p>"I hope you can—indeed I do. And of course—anything I can do—"</p> + +<p>He nodded. "I'll leave that to you. Consult—not your head alone, +but—your heart!"</p> + +<p>And he let her go, smiling at her evident confusion of mind. But when +left alone he sighed again.</p> + +<p>"He needs a woman like my Ellen,—<i>that</i> would be a drug of a higher +potency. But—he can't have that—he can't have that! I must do the +next best thing."</p> + +<p>And he went on his way, studying it out.</p> + +<p>That evening he took his wife into his confidence. He did not tell her +the whole story,—it was not his to tell. But he made her acquainted with +the fact that Leaver had had a severe nervous shock and that the thing to +be overcome was his own distrust of himself, the thing to be recovered +was his entire self-command.</p> + +<p>"I have insisted on his staying as long as he can be content," Burns +explained. "I had your consent to that, I know?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, Red. You knew that."</p> + +<p>"In my enthusiasm I went a step further, without realizing that I had not +consulted you. I asked Amy Mathewson to stay with us too, as a member of +the family. I asked her cooperation as a woman, as well as a nurse, and +to have that it seemed to me necessary to have her here, even after he is +up and able to look after his own wants. How will you feel about that?"</p> + +<p>He looked straight into her eyes. They were sitting upon a small side +porch, in the late June evening. He had come in from a visit to a nearby +patient, and, finding her upon the porch, had thrown himself upon the +cushion at her feet, his head against her knee. Now, he turned and looked +up at her, and she could see his expression clearly in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I quite understand yet," she said. "What is it that you +want Amy to do for him, 'as a woman'? Read to him, and walk with him, and +be a sort of comrade?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely that—and a bit more."</p> + +<p>"Can you prescribe that sort of thing, and make sure that it will work +out? He may not care for it."</p> + +<p>"I want him to have a woman's companionship; it's what he needs, I firmly +believe. It must be a certain sort of woman—the kind who will be good +for his nerves, gently stimulating, not exacting. One of the brilliant +society women he knows wouldn't do at all. The ideal kind would be—your +own kind. But he can't have that." He spoke so decidedly that she smiled, +though he did not see it. "It seems to me that Amy, if she puts her heart +into it, can give him just what he needs. Remember he's a sick man, and +will continue to be a sick man for some time after he's walking about our +streets and climbing our hills."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm afraid he will be. And you think he will accept Amy's +companionship, after he is walking about, as a part of his medicine? +Shall you insist on her being with him, or is she to wait to be invited +to read to him and walk with him?"</p> + +<p>His brows knit in a frown. "You think I'm prescribing something I can't +administer? But I think that he will grow so used to having her with +him, while he actually needs her as a nurse, that, when he gets about and +finds her still here, he will quite naturally fall into the way of +seeking her company."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he will. At any rate, she is very welcome to stay, as long as +you want her for the experiment."</p> + +<p>"You are an angel! I realize that I shouldn't have made such an +arrangement without asking your permission. To tell the truth, I'm so +used to—"</p> + +<p>He stopped short, with a little ejaculation of dismay.</p> + +<p>"I understand, dear," she said quickly. "You are so used to being master +of the house that you forgot the new conditions. It's all right—you are +still master—particularly in everything that has to do with your +profession. And if you can find a cure for poor Dr. Leaver's broken +spirit I shall be as happy as you."</p> + +<p>"It's going to make you a lot of trouble,—two guests in the house, for +an indefinite period. You see, I'm just waking up to what I'm asking of +you. It's precisely like my impetuosity to create a situation I can't +retreat from, and then wonder at my own nerve. Will it bother you very +much?"</p> + +<p>"It's what we're here for, isn't it?" She smiled at him as he turned and +put both arms around her, kneeling beside her in the shadow of the vines. +"It's certainly what you are here for, and I am your partner, or I'm not +much of a wife."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, you darling; you surely are. And such a partner! If Leaver +had one like you—he wouldn't be where he is. But he can't have you," +he repeated, and held her closer. "I couldn't see you reading to him and +walking with him, and being a friend to him,—I couldn't see it, that's +all, no matter how much good you might do him. Queer—I didn't know that +was in me—that feeling. Macauley calls me a Turk. I guess that's what I +am. It's a primitive sort of instinct, scoffed at in these days when half +the married women are playing with fire in the shape of other women's +husbands. But I hate that sort of thing—have always hated it. I'm a +Turk, all right. Do you mind?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think I mind," she answered softly. "But I want your perfect +trust, Red."</p> + +<p>"You have it, oh, you have it, love. No possible question of that. And +I don't mean that I'm not willing to have Leaver get what he can of +your dearness, as he's bound to feel it, in our home. But this comrade +business, which I feel he's so much in need of,—that's what he can't +have from you. And if he stayed on, and there was no other woman about, +why, quite naturally—"</p> + +<p>He stopped. Then, as she was silent, "You won't misunderstand me, little +wife?" he begged. "I've seen so much of the other thing, you know. Can I +be—enough for you?"</p> + +<p>"Quite enough, Red."</p> + +<p>After a minute he went back to the thing which absorbed him. "I can see +you haven't much confidence in my plan for Amy's helping him?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. "You spoke just now of playing with fire. You don't +feel that in throwing two people so closely together you are risking +something?"</p> + +<p>He considered it. "My idea is that Amy will administer her comradeship as +she would her medicines. She is the most conscientious girl alive; she +won't give him a drop too much."</p> + +<p>"Not a drop too much for his good, perhaps. But what about hers, dear? +When he is himself Dr. Leaver can be a wonderfully interesting and +compelling man, you know. It would be a pity for her to grow to care for +him, if—I don't suppose it is at all possible to expect him to care +seriously for her,—do you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I shouldn't have said so a month ago. But I'm just beginning to +realize a new side to Amy Mathewson. I don't suppose I ever saw her—to +look at her—out of her uniform, before that night when you dressed her +up. By George, along with the clothes she seemed to put on a new skin!"</p> + +<p>"Uniforms are disguising things," Ellen admitted, "and Amy is a lady, +born and bred, in her uniform and out of it. But it's not much use +speculating on what will happen, when the arrangements are already made. +We must just do our best for Dr. Leaver, and hope that no harm will come +to either of them."</p> + +<p>"None will—under your roof," her husband asserted confidently.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>POINTS OF VIEW</h3> + + +<p>"A lady downstairs to see you, Mrs. Burns." Cynthia presented a card.</p> + +<p>It was early morning. Ellen had just seen her husband off in the Green +Imp, and was busy at various housewifely tasks. She took the card in +some surprise, for morning calls were not much in vogue in this small +town. But when she read the name—"Miss Ruston"—she gave a little cry of +delight, and ran downstairs as one goes to welcome a long absent friend.</p> + +<p>A graceful figure, radiant with health and good looks, dressed in the +trimmest and simplest of travelling attire, yet with a gay and saucy air +about her somewhere, quite difficult to locate, rose as Ellen came in. +Dark eyes flashed, lips smiled happily, and a pair of arms opened wide. +Ellen found herself caught and held in a warm embrace, which she returned +with a corresponding ardour.</p> + +<p>"Why, Charlotte, dear!" she cried. "Where did you come from? And why +didn't you let me know?"</p> + +<p>"Straight from home, Len, darling. And I didn't let you know because I +didn't know myself till I was here. Oh, do let me look at you! How dear, +how dear you are! I had almost forgotten anybody could be so lovely."</p> + +<p>"That sounds like you, you enthusiastic person. How glad I am to see +you—it seems so long. I hope you have come to make me a visit, now you +are here."</p> + +<p>"Just a wee one, for a day, while I make plans at express speed, and fly +back again to grandmother. I left her in Baltimore."</p> + +<p>"Really? Did you bring her 'way up from Charleston? Then she must be +pretty well?"</p> + +<p>"Very well, if, like a piece of old china, I keep her quiet on the top +shelf. Baltimore is the bottom shelf, for her, even though she's with +the Priedieus, who will take the kindest care of her. Hence my haste. +Oh, I can't wait a minute till I tell you my plans. Let me splash my +dusty face and I'll plunge in. I want your advice, your interest, and +your—cooperation!"</p> + +<p>"You shall have them all, my dearest girl. Come upstairs," and Ellen led +the way, Miss Ruston following with a small travelling bag of which she +would not give her hostess possession.</p> + +<p>"What a dear house!" The guest was throwing rapid glances all about her +as she mounted the stairs. "I should have known that living-room was +yours if I hadn't had your Aunt Lucy's famous old desk to give me a clue. +O, Len, the very back of you is enchanting!"</p> + +<p>Ellen turned to laugh at Charlotte Ruston's characteristic fervour of +expression. "I remember you are always admiring people's backs," she +observed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they're often so much more interesting than their faces. But +yours—merely gives promise of what the face fulfills! Forgive me, +Len,—you know when I haven't seen you for ages I have to tell you +what I think of you. In here? Oh, what an adorable room!"</p> + +<p>It was Ellen's own. She was thinking rapidly. Dr. John Leaver occupied +one of her two guest-rooms, Amy Mathewson the other. She should have to +turn Bob out of the bachelor's room, and send him down to stay with +Cynthia. But Miss Ruston put an end to her planning at once by adding:</p> + +<p>"I can't even sleep under your roof, Len, for I've engaged my berth on +the sleeper to-night. I'm always in such anxiety about Granny when I get +her away from her quiet corner. Now let me make myself clean with all +haste, that I may not lose a minute of this happy day with you."</p> + +<p>She was as good as her word, and in five minutes was looking as fresh as +the fortunate possessor of much rich and youthful bloom can be at a touch +of soap and water. She gave her hostess a second embrace, laying a cheek +like a June rose against Ellen's more delicately tinted cheek, and +murmuring:</p> + +<p>"I never can tell you how I have missed you since that all-conquering +husband of yours brought you off up North. By the way, is that his +photograph?"</p> + +<p>She was looking over Ellen's shoulder at a picture in an ivory-and-silver +frame upon the dressing-table. She answered her own question.</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. I'd know by the look of him that he must be Red Pepper +Burns." She went over and examined the pictured face closely. "I could +make a better picture of him than that,—I know it without seeing him in +the flesh. What a splendid pair of eyes! Do they look right down into +your inmost thoughts—or do they see only as far as your liver? Fine +head, good mouth, straight nose, chin like a stone wall! Goodness! do you +never meet up with that chin?"</p> + +<p>She looked around at Ellen with mischief in her bright brown eyes.</p> + +<p>"Of course I do! Would you have a man chinless?"</p> + +<p>"Luckily, you have a determined little round chin of your own," Miss +Ruston observed. "And you're happy with him? Yes, I can see it in your +face. Well, now, shall we talk about me? Because I have so little time, +you know, and so much has to be settled before night."</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it at once, dear." And Ellen established her guest in +a high-backed, cushioned wicker chair by the window, and sat down close +by. The two looked at each other, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Well, Len, I never could lead up to a thing; I have to tell it in one +burst, and trust to Providence to sustain the hearer. What would you +say—to—my coming to this place for a year, renting a cottage, putting +in a skylight, and—practising my profession of photography in your +midst?"</p> + +<p>"Charlotte Ruston!"</p> + +<p>"My middle name is Chase," observed Miss Ruston, laying her head back +against the chair, and smiling out at Mrs. Burns through half-closed +lids. "Charlotte Chase Ruston forms a quite imposing signature to imprint +upon the distinguished portraits she is to make. Portraits of the +aristocracy who can afford to pay ever so many dollars a dozen for +likenesses of themselves in exquisite, informal poses, with wonderful +shadows just where they will hide the most defects, and splendid high +lights where they will bring out all the charm the subjects didn't know +they possessed."</p> + +<p>"Charlotte! Have you been studying in secret? I know you do delightful +amateur work, but—a studio! Do you dare?"</p> + +<p>"I've worked a year in the developing room of the Misses Kendall, and +have been allowed to make trial studies of subjects, when they were busy. +I have their friendship, also that of Brant—Eugene Brant—who does the +cleverest professionally amateur studio work in the world, according to +my humble opinion. And the Kendalls do the finest garden and outdoor +studies, as you know. Could I have better training? Mr. Brant thinks +me fit to start a city studio—a modest one—but the Misses Kendall +advise a year in a small town, just working for experience and +perfection. Then when I do begin in a bigger place I'll be ready to do +work of real distinction. Come, tell me, isn't it a beautiful plan?"</p> + +<p>"Any plan, which brings you to live near me, is a beautiful plan. And +you've really chosen this little town? How did you come to do it?"</p> + +<p>"Tales of the beauty of the region, and the reflection that, since one +small town in it was probably as good as another, there was no reason why +I shouldn't be near one of my dearest friends, and have, frankly, the +help of her patronage. Shall you mind giving it to me?"</p> + +<p>"I'll bring you a dozen subjects the first day. I suppose you haven't +looked about at all as yet for the place?"</p> + +<p>"I shall not need to, if you won't object to having me close by, even so +near as across the road. As I stood on your doorstep I saw my future +studio spring, full-fledged, into view, with a '<i>To rent</i>' notice already +up. Could I have a plainer sign that my good fairy is attending my +footsteps?"</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston leaned forward to the window as she spoke, drew aside the +thin curtain which swayed there in the summer breeze, and pointed across +the street. "Isn't there a little old cottage, back in there somewhere, +in a tangle of old-fashioned flowers? It doesn't show from here, I see, +but from below I caught just a glimpse of its unimposing dimensions. The +sign is on the gate, in the hedge. It's simply perfect that the place +should have a hedge!"</p> + +<p>"Evidently you didn't inspect it very closely, Charlotte dear. It's a +most forlorn little old place, and much run down. Two old ladies have +lived there all their lives, and have died there within the year. They +would never sell, although, as you see, the neighbourhood all about is +built up with modern houses—all except our own. This house is quite +old, I believe, too."</p> + +<p>"Two old ladies lived and died there, did they?" mused Charlotte Ruston. +"Their gentle ghosts won't trouble us, and Granny will delight in that +garden. What a background for an outdoor studio! Do let's go over and +explore the place, will you?"</p> + +<p>As they crossed the street the newcomer was using her eyes with eager +observation. "It's a fine old street," she said, "with all these +beautiful trees. What a pity it is mostly so modern in the matter of +architecture! I wonder if the people in those houses will think me +out of my head, to begin with, because I choose this quaint little +dwelling-place. I shall choose it, Len, if I can get it, I warn you."</p> + +<p>With some difficulty they opened the gate in the hedge, and proceeded up +the path of moss-grown stones to the house, set so far back from the +street that it was nearly concealed by the growth of untrimmed shrubbery, +old rose-bushes heavy with pink and white roses, lilac trees, and +barberry-bushes.</p> + +<p>"Of all the dear, queer, little front porches!" Miss Ruston cried, +setting her exploring foot on a porch floor which promptly sagged beneath +her weight. She threw a quizzical glance at her companion. "Even though +the roof falls in on my head, and the walls sway as I pass by, I must +have this house—if it is dry! Of course I can't bring Granny to a damp +house. Putting in my skylight and shingling the rest of the roof will +take care of dampness from above, but I must look after the floors and +foundations. Who owns it, and how can we get in?"</p> + +<p>An hour later the key had been obtained from the astonished owner, an +inhabitant of one of the modern houses near by and a nephew of the former +occupants, and the place had been thoroughly gone over. It was examined +by a future tenant who made light of all the real drawbacks to the +place—as the owner secretly considered them—but who demanded absolutely +water-tight conditions as the price of her rent. As she was willing to +pay what seemed to the landlord an extraordinary rent—though he +carefully concealed his feelings on this point—he somewhat grudgingly +agreed to put in the skylight and shingle the roof.</p> + +<p>"But when it comes to paint and paper and plumbing, the house isn't worth +it, and I can't agree to do it," he declared positively. "Not for any one +year rental."</p> + +<p>"I don't want paint, paper, or plumbing," she replied, and he set her +down as eccentric indeed. "But I do want that fireplace unsealed, and if +you will put that and the chimney in order, so I can have fires there, I +won't ask for any modern conveniences. When can you have it ready for me? +By the middle of July?"</p> + +<p>He did not think this possible, but his new tenant convinced him that it +was, and went away smiling, her hands full of June roses, and her spirits +high. It was with her vivid personality at its best that she presently +took her place at the luncheon table, meeting there, however, at first, +only Miss Mathewson.</p> + +<p>"My patient has fallen asleep after his walk," Amy explained to Mrs. +Burns, as she came in. "I thought he had better not be wakened."</p> + +<p>"You were quite right, I am sure," Ellen agreed. Then she made the two +young women known to each other, and the three sat down. R.P. Burns, +M.D., rushing in the midst of the meal, found them laughing merrily +together over a tale the guest had been telling.</p> + +<p>As Burns came forward Miss Ruston rose to meet him. The two regarded each +other with undisguised interest as they shook hands.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can make a much better photograph of you than the one on your +wife's dressing-table," said she, judicially, and laughed at his +astonished expression.</p> + +<p>"Can you, indeed?" he inquired. "Have you a snapshot camera concealed +anywhere about you? If so, I'll consider going back to town for my +luncheon."</p> + +<p>"You are safe for to-day," Ellen assured him, and he sat down.</p> + +<p>He was told the tale of the morning, the subject introduced by his wife, +and amplified by their guest. He expressed his interest.</p> + +<p>"You have a good courage, Miss Ruston," said he. "And we'll agree to +stand by you. Any time, in the middle of the night, that we hear the +crash and fall of decayed old timbers, we'll come to the rescue and pull +you out. We don't have much excitement here. The wreck will have the +advantage of advertising you thoroughly. Then you can build a tight +little bungalow on the spot and settle down to real business."</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston shook her shapely head. "No tight little bungalows for me," +she averred. "Those vine-clad old walls will make wonderful backgrounds +for my outdoor subjects—they and the garden. Then, indoors—the +fireplace, the queer old doors—"</p> + +<p>Red Pepper looked at his wife. "Has the village a passion for +quaintness?" he asked her. "Will our leading citizens want to be +photographed in their old hoopskirts, with roses behind their ears?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't understand!" cried Miss Ruston. "Ellen—will you excuse me +while I run up and bring down an example or two of my work?"</p> + +<p>She was back in a minute, several prints in her hand. She came around +behind Burns's chair and laid one before him, another before Amy +Mathewson. Ellen, who had already seen the prints, watched her husband's +face as he examined the photograph.</p> + +<p>"You don't intend me to understand," said he, after a minute's steady +scrutiny, "that this is a photograph of actual children?"</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston nodded. Her face glowed with enthusiasm over her work. +"Indeed it is. Flesh and blood children—Rupert and Rodney Trumbull. +And it's really the night before Christmas, too. They were not acting the +part—it was the real thing."</p> + +<p>Burns continued to study the picture—of two small boys in their +night-clothes, standing before a chimney-piece, looking up at their +stockings, at that last wondering, enchanted moment before they should +lay hands upon the mysteries before them. The glow of the firelight was +upon them, the shadows behind held the small sturdy figures in an +exquisitely soft embrace. It was such a photograph as combines the +workings of the most delicate art with the unconscious posing of absolute +realism.</p> + +<p>Burns looked from the picture to his wife's face. "We must have one of +Bobby like that," said he.</p> + +<p>Ellen agreed, her eyes meeting her friend's over his head. The guest laid +another print before him. "Since you like fireplace effects," she +explained. Then she gave the Christmas-eve picture to Miss Mathewson, +smiling as Amy, returning the print she had been studying, said softly, +"It is wonderful work, Miss Ruston. I shall want one of my mother like +this."</p> + +<p>"You shall have it," Miss Ruston promised.</p> + +<p>Burns exclaimed with pleasure over the presentment of a little old lady, +knitting before a fire, a faint smile on her face, as if she were +thinking of lovely things as she worked. As in the other picture the +shadows were soft and hazy, only the surfaces touched by the fireglow +showing with distinctness, the whole effect almost illusive, yet giving +more of the human touch than any clear and distinct details could +possibly have done.</p> + +<p>"That is Granny," said Miss Ruston, a gentle note in her eager voice. "My +little piece of priceless porcelain which I guard with all the defences +at my command. Tell me, Dr. Burns, I shall not be bringing her into any +danger if I put her in the little old house, when it is made right?"</p> + +<p>"If you are thinking of bringing <i>this</i> old lady here," said he, +emphatically, his eyes on the picture again, "you must let me look the +place over thoroughly for you first."</p> + +<p>"But I've engaged it!" cried his wife's friend, in dismay.</p> + +<p>"That doesn't matter. You will call it all off again, if I don't find +the place can be made fit," said he. "Old ladies like this shall not +be risked in doubtful places, no matter how quaint and artistic the +background, not while I am on hand to prevent."</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston looked at Mrs. Burns. "<i>Is</i> this what he is like?" said she, +in dismay. "I didn't reckon with him!"</p> + +<p>"You will have to reckon with me now," said Red Pepper Burns, with +coolness.</p> + +<p>"But the owner says it can be made perfectly tight. And I have to go back +to-night!"</p> + +<p>"The owner of a sieve would say it could be made perfectly tight—if +it was wanted for a dishpan. And you are at liberty to go back +to-night—much as we shall dislike to lose you. I will take time +to go over, right now, and make sure of this thing for you."</p> + +<p>He rose as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Well, of all the positive gentlemen! Will you stay to look at one more? +It may soften that austere mood."</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston gave him a third print. It was of a very beautiful woman +standing beside a window, the attitude apparently unstudied, the lighting +unusual and picturesque, the whole effect challenging all conventional +laws of photography.</p> + +<p>"It's very nice—very nice," said Burns, indifferently. "But it's not in +it with the old lady by the fire. I'll run across and make sure of her +quarters, if you please."</p> + +<p>"That will be wonderfully good of you," and the guest looked after her +host, dubiously, as he went out.</p> + +<p>"Does one have to do everything he says, in these parts?" she inquired, +glancing from Mrs. Burns to Miss Mathewson, both of whom were smiling. +Her own expression was an odd mixture of interest and rebellion.</p> + +<p>Miss Mathewson spoke first. "I have been his surgical assistant for more +than nine years," said she. "When I have ventured to depart from the line +he laid out for me I have—been very sorry, afterward."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever venture to depart very far?"</p> + +<p>"Do I look so meek?"</p> + +<p>"You don't look meek at all, but you do look—conscientious." Miss Ruston +gave her a daring look.</p> + +<p>Amy spoke with more spirit than the others had expected. "If I were not +conscientious I couldn't work for Dr. Burns."</p> + +<p>"He doesn't look conscientious, to me," declared Miss Ruston. "He looks +adventurous, audacious, unexpected."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he is. But he doesn't expect his assistant nurse to be +adventurous, audacious, or unexpected!"</p> + +<p>"Good for you!" Miss Ruston was laughing, and looking with newly roused +interest at this young woman, whom she had perhaps taken to be of a +more commonplace type than her words now indicated. "As for my friend, +Mrs. Burns—he is her husband, and she must have known what he was like, +since I, in one short hour, have already discovered two or three of his +characteristics! Well, here's hoping he's on my side, when he comes back. +If he's not—"</p> + +<p>But when he came back he was on her side, reluctantly convinced by a +painstaking examination of the possibilities in the old cottage, and by a +man-to-man talk with its owner as to his good faith in promising to carry +out the lessee's requirements.</p> + +<p>"Though what in the name of time possesses a stunning girl like that to +come here and shut herself up in Aunt Selina's old rookery, I can't make +out," the landlord, Burns's neighbour, had confessed.</p> + +<p>"Possibly she won't shut herself up," Burns had suggested, though he +himself had been unable to discover the mysterious attraction of the +little old house. The garden promised better, he thought. He could +understand her being caught by the forsaken though powerful charm of +that. Doubtless it would furnish backgrounds for her outdoor photography, +which would put to blush any painted screens such as the village +photographers were accustomed to use.</p> + +<p>He returned to give Miss Ruston his sanction of her project, and to +receive her half-mocking, wholly grateful acknowledgment.</p> + +<p>"And I hope, Dr. Burns," said she, as he took leave of her, his watch in +his left hand as he shook hands with his right, "that you will let me +make that photograph of you, at the very beginning of my stay here."</p> + +<p>"With a clump of hollyhocks behind me, or a 'queer old door'?" he +inquired.</p> + +<p>"With nothing behind you except darkness and mystery," said she.</p> + +<p>"I thought those were the things one looked toward, not out of?"</p> + +<p>"Your patients looking toward 'the black unknown,' and seeing your face, +must find their future lighted with hope!"</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at his wife, a sparkle in his eye. "She's from +the big town," said he. "Here in the country we don't know how to give +fine, fascinating blarney like that, eh? Good-bye, Miss Ruston, and good +luck. Bring the little grandmother carefully wrapped in jeweller's +cotton—nothing is too good for her!"</p> + +<p>When luncheon was over Mrs. Burns and her guest went off for a long +drive, Miss Ruston being anxious to explore the region of which she had +heard as offering a field for her camera. The drive, taken in the +Macauley car, by Martha's invitation, and in the company of Martha +herself, Winifred Chester, and several children, prevented much +confidential talk between the two friends, and it was not until a few +minutes before train time, at five o'clock, that the two were for a brief +space again alone together.</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry you are not to be here at dinner," Ellen said, as Miss +Ruston repacked her small travelling bag, while the car waited outside to +take her to the station. "I should have liked you to meet our guest, Dr. +Leaver. He is an old friend of my husband's, who has been ill and is here +convalescing. He over-tired himself in taking a walk this morning, and +has been resting in his room all the afternoon."</p> + +<p>Charlotte Ruston, adjusting a smart little veil before Ellen's mirror, +her back to her friend, asked, after a moment's pause:</p> + +<p>"Dr. Leaver? Not Dr. John Leaver, of Baltimore?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. Do you know him?"</p> + +<p>"I have met him. Is he ill? I hadn't heard of that."</p> + +<p>"He has worked very hard, and is worn out," explained Ellen, choosing her +terms carefully. Her husband had warned her against allowing any definite +news concerning Leaver to get back to his home city. "He is improving, +and we are keeping him here because it is a place where he can be out of +the world, for a time, and not be called upon to go back before he +should. So please don't mention to your Baltimore friends that he is +here. I am ever so sorry, if you know him, that he wasn't down to-day. It +might have done him good to see the face of an acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"It might be too stimulating for him," suggested Miss Ruston. She seemed +difficult to satisfy in the matter of the veil's adjustment. Though she +had had it fastened, she now took it off and began again to arrange it.</p> + +<p>"Can't I help you?" Ellen offered, coming close.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I can manage it. I had it too tight. I suppose your guest +will be gone before I come back?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. He needs a long rest, and we shall keep him just as long +as he can be contented. Not that he is contented to be idle, but it is +what he needs. He is going to need diversion, too, and perhaps you can +help supply it, when you come back. Do you know him well enough to know +what an interesting man he is?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard people talk about him who do," said Miss Ruston. "But I +hope he will be quite recovered and away before I come back—for his +own sake. There, I believe this veil's on, at last. What a terrible +colour it gives one to drive in the sun all afternoon! I must put on +plenty of cold cream to-night, or I shall be a fright to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Why, you <i>are</i> burned! I hadn't noticed it before. And the top was up, +all the time, too. But it's very becoming, Charlotte, since it seems to +have confined itself to your cheeks. One's nose is usually the worst +sufferer."</p> + +<p>"That will probably show later. I must be off. Thank you, +dear—dearest—for all you have done for me to-day. It's been such +a happy day, I can't tell you how I feel about it."</p> + +<p>Charlotte Chase Ruston laid her burning, rose-hued cheek against her +friend's—cool and quite unburned by the drive—embraced her, and hurried +down the stairs. She seemed in haste to be off, but it was like her to be +eager to do whatever was to be done. Ellen looked after her as the +Macauley car bore her away.</p> + +<p>"Dear Charlotte!" she said to herself. "It's like having a warm, +invigorating wind sweep over one to have her company, even for a day. How +I shall enjoy her, when she comes! Of all the young women I know she +seems to me the most alive. I wish Dr. Leaver had been down to-day. He +would surely have liked to see her; I never knew a man who didn't. If he +has ever met her, he must remember her. But perhaps he will want to run +away, if he knows any one who knows him has found him out. Perhaps it +will be better not to tell him—just yet."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>UNDER THE APPLE TREE</h3> + + +<p>"A walk, Miss Mathewson? Yes, I'll take a walk—or a pill—or whatever is +due. Did you ever have a more obedient patient?"</p> + +<p>John Leaver rose slowly from the steamer-chair in a corner of the porch +where he had been lying, staring idly at the vines which sheltered him +from the village street, or out at the strip of lawn upon which the early +evening light was falling. His tall figure straightened itself; evidently +it cost him an effort to force his shoulders into their naturally erect +carriage. But as he walked down the path by Miss Mathewson's side there +was not much look of the invalid about him. His face, though still rather +thin, showed a healthy colour, the result of constant exposure to the sun +and air. His days were spent wholly out of doors.</p> + +<p>"Which way, this time?" Amy asked, as they reached the street.</p> + +<p>"Away from things rather than toward them, please. I shall be very glad +when I can tramp off into the open country."</p> + +<p>Amy glanced across the street. "Don't you want to approach a visit to the +country by exploring the old garden, over there? I hear that it has all +sorts of treasures of old-fashioned flowers in it. Do you care for old +gardens?"</p> + +<p>"Very much, though it is a long time since I've been in one."</p> + +<p>"Have you heard that the old house over here is to have a new tenant?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't heard."</p> + +<p>Leaver opened the gate in the hedge for his companion, looking as if the +least interesting thing in the world to him were the matter of tenants +for the little old cottage before him. But his tone was, as always, +courteously interested.</p> + +<p>"I was so sorry, the other day, that it happened you didn't meet Mrs. +Burns's friend, such an interesting young woman. She is coming here to +open a photographic studio in this old house—as an experiment."</p> + +<p>"A professional photographer?"</p> + +<p>"I believe not—as yet. She would still call herself an amateur, but from +the pictures she showed us she would seem an expert. I never saw anything +like them. Dr. Burns—he had never met her—was very much taken with +them, especially with one of the little old lady, her grandmother, whom +she is to bring here."</p> + +<p>They strolled along the moss-grown path, past the house, aside into the +garden, its tangle of flowers and shrubbery rich with neglected bloom and +sweet with all manner of scents—sweet-william, larkspur, clove-pink. +Leaver, stooping, picked a spicy-smelling, fringe-bordered pink, and +sniffed its sun-warmed fragrance.</p> + +<p>"It takes me back to my boyhood," he said, "when I used to think a visit +at my grandfather's old country place the greatest thing that could +happen to me. There was a big bed of these flowers under my window. When +the sun was hot upon them they rivalled the spices of Araby."</p> + +<p>Miss Mathewson stood looking back at the house. From the garden, which +lay at the side and behind it, it showed all of its forlornness and few +of its possibilities.</p> + +<p>"What will she make of living there, even for the year she means to +stay?" she wondered, aloud. "Now, if it were I, it wouldn't seem strange; +I am used to living in a little old house. But such a girl as Miss +Ruston—I can hardly imagine her here. She thinks the house and the old +garden will make fine backgrounds for her work. I suppose they will."</p> + +<p>"Miss Ruston?" Dr. Leaver repeated. "Was that the name?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Charlotte Ruston, of South Carolina, I believe. I never heard the +name before, have you?"</p> + +<p>"It is an unusual one. I have known only one person of that name." Leaver +walked slowly over to a decayed and tumbling bench beneath an apple-tree, +whose boughs had been so long untrimmed that they spread almost to the +earth. He sat down upon it, rather heavily, and lifted the clove-pink +to his nostrils again. His dark brows contracted slightly. He looked at +the house. "It will have to have a good deal done to it before it is fit +for any one," he observed. "You said there was an old lady to come, too?"</p> + +<p>"A most beautiful little old lady, whom Miss Ruston seemed to be very +anxious over, lest she suffer any harm. Dr. Burns, when he heard of it, +insisted on coming over here to make sure the house could be made +perfectly dry and comfortable for her."</p> + +<p>"He was right. Little old ladies must be taken care of, and young women +are apt to think any place that is picturesque is safe."</p> + +<p>Miss Mathewson, seeing him apparently more interested in the subject than +he was apt to be in the topics she brought up to amuse him, except as he +assumed interest for her sake, went on with this one, and told him all +she knew about Miss Ruston's plans, ending with a description of the +photographs she had shown.</p> + +<p>"But I should like to see one of herself," she added. "She has such +a—brilliant face. I can't think of any other word to describe it! +When she looks at you she looks as if she—cared so much to see what +you were like!" She laughed at her own attempt to make her description +clear. "Not as if she were curious, you know, but as if she were +interested—attracted. Can you imagine the expression?"</p> + +<p>Leaver leaned his head back against the apple-tree trunk, and closed his +eyes. The spice-pink, still held at his nostrils, shielded his lips. He +looked rather white, his nurse noticed, but she had become accustomed to +seeing these moments come upon him—they passed away again, and Dr. Burns +had said that no notice need be taken of them unless they were long in +passing. In spite of his pallor, he spoke naturally enough.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have seen such a face. But many women—Southern women, +especially—have that look of being absorbed in what one is saying; it is +a pretty trick of theirs. Won't you sit down, too, on this old bench? It +is so warm yet, we may as well rest a little and walk when it is dusk and +cooler."</p> + +<p>She sat down beside him, a pleasant picture to look at in her white lawn +in which, at Ellen's suggestion, she now made of herself, in the +afternoons, a figure less severe than in her uniform. She had even added +a touch of turquoise to the chaste whiteness of the dress, a colour which +brought out the beauty of her deep blue eyes and fair cheeks and even +lent warmth to the pale hues of her hair.</p> + +<p>"If you want to sit here, Dr. Leaver, I might run across and bring the +book we are reading. Would you like to hear a chapter?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, not to-night. It's a great book, and stirs the blood with its +attempt to tell the story of a war whose real story can never be told by +any one, no matter what skill the historian brings to the telling. But +I'm not in the mood for it to-night. I wonder if, instead, you won't tell +me a bit about yourself. You've never said a word about the work you do +with my friend, Dr. Burns. Do you like it?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. Was this a safe subject, she wondered, for a surgeon who, +she understood, had broken down from overwork? But the question had been +asked.</p> + +<p>"Very much," she answered, quietly. "One could hardly help liking work +under Dr. Burns."</p> + +<p>"Why? Do you think him a fine operator?"</p> + +<p>"Very fine. He is considered the best in the city, now, I believe, even +though his office is out here in the village. Of course it is not a great +city, but his reputation extends out into the towns around."</p> + +<p>"He is an enthusiast in his profession, I know. And you are one in yours, +I see."</p> + +<p>"Do you see it, Dr. Leaver? I thought I spoke quite moderately."</p> + +<p>"So moderately that I recognized the restraint. You assist Dr. Burns +whenever he operates?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—if I am free."</p> + +<p>"He can't have been doing much lately, then."</p> + +<p>She glanced at him. He was still leaning back against the apple-tree +trunk, but his eyes were open and regarding her rather closely. They were +eyes whose powers of discernment, as Burns had said, one could not hope +easily to elude.</p> + +<p>"He is so interested in your recovery, Dr. Leaver, that he is willing, +anxious, to spare me. There are other capable assistants, plenty of +them."</p> + +<p>"But none trained to his hand, as you are trained."</p> + +<p>In spite of herself, the quick colour rose in a wave and bathed her face +in its tell-tale glow. He smiled.</p> + +<p>"I see. It's worth everything to an operator to have a right-hand man—or +woman—like that. One doesn't often find a woman capable of taking the +part, but, when one is, she is like a second brain to the operator. Well, +I'll soon release you. I don't need to be coddled now, though it's very +pleasant. I shall remember these walks and talks and hours with books. If +one must be disabled, it's much to be looked after by one who seems a +friend."</p> + +<p>"But—Dr Leaver!—" She spoke in some alarm. "You mustn't talk of +dismissing me like this—unless you are dissatisfied with me. I know Dr. +Burns is taking great satisfaction in having me give my time to you. If +I am helping you at all—"</p> + +<p>"You are. But—I must help myself.... Never mind." He closed his eyes +again. "Tell me about yourself—as Dr. Burns's assistant. Do you enjoy +making things ready for him?"</p> + +<p>She saw that he would have it, so she answered. "Yes, I suppose I take +pride in having everything as he will want it. I know quite well what he +wants, by this time."</p> + +<p>"Yes. And he can depend on you. When the time comes for the start, you +have yourself well in hand? No quick pulse—short breath?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it would not be possible, I suppose, to be so self-controlled as +that. Even Dr. Burns is not. He has told me, more than once, that his +heart is pounding like an engine when he goes into an operation, or when +he faces an unexpected emergency, in the course of it."</p> + +<p>"Ah!... But it doesn't affect his work—or yours—this racing of the +engine?"</p> + +<p>"One forgets it, I think, when one is once at work. Dr. Leaver, look at +that squirrel! Out on the roof of the house—at the back. Do you see him +peering over at us? Inquisitive little creature!"</p> + +<p>"Like myself. Yes, I see his small majesty. Well, tell me, please, why +you like the work so much? You wouldn't give it up?"</p> + +<p>She drew a quick breath. "Oh, no!"</p> + +<p>"And the reason why you like it—am I too curious? Do you mind telling +me?"</p> + +<p>"Why, not at all. I can—hardly tell you, though, what it is that makes +me like it. Of course, I'm happy to have a hand, even though it's only an +assistant's hand, in saving life. But—the life isn't always saved. I +suppose, the real secret of it is one likes to be doing the thing one can +do best."</p> + +<p>"That's it!" He drew a heavy breath. "The thing one can do best. +And when that thing is the setting poor, disabled human machinery +straight—making it run smoothly again! One can hardly imagine turning +one's hand to—book-binding, making things in brass, dressing dolls, +to take up one's time, occupy one's mind, keep one's hands busy, after +having known the practice of a profession like that!"</p> + +<p>He got up from the bench and strode a few paces with a quick, impatient +step, such as she had never seen him take. Then, wheeling suddenly, he +came back to the bench and dropped upon it, breathing short. She had +instantly to his support a small bottle of strong salts which she always +carried, but for a moment she feared that this might not be stimulant +enough to a heart still inclined to be erratic upon small provocation. +She laid anxious fingers upon his pulse, but found it already steadying.</p> + +<p>"This will be over in a minute," she said quietly. "Soon, you will have +got above such bothersome minutes. I shouldn't have let you talk about a +thing which means so much to you."</p> + +<p>"No, I can't even talk about it," he said. "I'm as much of an infernal +hypochondriac as that. I beg your pardon—" and he set his lips.</p> + +<p>They sat in silence for a little. Then, suddenly a voice hailed them—a +cheerful, familiar voice.</p> + +<p>"'Under the spreading chestnut-tree?' Or is it an apple? May I join the +party?"</p> + +<p>Redfield Pepper Burns appeared, looking like a schoolboy lately released +from imprisonment. But his face sobered somewhat as his eye fell upon his +friend. It was not that John Leaver had not looked up with a smile, as +Burns approached, nor was it that he now showed physical distress of any +significant sort. A certain hard expression of the deep-set eye told the +story to one who could read signs.</p> + +<p>"There's a caller for you at the house, Miss Mathewson," said Burns.</p> + +<p>As she went away he dropped down upon the grass near Leaver. "It's at +least five degrees cooler under this tree," said he, "than in any outdoor +spot I've found yet."</p> + +<p>"Work must have been trying to-day."</p> + +<p>"Rather. But so much worse for my patients that I haven't thought much +about it for myself. At two places I had the satisfaction of personally +seeing to the moving of the invalid from a little six-by-nine inferno of +a bedroom to a big and airy sitting-room. It gave me the keenest pleasure +to see it hurt the tidy housewife, who didn't want her best room mussed +up." He chuckled. "In one case I made her take down the stuffy lace +window-curtains and open things up in great shape. She came near having +a convulsion on the spot. Curious how a certain type of mind regards any +little innovation like that. That woman would have let her unlucky +husband smother to death in that oven before it would have occurred to +her to move him out of it."</p> + +<p>"I rather wonder at your continuing to practise in a village like this, +with that sort of people, when you have so much city work, and could do a +large business with a city office."</p> + +<p>Burns stretched out an arm, thrusting his hand deep into the long grass. +"That sort—narrow-minded people—aren't all found in the country, +though—not by a long shot. I've sometimes thought I'd take an office in +town, but, when it comes to making the move, I can't bring myself to it. +You see, I happen to like it out here, and I like the village work. This +way I get both sorts. I don't know why one's ambition should be all for +city work. The people out here need me just as much as those where the +streets are paved. There's a heap more fresh air and sunshine and liberty +here than in town. And, as for being busy, there are only twenty-four +hours in the day, anywhere."</p> + +<p>"And you fill the most of those full. So you do. Yet, I should think +your love for surgery would lead you to take up an exclusive surgical +practice. You could make a name. You have a good-sized reputation +already, with your ability you could make it a great one."</p> + +<p>Burns looked at Leaver. The two men regarded each other with a sudden +fresh interest, a sudden wonder as to the operation of each other's +minds. The man on the bench, broken down by just such a life as he +recommended to his friend, looked at the man on the grass, unworn and +vigorous, and questioned whether, with all his virtues, Burns were really +possessed of the proper ambition. The man on the grass, aware of large +interests in his busy life, looked at the man on the bench, whose +interests were at present wholly concerned with recovering his health, +and wondered what insanity it was which bound his fellow mortal's brain +that he could not see things in their right values. There was a long +minute's silence. Then Burns, lying at full length upon his side in the +warm grass, his head propped upon his elbow, began, in a thoughtful tone:</p> + +<p>"Ever since a period early in our acquaintance my wife and I have had +a vision before us. It was one that, curiously enough, we both had +separately first, and then discovered, by accident, that it was mutual. +The time has come when we are to carry it out. My wife has bought an old +place, in the real country, three miles out on a road that turns off from +the main road to the city. She is going to fit it up for a hospital for +crippled children, curables, mostly, though her heart may lead her into +keeping a few of the other sort, if there is no other home for them to go +to. I'm to have the distinguished honour of being surgeon to the place."</p> + +<p>He made this final announcement in the tone in which he might have made +it if it had been that of an appointment to the greatest position the +country could have given him.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Leaver, after a moment, his weary eyes still studying +Burns's face, "that is a fine thing for you two to do. I can see that +such an interest might well hold a man away from an ordinary city +practice. There is no children's hospital near here, then?"</p> + +<p>"None at all. Children's wards, of course, but nothing like what ought to +be. Of course we can't take care of the surplus. It will be only special +cases, here and there, that we shall try to handle. But I'm meeting with +those every day—cases where the country air and the country fare are +almost as much a part of the cure as the surgical interference. My word! +but it will be a satisfaction to bundle the poor little chaps off to our +farm!"</p> + +<p>His eyes were very bright. He lay smiling to himself for a minute, then +he sat up.</p> + +<p>"In a month," said he, "we shall be ready for business. I have four +little patients waiting now for the place. On three of them I'm going to +operate at once. On the fourth—<i>you</i> are."</p> + +<p>Again the two pairs of eyes met—hazel eyes confident and determined, +brown eyes startled, stabbed with sudden pain. Burns held up his hand.</p> + +<p>"Don't say a word," he commanded. "I'm merely making an assertion. I'm +willing to back it up by argument, if you like, though I'd rather not. +In fact, I'd much rather not. I prefer simply to make the assertion, and +let it sink in."</p> + +<p>But Leaver would speak. "You forget," he said, bitterly, "that I've put +all that behind me. I told you I should never operate again. I meant it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you meant it," said Burns comfortably. "A man means it when he +swears he'll never do again something that has become second nature to +him to do. He'll do it—he's made that way. You will do this thing, and +do it with all your old grip and skill. But I'm not going to discuss it +with you. Some day, if you are good, I'll describe the case to you. It's +one you can handle better than I, and it's going to be up to you."</p> + +<p>He got to his feet, ignoring the slow shaking of Leaver's downbent head. +"By the way," he said, with a glance at the cottage, now a mere blur in +the oncoming twilight, "have you heard of the young photographer who is +to sweep down upon us and make wonderful, dream-like images of us all, +for good hard cash and fame? A friend of my wife's: a girl who looks +twenty-five, but is a bit more, I am told. A remarkably good-looking, not +to say fascinating, person with a grandmother still more fascinating—at +least to me. They are to come as soon as this rookery can be made +habitable."</p> + +<p>"Miss Mathewson spoke of it. It will be an interesting event to the +village, I should suppose. But I shall not be among the victims of the +lady's art. I may as well tell you, Red—I must get away next week."</p> + +<p>Burns wheeled upon him. "What's that you say?"</p> + +<p>The other proceeded with evident effort, laying his head back against the +tree-trunk again. "I am as grateful to you and Mrs. Burns as a man can +possibly be, so grateful that I can't put it into words—"</p> + +<p>"Don't try. Go on to something more important."</p> + +<p>"I have trespassed on your hospitality—"</p> + +<p>"Don't use hackneyed phrases like that. Say something original."</p> + +<p>—"as long as I can be willing to do it. I am as much improved as I can +expect to be—for a long time. I can't hang on, a useless invalid on your +hands—"</p> + +<p>"Cut it, old man! You're not an invalid, and you're not useless. You're +giving me one of the most interesting studies I've engaged in in a long +time. I'm liable to write a book on you, when I get sufficient data."</p> + +<p>Leaver smiled faintly. "Nevertheless, I can't do it, Red. You wouldn't do +it in my place. Be honest—would you?"</p> + +<p>"Probably not. I'd be just pig-headed fool enough to argue the case to +myself precisely as you are doing. Well, Jack, I've expected this hour. +It's a pity there isn't more faith and trust in friendship in the world. +We're all deadly afraid of trying our friends too far, so after just +about so long we strike out for ourselves. But since it is as it is, and +you're growing restless, I'll agree that you leave us, if you'll stay for +a while where you'll be under my observation. I've set my heart on making +a complete cure in this case—or, rather, you understand, assisting +Nature to do so. If you go off somewhere I shall lose track of you. +Suppose you stay in the village here for a while longer. I know a +splendid place for you, just round the corner. Quiet, pleasant home, +middle-aged widow and her young son—a lady, and a sensible, cheerful +one—she'll never bore you by talk unless you feel like it—and then the +talk will be worth while. What do you say? You know perfectly well that +you're not yet quite fit to shift for yourself. Be rational, and let me +manage things for you a while longer."</p> + +<p>Leaver stood up; in the dim light Burns could not see his face. But he +heard his voice—one which showed tension.</p> + +<p>"You don't know what you're asking, old friend. There are reasons why I +feel like getting away, entirely apart from any conditions under your +control. Yet since you ask it of me, and I owe you so much, and since—I +suppose it doesn't really make much difference where I am—I'll stay for +the present."</p> + +<p>"Good! I'm much obliged, Jack."</p> + +<p>Burns got up, also, and the two strolled away together, in the pleasant +summer dusk.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>A PRACTICAL ARTIST</h3> + + +<p>"Here I am! And the goods are here too. Isn't it a miracle? It could +never have been done if I hadn't found a kind friend among the railroad +men, who sent my things by fast freight. Now to settle in a whirlwind of +a hurry and fly back for Granny."</p> + +<p>These were Miss Charlotte Ruston's words of greeting as she shook hands +with the occupants of the Macauley car, which had met her at the station +on the last day of July. She looked as fresh and eager to carry out her +plans as if she were not just at the end of a journey.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll stop for luncheon first," Martha Macauley suggested. +She noted, with the approval of the suburbanite who cares much to be well +dressed, the quietly smart attire of the arriving traveller.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I will. Fuel first, fire afterward. But I'm fairly burning to +begin, July weather though it is. How are my hollyhocks? A splendid row? +I've dreamed of those hollyhocks!"</p> + +<p>"They are all there—as well as one can see them above the weeds. We +would have had the grass cut for you, but didn't venture to touch so much +as a spear, lest we destroy some picturesque effect," Ellen said, giving +her friend's hand an affectionate grasp as Charlotte took her place +beside her.</p> + +<p>"I do want to see to it all for myself. I've had the greatest difficulty +in waiting these four weeks, or should have had if I hadn't been so busy. +But now that I'm here I'll show you how to make a home out of four +chairs, three rugs, a table, a mirror, and an adorable copper bowl. Talk +of the simple life—you're going to see it lived just across the street, +you matrons with innumerable things to dust!"</p> + +<p>"We shall be delighted to watch you do it," Ellen assured her, and Martha +gave an incredulous assent.</p> + +<p>It was but a few hours before they saw the prophecy coming true. Miss +Ruston barely took time for luncheon, and by the time the dray containing +her modest supply of household goods was at her door she was ready for +work. A blue painter's blouse slipped over her travelling dress, her +sleeves rolled well up her shapely arms, she had plunged into the labour +of settling. She had for an assistant a woman whom Ellen had engaged for +her, and a tall youth who was the woman's son, and these two she managed +with a generalship little short of genius.</p> + +<p>The floors had been cleaned and stained with a simple dull-brown stain a +week before, and Miss Ruston eyed them with satisfaction, uneven though +they were. She set the lad at work oiling them, demonstrating to him with +her own hands, carefully gloved, the way to do it. Every window she flung +wide, and Mrs. Kelsey was presently scrubbing away at the dim, small +panes, trying her best to make them shine to please the young lady who +from time to time stopped as she flew by to comment on her work.</p> + +<p>"That's it, Mrs. Kelsey, you know how, don't you? I haven't much in the +way of hangings for them, so we must have them bright as mirrors. Hard to +get into the corners? Yes, I know. But it's somehow the corners that show +most. Try this hairpin under your cloth,"—she slipped one out from her +heavy locks—"you can get into the corners with that, I'm sure. Tom, +there's a spot as big as a plate you haven't hit. You can't see it in +that light; bend over this way a minute, and you'll find it. That's it! +It would have been a pity to leave it, wouldn't it! Don't miss any more +places, Tom. I haven't many rugs, and the floors will show a good deal."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know artists were ever such practical people," confessed Mrs. +Red Pepper Burns, sitting on the edge of a straight-backed old chair in +the small kitchen. The house boasted but four rooms, two below and two +above, with a small enclosure off the kitchen which had been used for a +bedroom in the benighted days when people knew no better, and which +Charlotte had promptly set aside for a dark room.</p> + +<p>"Practical? I'm not an artist, as you use the word, but I assure you real +artists are the most practical people in the world. Not one of them but +can make a whistle out of a pig's tail, or a queen's robe out of a sheet +and a blue scarf! What do you think of my light-housekeeping outfit?"</p> + +<p>She held up an aluminum skillet which she had just taken from the box she +was unpacking. "Here's everything we can need in the way of cooking +utensils, packed into a foot square, and light as a feather, the whole +thing. My purse was rather light when I had bought it, too." She made a +funny little grimace, then laughed. "But my most trying purchase was my +tin bath! You can't imagine what a hunt I had for it. But I found it at +last in an Englishman's little out-of-the-way shop, and a big tin ewer to +go with it. I'm proud of them now, and emptying the tub once a day is +going to be fine for my muscles."</p> + +<p>"You have splendid courage, dear, and I can see you're not afraid of hard +work. I want you to promise me this, though, Charlotte. When you are +specially tired, and there's luncheon or dinner to get, run over and let +us give you a trayful of things. Cynthia always cooks more than we eat, +and then has to contrive to use it in other ways."</p> + +<p>Charlotte nodded. "Thank you. Luckily, though I'm poor I'm not proud. By +the way, you haven't an unused kitchen chair, have you? To tell the truth +I forgot several things, and one of them is a chair for the kitchen. I +probably shall not sit down myself, and shall always serve our little +meals in the living-room, but I foresee that I shall have guests here in +the kitchen, and I'd like to be able to offer them a chair. That one +you're sitting in is my very best old split-bottomed, high-backed +photographer's treasure, which must go in the front room by the +fireplace."</p> + +<p>"When you are through explaining I will assure you that two kitchen +chairs will arrive as soon as I go home," promised Ellen.</p> + +<p>"Bless you! I foresee that you will make a splendid neighbour. Do you +want to climb upstairs and see the nest I'm going to feather for Granny?"</p> + +<p>She turned to the narrow little staircase between the walls, and gayly +led the way. But Ellen exclaimed in dismay over the steepness of the +stairs.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte! Do you think dear little old Madam Chase can climb these? +They are the steepest I ever saw!"</p> + +<p>"She won't need to. Private lift, always ready."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean? Surely not—"</p> + +<p>Charlotte extended two round, supple arms. "Why not? Granny weighs just +eighty pounds—if she is wearing plenty of clothes. In her little nightie +and lavender kimono considerably less. And I'm strong as strong."</p> + +<p>"But even then she's more than you ought to carry up and down this +ladder."</p> + +<p>Charlotte turned at the top of the stairs, and laughed back at her +friend. "Granny's a sports-woman," said she. "She will—whisper +it!—thoroughly enjoy sliding down these stairs, and, as for my carrying +her up them, haven't you yet found out that a weight you love devotedly +is just no weight at all? Now, look here! Aren't these bits of rooms +fascinating? Hot, just now, I admit—" She ran to the windows, wrenched +them open and propped them up. "Too hot in July, certainly; we'll camp +downstairs while this weather lasts. But fine and warm and sunny through +the winter. A bit of an oil-stove will make Granny as snug as a kitten, +and her maid Charlotte will see that she's never left alone with it +burning."</p> + +<p>"I see you're quite invincible in your determination to make the best of +everything. I can hardly believe you are the same girl I used to know, +brought up to be waited on and petted by everybody. You've developed +splendidly, and I'm proud of you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Len. No, I'm not the same girl at all. I've been having to +depend upon my own management for four years now—long enough to learn +a good many makeshifts. It's been rather a pull, but I've had Granny +through it all, and as long as she's left to me I won't complain. I used +to be an extravagant person, but you've no idea how I've learned to make +money last. Don't stay up here, it's too hot for you. But I'll get the +place in order, for it may be cooler by the time I bring Granny, so we +can sleep here."</p> + +<p>"I'll help. What comes first?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing—for you. I'll run up and down with rugs and +curtains,—really, they're about all there are to go up here, +except Granny's dressing-table. I've saved that for her, and a +little old single bed she likes. I'll have Tom bring them up."</p> + +<p>But Ellen insisted on helping, and when the bed was in place made it up +with the fine old linen Charlotte produced, exclaiming over its handsome +monograms, of an antique pattern much admired in these days.</p> + +<p>"But where is your bed, Charlotte? I want to get that ready, too," she +urged, when various small tasks were completed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind about mine. I'll see to that later." Charlotte was +rubbing away at an old brass candlestick upon the dressing-table.</p> + +<p>"I didn't see another bed. Surely you can't both sleep in this?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly—poor Granny! No; mine is a folding cot, the nicest thing!"</p> + +<p>"And you've no furniture at all for your room?"</p> + +<p>"Don't want it. Granny will let me peep in her mirror. Don't look so +shocked, Len. We're just camping out for a year, you know, and I brought +all we needed. What's the use of being encumbered with household goods?"</p> + +<p>"But you have them, somewhere? Let me send for them, dear, please. If you +are to stay all winter you must be comfortable."</p> + +<p>"We shall be. And—I haven't any more things, if you must have it. When +the estate was sold I bought in all I could afford, but have sold some +since. You may as well know it, but I want you to understand that I don't +consider it a hardship at all to live as I intend to live this year. I +shall be making money hand over fist, presently, and by the time I have +had my city studio a year or two shall be affording Eastern rugs and +hand-carved furniture. Wait and see!"</p> + +<p>She stopped polishing and stood looking at her friend with the peculiar, +radiant look which was her greatest charm, her dark eyes glowing, her +lips in proud, sweet lines of resolution, her round chin held high. Then +she laughed, throwing her head higher yet, with a gay spirit; came +forward and caught Ellen Burns by the shoulders and bending kissed her.</p> + +<p>"I told you I wasn't proud," she said, "but I am! <i>Too proud to be +proud!</i> I never believed in the pride which covers up, but in that which +frankly owns its poverty, and laughs at it. I laugh!"</p> + +<p>"You splendid girl! Where did you get it?"</p> + +<p>"Picked it up. But I really think I shall have the happiest year out of +this I've known yet."</p> + +<p>"I believe you will. And I shall delight in having you so near."</p> + +<p>The two descended. By the time Mrs. Kelsey's work-day was over the front +room was in order, and Charlotte, bidding good-night to her servitors, +gave them hearty praise and bade them come back early in the morning. +Ellen had gone home, bidding Charlotte follow her at convenience.</p> + +<p>"I must run out and pick some flowers for my copper bowl," Charlotte had +said. "Then the room will be ready to show your husband this evening. I'm +anxious to have it make a good impression on him, and I've discovered +that men always notice posies."</p> + +<p>So, out in the tangled garden she chose a great bunch of delphinium, in +mingled shadings from pale blues and lavenders to deepest sapphire tones, +and bringing it in exultingly filled the copper bowl and set it on the +old spindle-legged table opposite the fireplace. Woven rag rugs in dull +blues lay on the floor; one great winged chair, Granny's chair, stood by +the window. Besides this were the splint-bottomed, high-backed chair, two +Sheraton chairs, and a Chippendale mirror,—all relics of a luxurious old +home. Two small portraits in oil hung upon the wall, painted by some +master hand, portraits of Charlotte's parents. This was all the +furnishing the room contained, but somehow, in the warm light of +the late July afternoon, it looked anything but bare.</p> + +<p>The Chesters, the Macauleys and the Burnses, all came across the street +in the early July evening, to view the work which had been done. +Charlotte had slipped on a thin white gown and pinned a bunch of +old-fashioned crimson-and-pink "bleeding-hearts" at her waist, to do the +occasion honour. She looked, somehow, already as if she belonged with the +place. She sat upon the doorstone and hemmed small muslin curtains which +were to go in the bedrooms upstairs, and Martha, Winifred, and Ellen, +seeing this, sent for their sewing materials and helped her, while the +daylight lasted.</p> + +<p>Burns, looking on, hands in pockets, suddenly observed, "We fellows ought +to be doing something for her. What do you say to every man going for +a scythe and cutting the grass? No lawn mower can tackle a tangle like +this."</p> + +<p>Macauley groaned. "Why begin to be neighbourly at such a pace? Cutting +this grass is going to be no easy task."</p> + +<p>But Chester and Burns had already started across the street, and Macauley +was obliged to follow. By the time darkness fell the front yard had been +cropped into at least a semblance of tidiness, and Charlotte was offering +her thanks to three warm gentlemen, and regretting that she had not been +keeping house long enough to have any refreshment to offer them.</p> + +<p>"Come over when we are settled, and Granny and I will have some sparkling +Southern beverages for you," she promised.</p> + +<p>"You are coming over to sleep, child," Ellen said, as the time for +departure arrived, and Charlotte showed signs of closing up her small +domain.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. I mean to have the fun of spending my first night in my new +home," Miss Ruston declared, and held to her decision, in spite of the +arguments and entreaties of the women and the assertions of the men that +she would be afraid.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, beat on a dishpan if anything disturbs you, and we'll rush +across in a body and rescue you," promised Macauley.</p> + +<p>Left alone, Charlotte went inside, lighted a genial looking lamp, and sat +down alone in her little living-room. Chin in her palms, she leaned her +elbows upon the spindle-legged table, looking up at the portrait of her +mother, its fine colourings glowing in the mellow light from the lamp. +She sat for a long time in this posture, her eyes losing their sparkle +and growing dreamy, and—at last—a trifle misty. When this stage +occurred she suddenly jumped up, carried the lamp into the kitchen, +searched until she found a candle and lighted it, then, extinguishing +the lamp, she went slowly upstairs to the cot bed.</p> + +<p>By the following evening her preparations were so far complete that she +could take the evening train for Baltimore, announcing that the two +future occupants of the little house would return within forty-eight +hours. During her absence the three women who were her friends put their +heads together, ordered extra baking and brewing done in their own +kitchens, and ended by stocking her small shelves with a great array +of good things.</p> + +<p>Before the forty-eight hours had quite gone by Miss Ruston was leading a +tiny figure, with shoulders held almost as straight as her own, in at the +hedge gate. It was twilight of the August evening. The cottage door was +open and the rays from the lamp lately lighted by her neighbours streamed +down the path.</p> + +<p>Charlotte stooped—she had to stoop a long way—and put her lips close to +the small ear under the white hair which lay softly over it. "Doesn't it +look like home, Granny?" she said, in a peculiar, clear tone, a little +raised.</p> + +<p>"What say, dear?" responded a low and quite toneless voice—the voice of +the very deaf.</p> + +<p>"Home, Granny?" repeated the younger voice. The strong arm of the taller +figure came about the little shoulders in the small gray travelling coat.</p> + +<p>"Warm? Not so warm as it was on the train. I shall be quite comfortable +once I am sitting quietly in my chair."</p> + +<p>Doctor and Mrs. Burns, following the travellers with certain pieces of +hand luggage, looked at one another.</p> + +<p>"Bless her small heart, is she as deaf as that?" queried Red Pepper, in a +whisper. "I shall have difficulty in getting my adoration over to her!"</p> + +<p>"She has grown much deafer since I knew her, several years ago," Ellen +explained. "But as her eyes seem bright as ever I imagine you will have +no difficulty in making her understand your adoration. She is used to +it."</p> + +<p>"I should think she might be. She is the prettiest old lady I ever saw, +and looks one of the keenest. We shall understand each other, if we have +to write on slates."</p> + +<p>Charlotte led Madam Chase—Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase was the name +on the visiting cards she still used with scrupulous care for the +observances of etiquette—in at the cottage door and placed her in the +winged chair. She untied and removed a microscopic bonnet, drew off the +gray coat, and laid an inquiring finger on her charge's wrist.</p> + +<p>"Let me attend to that," begged R.P. Burns, looming in the small doorway. +"I'll find out how tired she is. I doubt if she would admit it by word +of mouth."</p> + +<p>He went down on one knee beside the chair, a procedure which brought his +smiling face beside the old lady's questioning one. His fingers clasped +her wrist, and held it after he had found out what it told him.</p> + +<p>"Tired?" he said, very distinctly, his lips forming the word for her to +see.</p> + +<p>Madam Chase shook her head decidedly. "Not at all, Doctor. But the train +was very warm and very dusty. I shall be glad to feel a cool linen pillow +under my head instead of a hot cotton one."</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Could you eat a bit, and drink a cup of tea?"</p> + +<p>"What say, Doctor? Tea? Yes, I should be glad of tea. I never like the +decoction they serve upon trains and call tea."</p> + +<p>"I'll have it for her in a minute," and Ellen went out into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Burns looked up at Miss Ruston. "As soon as she has had her tea she must +go to bed. She has stood the journey well, but she needs a long rest +after it." Then he looked again at Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase. "I can +see you are a very plucky small person," said he, and her nod and smile +in answer showed that at least she caught the indications of a +compliment.</p> + +<p>Presently, when she had had her tea, had patted Ellen's hand for bringing +it, and had looked about her a little with observant eyes which showed +pleasure when they rested on certain familiar objects, she laid her white +curls back against the chair and looked up at her granddaughter like a +child who asks to be put to sleep.</p> + +<p>Burns advanced again. "May I have the honour?" he asked, stooping over +the tiny figure with outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>"You'll find me pretty heavy, Doctor," said she, but she put up her +arms and clasped his neck as he lifted her, quite as if it were a matter +of course with her to have stalwart men offer their services on all +occasions. Burns strode up the steep and narrow staircase with her as if +she had been a child, Charlotte preceding him with a pair of candles. In +her own room he laid the little old lady on her bed, then stooped once +more.</p> + +<p>"May I have a reward for that?" he asked, and without waiting for +permission kissed the delicate cheek, as soft and smooth as velvet +beneath his lips.</p> + +<p>"You are a very good young man," said the old lady. "I think I shall have +to adopt you as a grandson."</p> + +<p>Burns laid his hand on his heart and made her a deeply respectful bow, at +which she laughed and waved him away.</p> + +<p>"Adorable," said he to Charlotte, on his way down, "is not a word which +men use over every small object, as you women do, therefore it should +have the more force when they do make use of it. No other word fits +little Madam Chase so well. Consider me yours to command in her service, +at any hour of day or night."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Charlotte called softly after him. "I assure you she will +command you herself, and delight in doing it. She never fails to +recognize homage when she receives it, or to demand it when she does +not. But she will give you quite as much as she takes from you."</p> + +<p>"I'm confident of it," and Burns descended to his wife. "You have a +rival," he told her solemnly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>A RUNAWAY ROAD</h3> + + +<p>Camera hung by a strap over her shoulder, small tripod tucked under her +arm, Charlotte Chase Ruston, photographer, turned aside from the country +road along which she was walking, to follow a winding lane leading into a +deep wood. The luring entrance to this lane had been beyond her power to +resist, although the sun had climbed nearly to the zenith, warning her +that it was time to turn her steps toward home. In her search for +picturesque bits of landscape to turn to account in her work, her +enthusiasm was likely at any time to lead her far afield.</p> + +<p>Just as the lane promised to debouch into an open meadow and release its +victim from any special sense of curiosity, it suddenly swerved to one +side, forced its way under a pair of bars, and ran curving away into deep +shadows, fringed with ferns, and overhung with the dense foliage of oak +and walnut. A distant glimpse of brilliant scarlet flowers, standing like +sentinels in uniform against the dark green of the undergrowth, beckoned +like a hand. With a laugh Charlotte set her foot upon the bottom rail. +"I'm coming," she called blithely to the scarlet flowers. "You needn't +shout so loud at me."</p> + +<p>Hurrying, because of the hour, she pulled her blue linen skirts over the +fence, and dropped lightly upon the other side. She ran along the lane to +the flowers, stopped to admire, but refused to pick them, telling them +they were better where they were, and would droop before she could get +them home. Then she went swiftly on around a bend in the cart-path, +catching the faint sound of falling water, and impelled to seek its +source, just as is every one at hearing that suggestive sound. And, of +course, the water was farther away than it sounded.</p> + +<p>A trifle short of breath, from her haste, she ran it down at last, and +came upon it—a series of small waterfalls down which a small stream +tumbled recklessly along a vagrant watercourse, seeming to care little +when it reached its destination, so that it contrived to have plenty of +fun and exercise by the way. And on the bank, stretched recumbent, hands +clasped under head, lay a long figure in gray flannels, a straw hat and a +book at its side.</p> + +<p>Charlotte stopped short. The figure turned its head, sat up, and got +rather quickly to its feet, pushing back a heavy, dark lock of hair which +had fallen across a tanned forehead. Dr. John Leaver came forward.</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry I disturbed you," said Charlotte Ruston, finding words at +last, after having been surprised out of speech by the sudden apparition, +"I hope I didn't wake you from a nap."</p> + +<p>"You haven't disturbed me, and I was not asleep. I'm only waiting for Dr. +Burns, who may come now at any minute. This is a pleasant place to meet +in, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Their hands met, each looked with swift, straight scrutiny into the face +of the other, and then hands and eyes parted abruptly. When they regarded +each other after that, it was as two casual acquaintances may exchange +glances, in the course of conversation, when other things are of more +interest than the personal relation.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it is pleasant—charming! The path lured me on and on, I couldn't +stop. I ought to be at home this minute. Did you walk so far? Mrs. Burns +told me you were here, and that you had been ill. I was very sorry, and +I'm now so glad to see you looking so well."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I am much myself again, but not yet quite equal to a walk of +this distance. Dr. Burns and his car are just a few rods away, on the +other side of this bit of woods. He has a patient in a little shack over +there, and brought me along to see this spot. It was worth coming for."</p> + +<p>"You must enjoy Dr. Burns very much."</p> + +<p>"We are old friends, and being together again after a nine-years' +separation, is a thing to make the most of."</p> + +<p>"I should think so. He seems so alive, so full of interest in every +living thing. He must be a fine comrade."</p> + +<p>"The finest in the world. To me there is nobody like him, and most people +who know him, I've noticed, feel in the same way. He has a beautiful +wife. She is a friend of yours, she tells me."</p> + +<p>"Also an old friend, and almost the dearest I have. I'm very happy to be +near her. Dr. Leaver, will you tell me what time it is, please? I have a +dreadful suspicion that I shall be very late."</p> + +<p>As he drew out his watch a voice was heard from the other side of a clump +of undergrowth, calling crisply:</p> + +<p>"All right, Jack, we're off. One more call before luncheon, and it's +blamed late, so get busy."</p> + +<p>"In a minute," Leaver called back, smiling, as he showed Charlotte his +watch's dial.</p> + +<p>Red Pepper Burns looked over the bushes, discerning in his friend's tone +an intention of delay, and inclined to be still more peremptory with him +about it. Discovering now what looked like an interesting situation, he +came forward, bareheaded, his frown of impatience turning to a smile of +greeting.</p> + +<p>"What luck, to find a dryad in the woods!" he cried. "Did this gentleman +invade your domain?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. I invaded his most unexpectedly. I was following a lane, +intending to turn back at any moment, when it ran away under a fence and +treacherously led me into trouble."</p> + +<p>"Call it trouble, do you, meeting your friends in the woods? That's +always the way! Call a woman luck, and she calls you trouble! Let me tell +you, Miss Charlotte, it's luck for you, meeting us, for we can give you a +lift of a mile down the road. We have to turn off there, but you'll be +less late for a luncheon that's probably already cold than you would be +after walking the whole distance. You won't refuse? You mustn't, for I +expect it's my only chance to get John Stone Leaver of Baltimore started. +Otherwise he'll stand here till mid-afternoon, showing you his watch and +pointing out to you the beauties of this noisy brook."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Dr. Burns, but you can't very well take me in a car built for +two."</p> + +<p>"Can't I? The car has frequently carried half a dozen, judiciously +distributed over the running-boards, to the imminent peril of the tires +and springs. We'll put Dr. Leaver on the running-board. It will hurt +neither his clothes nor his dignity, and if it does he can get off and +walk."</p> + +<p>He led the way. If she could have done so Charlotte would gladly have +turned and run away. But there are people from whom one cannot easily +run away, and Red Pepper Burns was one of them. With all his powers of +discernment, he had no possible notion that the two who followed him were +not eager to accept this arrangement. They looked well together, too, he +had observed as he neared them—exceedingly well. He was sure he was +doing them a favour in keeping them together as long as possible.</p> + +<p>In point of actual distance he certainly succeeded literally in +keeping them extremely near together, during the few minutes it took to +get out of a winding wood-road to the main highway, and to drive at a +stimulating pace a mile down that road. When Leaver took his place upon +the running-board he was unavoidably close to Charlotte's knee, and his +head was within reach of her hand. His hand, grasping the only available +hold with which to keep himself in place, as Burns let the car go at high +speed, was close under her eyes.</p> + +<p>Keeping his eyes upon the road, Burns, in a gay mood now, kept up a +running fire of talk, to which Charlotte, as became necessary, responded. +Leaver, straw hat in hand, also stared straight ahead, and Charlotte, +unobserved by either companion, looked at the head below her, its heavy, +dark-brown hair ruffled by the wind of their progress, noted—not for the +first time—the fine line of the partial profile, the shoulder in its +gray flannel, the well-knit hand, tanned, like its owner's face, with +much exposure. And, as she made these furtive observations, something +within her breast, which she had thought well under control, became +suddenly unmanageable.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to desert you here, so ungallantly," Burns declared, bringing +the car to a standstill at a cross-road. "If my friend here were quite +fit I'd put him down, too, and give him the pleasure of walking in with +you. In a week or two more I'll turn him loose. Looks pretty healthy, +doesn't he?"</p> + +<p>"I'm entirely able to walk in with Miss Ruston now," said Leaver, +standing, hat in hand, in the road, as Charlotte adjusted her belongings +and prepared to walk rapidly away.</p> + +<p>"That's my affair, for a bit longer," and Burns put out a peremptory +hand. "Be good and jump in. The lady will excuse you, and I won't, so +there you are. Forgive me, Miss Ruston, and don't bring on heart failure +by walking too fast in this August sun."</p> + +<p>"I won't. Good-bye, and thank you both," and Charlotte set briskly off +toward home, while the car swept round the turn and disappeared into +a hollow of the road.</p> + +<p>"That's what I call a particularly worth-while girl," commented Burns, as +the Imp carried them away. "Beauty, and sense, and spirit, not to mention +originality and a few other attributes. You don't often get them all +combined. Good old family, according to my wife, but all gone now, and +this girl left to make her way on her own resources. But perhaps you know +all this already, since you've met her before?"</p> + +<p>"I know the main facts?—yes," Leaver responded. His lips had taken on a +curiously tight set, since the car had left the corner. His eyes, under +their strongly marked brows, narrowed a little, as he looked out across a +field of corn yellowing in the sunlight. "She has visited more or less in +Baltimore, where she has been very much admired."</p> + +<p>"Why 'has been'?" queried Burns. "She doesn't look like a 'has-been' to +me. More like very much of a 'now-and-here'—eh?"</p> + +<p>"I mean only that since she has been thrown upon her own resources she +has applied herself closely to the study of photography, and has been +little seen in society."</p> + +<p>"I imagine when she was seen she kept a few fellows guessing. She looks +to me as if she might have refused her full share of men."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt of it."</p> + +<p>That which Burns would have enjoyed saying next he refrained from. But to +himself he made the observation: "By the signs I haven't much doubt you +were one of them, old man." Aloud he questioned innocently:</p> + +<p>"You know her rather well?"</p> + +<p>"Quite well."</p> + +<p>"Your manner says 'Drop it,'" observed Burns, with a keen glance at a +side-face clean-cut against the landscape. "I've encountered that manner +before, and I'll take warning accordingly. This is a fine day, and it's +rather an interesting case I'm going to see, up this road. If you care to +come in I'll be glad of your opinion, but I won't insist on it."</p> + +<p>"Unless you really wish it, I'll stay out, thank you."</p> + +<p>Burns left his companion in the car, open book in hand. It was a book Red +Pepper had strongly recommended, with the motive of stirring up his +friend to interested resentment,—a particularly unfair and prejudiced +discussion of a subject just then being torn to pieces by all manner of +disputants, with the issue still very much in doubt. He knew precisely +the place Leaver had reached in his reading, and noted, as he got out of +the car, the page at which he was about to begin. The page was one easily +recognizable, for it was one upon whose margin he himself had drawn, in a +moment of intense irritation with the argument advanced thereon, a rough +outline of a donkey's head with impossibly long and obstinate ears.</p> + +<p>He left Leaver with eyes bent upon the page, not the semblance of a smile +touching his grave mouth at sight of the really striking and effective +cartoon which so ably expressed a former reader's sentiments. Burns went +into the house making with himself a wager as to how far Leaver's perusal +of the chapter would have progressed in the ten minutes which would +suffice for the visit, and was divided whether to stake a page against a +half-chapter, or to risk his friend's being aware of his observation and +leaping through the chapter to its end.</p> + +<p>When he came out the book was closed and lying upon Leaver's knee. Burns +took his place and drove off, malice sparkling in his eye.</p> + +<p>"What did you think of that chapter?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Interesting argument, but weak in spots."</p> + +<p>"Hm—m. Which spots?"</p> + +<p>Leaver indicated them. There could be no doubt that he had read +the chapter carefully to the end. Burns put him through a severe +cross-examination, but he stood the test, much to his examiner's disgust. +In detective work it is usually irritating to have one's theories +disproved. But he still doubted the evidence of his ears. Either John +Leaver was a colder blooded deceiver than he thought him, or his powers +of concentration were more than ordinarily great, that he could turn from +the contemplation of a subject like the one left at the cross-roads +corner, a subject which Burns was pretty sure vitally concerned him, to +a mere abstract discussion of a modern sociological problem, bare of +practical illustration, and dealing purely with one man's notions not yet +worked out to any constructive conclusion.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Leaver, turning suddenly to look at Burns with a smile, "are +you satisfied that I have read the chapter?"</p> + +<p>Burns also turned, met his companion's eye, and broke into a laugh. "I +shall have to admit you have," said he.</p> + +<p>"Why should you have doubted it?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't been gone long enough for you to have read and digested it."</p> + +<p>Leaver looked at his watch. "You were gone seventeen minutes. That's +long enough to take in the argument pretty thoroughly. As to digesting +it—it's indigestible. Why try?"</p> + +<p>"No use at all. But having given my mental machinery a lot of friction I +enjoyed trying to stir yours up also to irritation and discontent. But +I haven't done it. You've remained calm where I grew hot. Also you've +proved your ability to change the subject of your thinking as you would +switch off one electric current and switch on another. It shows you're a +well man."</p> + +<p>"I must warn you, as I have done at various times in our association: +'Don't jump to conclusions.' Your first one, that I hadn't read the +chapter, was wrong. I had read it. Your second one, that, after all, I +had read the chapter while you were in the house, was also wrong. I had +read it by the side of the brook, an hour ago."</p> + +<p>Burns's laughter spoke his enjoyment as heartily as if he were not the +one cornered. But his amusement ended in triumph, after all, though to +this he discreetly did not give voice. Since he had met Miss Charlotte +Ruston in the woods Dr. John Leaver had not given himself to the study of +any other man's ideas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>AFTER DINNER</h3> + + +<p>"Charlotte Chase Ruston, I want you to come over to a little dinner +to-night. Just a few people, and as informal as dinners on hot August +evenings should be. Afterward we'll spend the time on the porch."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Len. Whom are you going to have? I want to prepare my mind +for what is likely to happen."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Burns mentioned her guests. "I've arranged them with special +reference to Dr. Leaver," she explained. "I think it will do him good, +just now, to have to exert himself a little bit. He seems well enough, +but absolutely uninterested in things or people,—except the children. He +spends hours with them. I'm going to put you next him, if I may."</p> + +<p>"Please don't. I particularly want the chance to talk with Mr. Arthur +Chester about something I've found he can tell me. We never can get time +for it, and this will be just the chance. Give Miss Mathewson to Dr. +Leaver, and put some pretty girl on his other side."</p> + +<p>"I will, if you prefer, of course," Ellen agreed promptly. She had +observed that, although she had taken pains to have them meet, Dr. Leaver +and Miss Ruston seemed to be in the habit of quietly avoiding each other. +But she was not the woman to ask her friend's confidence, since it was +not voluntarily given. She could only wonder why two people from the same +world, apparently so well suited to each other, should be so averse to +spending even a few moments together.</p> + +<p>An hour later Charlotte, having dispatched considerable business, +bundling it out of the way as if it had suddenly become of no account, +was delving in a trunk for a frock.</p> + +<p>"It's the one and only possible thing I have that will do for one of +Len's 'little dinners,'" she was saying to herself. "I know just how +she'll be looking, and I must live up to her. I wonder if I can mend it +to be fit—I wonder."</p> + +<p>She carried it downstairs. Madam Chase, sitting by the window with her +knitting, looked up.</p> + +<p>"Mending lace, dearie?" she asked. "Can't I do it for you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it's beyond even you, Granny," she said, ruefully. To the +deaf ears her gesture told more than her words.</p> + +<p>"Let me see," commanded the old lady. When the gauzy gown was spread +before her she examined it carefully.</p> + +<p>"If it need not be washed—" she began.</p> + +<p>"It must be. Look at the bottom." Charlotte's expressive hands +demonstrated as she talked. "I've danced in it and sat out dances in all +sorts of places in it. But I can wash it, if you can mend it. I'll wash +it with the tips of my fingers."</p> + +<p>"I will try," said her grandmother.</p> + +<p>That afternoon Charlotte carefully laundered the mended gown, dried it in +the sun and ironed it, partly with her fingers, partly with a tiny iron. +Finished, it was a work of art, a frock of rare lace of exquisite design, +several times made over, and now, in its last stage, prettier than in its +first.</p> + +<p>"If it will hold together," Charlotte said laughing, as she put it on, +and, kneeling before Granny, waited while the delicate old fingers slowly +fastened each eyelet. When she rose she was a figure at which the old +lady who loved her looked with pleased eyes.</p> + +<p>"You are beautiful, dearie," she said. "And nobody will guess that your +dress is mended."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit, thanks to your clever fingers. Now I'll go find some flowers +to wear, and then I'm off. I'll come back to put you to bed, and you'll +send Bob over if you want the least thing, won't you, even the least?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte went out into her garden, holding her skirts carefully away +from possible touch of bush or briar. Late August flowers were many, but +among them were none that pleased her. She came away therefore without a +touch of colour upon her white attire, yet seeming to need none, the +bloom upon her cheek was so clear, the dusk of her hair so rich.</p> + +<p>"Isn't she fascinating?" said Winifred Chester in the ear of John Leaver, +as Charlotte came in. "I never saw a girl who seemed so radiantly well +and happy, with so little to make her so. I think she and Madam Chase +must be very poor, all the nice things they have seem so old, and the new +things so very simple. Ellen says the family was a very fine one."</p> + +<p>"Very fine," he agreed. His eyes were upon Charlotte as she greeted her +hosts. He answered Winifred's further comments absently. He bowed gravely +in response to Charlotte's recognition of him, then turned and talked +with the pretty girl whom Ellen had asked him to take in to dinner.</p> + +<p>At the table Miss Ruston and Dr. Leaver found themselves nearly opposite. +Leaver talked conscientiously with his companion, then devoted himself to +Winifred Chester, upon his other side. Returning to do his duty by Miss +Everett, he found her eager to discuss those opposite.</p> + +<p>"They say Miss Ruston does the most wonderful photographs," she observed. +"One would know she was devoted to some art, wouldn't one? The way that +frock is cut about her shoulders—only an artist would venture to wear it +like that, without a single touch of colour. Every other woman I know +would have put on a string of gold beads or pearls or at least a pendant +of some sort."</p> + +<p>For a moment Leaver forgot to answer. He had not looked at Charlotte +since he had first taken his seat. Now, with Miss Everett calling +his attention to her, and everybody else, including the subject of +their interest, absorbed in their own affairs, he let his eyes rest +lingeringly upon her. He had had only brief glimpses of her since she +had come to town, and had seen her at such times always in the summer +street-or-garden attire which she constantly wore. Now he saw her under +conditions which vividly brought back to him other scenes. The white lace +gown she wore, with its peculiar cut, like the spreading of flower petals +about the beautifully modeled shoulders—it struck him as familiar. Had +she worn any jewels upon that white neck when he had seen her? He thought +not. He had never known her to wear ornament of any sort, he was sure. +She needed none, he was equally sure of that. As she sat, with her head +turned toward Arthur Chester, who was expounding with great elaboration +something which called for maps upon the tablecloth drawn with a rapidly +moving finger, she was showing to the observers across the table a face +and head in profile, an outline which had been burned into the memory of +the man who now regarded it and forgot to make answer.</p> + +<p>Miss Everett glanced at him curiously. Then she murmured: "Don't you +think the leaving off of all ornaments is sometimes just as much a +coquetry as the wearing of them would be? It certainly challenges notice +even more, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It depends on whether one happens to possess them, I should say," Leaver +returned.</p> + +<p>"About their drawing attention, or their absence drawing it? I suppose +so. But when you don't know which it is, but judge by the richness of the +gown that the wearer can afford them—"</p> + +<p>"I'm no judge of the richness of a gown."</p> + +<p>"I am, then. That is the most wonderful lace—anybody can see—at least +any woman."</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Miss Everett,"—Leaver made a determined effort to get away +from the personal aspect of the subject,—"why does a woman love jewels? +For their own sake, or because of their power to adorn her—if they do +adorn her?"</p> + +<p>The young woman plunged animatedly into a discussion of the topic as he +presented it. She was wearing certain striking ornaments of pearl and +turquoise, which undoubtedly became her fair colouring whether they +enhanced her beauty or not. It was while this discussion was in progress, +Leaver forcing himself to attend sufficiently to make intelligent +replies, that Charlotte Ruston suddenly turned and looked at him. He +looked straight back at her, a peculiar intentness growing in his +deep-set eyes.</p> + +<p>He did not withdraw his gaze until she had turned away again, and the +encounter had been but for the briefest space, yet when it was over John +Leaver's colour had changed a little. For the moment it was as if nobody +else had been in the room—he was only dully conscious that upon his +other side Winifred Chester was addressing him, and that he must make +reply.</p> + +<p>When the company which had spent the sultry August evening upon the porch +in the semi-darkness was near to breaking up, Leaver came to Charlotte +and took his place beside her. When she left the house he was with her, +and the two crossed the street and went in at the hedge gate together.</p> + +<p>"May I stay a very little while?" he asked. And when she assented he +added, "Shall we find the bench in your garden?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know that bench?" she questioned, surprised.</p> + +<p>"I spent many hours upon it before you came, and during the days when I +was not getting about much. I listened to the reading of two books, +lounging there. So it seems like a familiar spot to me."</p> + +<p>"It is my favourite resting place. I am sorry you were driven away by my +coming. You and Miss Mathewson would have been very welcome there, all +the rest of the summer, if I had known."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. But I have passed the invalid stage and am not being treated +as a patient. I read for myself, at present, and tramp the country, +instead of sitting on benches, anywhere. It's a great improvement."</p> + +<p>"I am very glad."</p> + +<p>Charlotte let him lead the way to the retreat under the apple-tree, and +he proved his knowledge of it by stopping now and then to hold aside +hindering branches of shrubbery, and to lift for her a certain heavily +leafed bough which drooped across the path, but which would hardly have +been discerned in the summer starlight by one not familiar with its +position.</p> + +<p>"It would be a pity to tear that gown," he remarked, as the last barrier +was passed. "It occurred to me, as I looked at you to-night, that it was +one I had seen you wear in Baltimore, last winter. Am I right?"</p> + +<p>"Last winter, and the winter before, and even the winter before that, if +you had known me so long," she answered, with a gay little laugh. "I am +so fond of it I shall not discard it until it can no longer be mended."</p> + +<p>"You are wise. I believe it is hardly the attitude of the modern woman +toward dress of any sort, but it might well be. We never tire of Nature, +though she wears the same costume season after season."</p> + +<p>"Her frocks don't fray at the edges—or when they do she turns them such +gorgeous colours that we don't notice they are getting worn."</p> + +<p>"Aren't there some rough edges on this bench? Please take this end; I +think I recall that it is smoother than the other."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. One good tear, and even Granny's needle couldn't make me +whole again."</p> + +<p>He bent over to pick up a scarf of silver gauze which had slipped from +her shoulders. He laid it about them, and as he did so she shivered +suddenly, though the air was warm, without a hint of dampness. But she +covered the involuntary movement with a shrug, saying lightly, "A man I +know says he thoroughly believes a woman is colder rather than warmer in +a scarf like this, on the theory that anything with so many holes in it +must create an infinite number of small draughts."</p> + +<p>"He may be right. But I confess, as a physician, I like to cover up +exposed surfaces from the open night air—to a certain extent—even with +an excuse for a protection like this."</p> + +<p>He sat down beside her. The bench was not a long one, and he was nearer +to her than he had yet been to-night. She sat quietly, one hand lying +motionless in her lap. The other hand, down at her side, laid hold of the +edge of the bench and gripped it rather tightly. She began to talk about +the old garden, as it lay before them, its straggling paths and beds of +flowers mere patches of shadow, dark and light. He answered, now and +then, in an absent sort of way, as if his mind were upon something else, +and he only partly heard. She spoke of "Sunny Farm"—the children's +hospital in the country—of Burns and Ellen and Bob—and then, suddenly, +with a sense of the uselessness of trying all by herself to make small +talk under conditions of growing constraint, she fell silent. He let the +silence endure for a little space, then broke it bluntly.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," he said, in the deep, quiet voice she remembered well, "that +you will give me a chance. What is the use of pretending that I have +brought you here to talk of other people? I have something to say to you, +and you know it. I can't lead up to it by any art, for it has become +merely a fact which it is your right to know. You should have known it +long ago."</p> + +<p>He stopped for a minute. She was absolutely still beside him, except for +the hand that gripped the edge of the bench. That took a fresh hold.</p> + +<p>When he spoke again, his voice, though still quiet, showed tension.</p> + +<p>"Before I saw you the last time, last spring, I meant to ask you to marry +me. When I did see you, something had happened to make that impossible. +It had not only made it impossible, but it made me unable even to +explain. I shall never forget that strange hour I spent with you. You +knew that something was the matter. But I couldn't tell you. I thought +then I never could. Seeing you, as I have to-night, I realized that I +couldn't wait another hour to tell you. But, even now, I don't feel that +I can explain. There's only one thing I am sure of—that I must say this +much: All my seeking of you, last winter, meant the full intent and +purpose to win you, if I could. And—you can never know what it meant to +me to give it up."</p> + +<p>The last words were almost below his breath, but she heard them, heard +the uncontrollable, passionate ache of them. Plainer than the words +themselves this quality in them spoke for him.</p> + +<p>For a moment there was silence between them again. Then he went on: "I +can't ask—I don't ask—a word from you in answer. Neither can I let +myself say more than I am saying. It wouldn't be fair to you, however you +might feel. And I want you to believe this—that not to say more takes +every bit of manhood I have."</p> + +<p>Silence again. Then, from the woman beside him, in the clearest, low +voice, with an inflection of deep sweetness:</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Dr. Leaver."</p> + +<p>Suddenly he turned upon the bench—he had been staring straight before +him. He bent close, looked into her shadowy face for a moment, then +found her hand, where it lay in her lap, lifted it in both his own, and +pressed it, for a long, tense moment, against his lips. She felt the +contact burn against the cool flesh, and it made intelligible all that he +would not allow himself to say, in terms which no woman could mistake.</p> + +<p>Then he sprang up from the bench.</p> + +<p>"Will you walk as far as the house with me?" he asked, gently. "Or shall +I leave you here? It is late: I don't quite like to leave you here +alone."</p> + +<p>"I will go with you," she answered, and, rising, drew her skirts about +her. He stood beside her for a moment, looking down at her white figure, +outlined against the darkness behind them. She heard him take one deep, +slow inspiration, like a swimmer who fills his lungs before plunging into +the water; she heard the quick release of the breath, followed by his +voice, saying, with an effort at naturalness:</p> + +<p>"If I had such a place as this, where I'm staying, I should be tempted to +bring out a blanket and sleep in it to-night."</p> + +<p>"One might do worse," she answered. "These branches have been so long +untrimmed that it takes a heavy shower to dampen the ground beneath."</p> + +<p>They made their way back along the straggling paths, and came to the +cottage, from whose windows streamed the lamplight that waited for +Charlotte. As it fell upon her Leaver looked at her, and stood still. +Pausing, she glanced up at him, and away again. She knew that he was +silently regarding her. Quite without seeing she knew how his face +looked, the fine face with the eyes which seemed to see so much, the firm +yet sensitive mouth, the whole virile personality held in a powerful +restraint.</p> + +<p>Then he opened the door for her, and she passed him. She looked back at +him from the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," she said, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," he answered, and gave back the smile. Then he went quickly +down the path and away.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes afterward she put out the light in the front room, and stole +out of the door, leaving it open behind her. Still in the white gown of +the evening, but with a long, dark cloak flung over it, she went swiftly +back over the paths to the garden bench. Arrived there she sat down upon +it, where she had sat before, but not as she had been. Instead, she +turned and laid her arm along the low back of the bench, and her head +upon it, and remained motionless in that position for a long time. Her +eyes were wide, in the darkness, and her lips were pressed tight +together, and once, just once, a smothered, struggling breath escaped +her. But, finally, she sat up, threw up her head, lifted both arms above +it, the hands clenched tight.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte Ruston," she whispered fiercely, "you have to be strong—and +strong—and stronger yet! You have to be! <i>You have to be!</i>"</p> + +<p>Then she rose quickly to her feet, with a motion not unlike that with +which John Leaver had sprung to his an hour before. It was a movement +which meant that emotion must yield to action. She went swiftly back to +the house, in at the door, up the straight, high stairs to her room.</p> + +<p>As she lighted her candle a voice spoke from Madam Chase's room, its door +open into her own.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Granny?"</p> + +<p>The girl went in, taking the candle, which she set upon the +dressing-table. She bent over the bed, putting her lips close to +the old lady's ear.</p> + +<p>"Can't you sleep, dear?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Not until you are in, child. Why are you so late?"</p> + +<p>"It's not late, Granny. You know I went to Dr. Burns's to dinner."</p> + +<p>"It's very late," repeated the delicate old voice, slightly querulous, +because of its owner's failure to hear the explanation. "Much too late +for a girl like you. You should have had your beauty sleep long ago."</p> + +<p>Charlotte smiled, feeling as if her twenty-six years had added another +ten to themselves since morning. She patted the soft cheek on the pillow, +and tenderly adjusted the gossamer nightcap which, after the fashion of +its wearer's youth, kept the white locks snugly in order during the +sleeping hours.</p> + +<p>"I'm here now, Granny. Please go to sleep right away. Or—would you like +a glass of milk first?"</p> + +<p>"What say?"</p> + +<p>"Milk, dear,—hot milk?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, it will put me to sleep. Quite hot, not lukewarm."</p> + +<p>Charlotte went down the steep stairs again, heated the milk, and brought +it back. When it had been taken she kissed the small face, drew the linen +sheet smooth again, and went away with the candle. In her own room she +presently lay down upon her cot, rejoicing that the old lady could not +hear its creaking.</p> + +<p>Toward morning she fell asleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>A CHALLENGE</h3> + + +<p>"Miss Ruston!"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" The answer came through the door of the dark-room. "I can't come +out for four minutes. Can you give me the message through a closed door?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," responded Amy Mathewson, standing outside. She was dressed +for motor travel and her eyes were full of anticipation. "Mr. Macauley +is taking some of us out to meet Dr. Burns at Sunny Farm. The Doctor has +telephoned from there that he would be very glad if you could come with +us, bring your camera, and take some photographs of a patient for him."</p> + +<p>"Delighted—if I can arrange for Granny," Charlotte called back.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Burns's Cynthia will stay with her."</p> + +<p>"How soon must we start?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as you can be ready."</p> + +<p>"Give me ten minutes, and I'll be there."</p> + +<p>The big brown car was waiting outside the hedge gate when, nearly as good +as her word, Charlotte ran down the path. She had pulled a long linen +coat over her blue morning dress, and a veil floated over her arm.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, you all look so correct in your bonnets and caps! Must I tie up +my head, or may I leave off the veil until my hair gets to looking wild?"</p> + +<p>"It never looked wild yet that I can recall, so jump in and go as you +please. It's too hot for caps, and I'll keep you company," responded +Macauley, from the front seat. His wife, Martha, sat beside him, swathed +in brown from head to foot. Martha had acquired a motoring costume which +she considered matched the car and was particularly smart besides, and +she seldom left off any detail, no matter how warm the day. Martha looked +around as Charlotte took her place beside Miss Mathewson on the broad +rear seat. The two swinging seats which equipped the car to carry seven +passengers were occupied by Bobby Burns and young Tom Macauley.</p> + +<p>"People who have hair like Miss Ruston can go bareheaded where the rest +of us have to tie ourselves together to keep from blowing away," observed +Martha.</p> + +<p>Her husband laughed. "I never heard you own quite so frankly before that +parts of you were detachable," said he.</p> + +<p>"They're not!" cried Martha, indignantly. "But Miss Ruston's hair is that +crisp, half curly sort that stays just where you put it, and mine is so +straight and fine that it gets stringy. It makes all the difference in +the world."</p> + +<p>The car moved off. After a minute it turned a corner and came to a +standstill before a house. Macauley sounded a penetrating horn, and after +a minute the door opened and John Leaver came out.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Doctor," called Macauley. "R.P. has been telephoning in, in the +usual fever of haste, to have us get out there. It seems the place is in +order and two patients have arrived. He wants a doctor, nurse, and +photographer on the job at once. Find a place on the back seat, there?"</p> + +<p>Leaver came quickly down the walk. He looked like a well man now, whether +he felt like a well one or not. He had gained in weight, his face had +lost its worn look, his eyes were no longer encompassed by shadows. The +sun was in his eyes as he opened the rear door and prepared to take the +one seat left in the car, that beside Charlotte Ruston, who had moved to +one side as she saw what was about to happen. Her shoulder pressed close +against that of Miss Mathewson, she left so large a space for the +newcomer.</p> + +<p>After the first exchange of small talk, it was a silent drive. Macauley +was making haste to obey the summons he had received, and the rush of air +past those in the car with him was not conducive to frequent speech. Soon +after they were off Charlotte drew her big white veil over her head and +face, and was lost to view beneath its protecting expanse. One of the +veil's fluttering ends persisted in blowing across Leaver's breast, quite +unnoticed by its owner, whose head did not often turn that way. The man +did not put it aside, but after a time he took hold of it and kept it in +his hand, secure from the domineering breeze.</p> + +<p>"Here we are! Behold Sunny Farm, the dream of Doctor and Mrs. Red Pepper, +given tangible shape. Not a bad-looking old rambling place, is it?"</p> + +<p>Macauley brought his car to rest beside the long green roadster already +there. Its occupants jumped out and strolled up the slope toward the +white farmhouse, across whose front and wing stretched long porches, on +one of which stood a steamer chair and a white iron bed, each holding a +small form. Upon the step sat Ellen Burns and a nurse in a white uniform; +by the bed stood Burns himself.</p> + +<p>Miss Mathewson's observant eyes were taking veiled note of her recent +charge as he went up the steps and approached the bed. The little patient +upon it had not lifted his head, as had the child in the chair, to see +who was at hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the little pitiful face!" breathed Charlotte Ruston in Amy's ear, as +she looked down into a pair of great black eyes, set in hollows so deep +that they seemed the chiseling of merciless pain.</p> + +<p>"This is Jamie Ferguson," said Burns, with his hand on the boy's head. +"He is very happy to be here in the sunshine, so you are not to pity him. +Come here, Bob, and tell Jamie you will play with him when he is +stronger. He knows wonderful things, does Jamie. And this is Patsy Kelly, +in the chair."</p> + +<p>There was a pleasant little scene now enacted upon the porch, in which +Bob and Tom were introduced to the small patients, and everybody looked +on while shy advances were made by the well children, to be received with +timid gravity by the sick ones. Through it all Red Pepper Burns was +furtively observing the demeanour of Dr. John Leaver.</p> + +<p>He had hardly taken his eyes from Jamie Ferguson. Into his face had come +a look his friend had not seen there since he had been with him, the look +of the expert professional man who sees before him a case which interests +him. He stood and studied the child without speaking while Bob and Tom +remained, and when the small boys, too full of activity to stay +contentedly with other boys who could not play, were off to explore +the place, Leaver drew up a chair and sat down beside the bed.</p> + +<p>Burns glanced at his wife, and gave a significant nod of his head toward +the interior of the house. Ellen rose.</p> + +<p>"Come Martha, and Charlotte," said she, "and let me show you over the +rooms. I'm so proud of the progress we have made in the fortnight since +the house was vacated for us."</p> + +<p>She led them inside. Amy Mathewson went over to the chair and Patsy +Kelly, turning her back upon the pair by the bed.</p> + +<p>"When did you come, Patsy?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"We come the morn," said Patsy, a pale little fellow of nine, with a +shock of hair so red that beside it that of Red Pepper Burns would have +looked a subdued chestnut. "In the ambilunce we come. I liked the ride, +but Jamie didn't. He was scared of bein' moved."</p> + +<p>"Jamie is not so well as you. How fine it is that you can lie in this +chair and have your head up. You can see all about. Isn't it beautiful +here?"</p> + +<p>"It is. I'm glad I come. He said I'd be glad, but I didn't believe him. I +didn't know," said Patsy Kelly, with a sigh of satisfaction. "I had mate +and pitaty for breakfast the morn," he added, and rapture shone out of +his eyes.</p> + +<p>By the side of Jamie Ferguson Dr. John Leaver was telling a story. He was +apparently telling it to Dr. Burns, who listened with great interest, but +at the same time shy Jamie Ferguson was listening too. There were curious +points in the story when the narrator turned to the boy in the bed and +inquired, smiling: "Could you do that, Jamie?" to which questions Jamie +usually replied in the negative. They were mostly questions concerning +backs and legs and hips, and the boy in the story seemed to find +difficulty in using his, too, which made Jamie feel a strong interest in +him. Altogether it was a fascinating tale. When it was over the two men +walked away together down the slope, and between them passed other +questions and answers, of a sort which Jamie could not have understood.</p> + +<p>Down by the gate Leaver came to a pause, nodding his head in a thoughtful +way. "You are quite right, I believe, both in your conclusions and in +your plan for operation. I should go ahead without further delay than is +necessary to get him into a bit better condition."</p> + +<p>"I thought you would agree with me," Burns replied. "I'm gratified that +you do. But I'm not going to operate. I've got a better man: Leaver, of +Baltimore."</p> + +<p>The other turned quickly. A strange look swept over his face.</p> + +<p>"I told you my decision about that," he said.</p> + +<p>"I know you did. But I told you some time ago about this case, and warned +you that it was your case. I haven't changed my mind."</p> + +<p>Leaver shook his head. "I haven't changed mine, either. But I didn't know +this was the case you meant. If I had I shouldn't have gone to examining +it without an invitation."</p> + +<p>"You had an invitation. That was what I got you out here this morning +for. I didn't bring you myself because I didn't want you steeling +yourself against looking into it, as you would if I had told you about it +on the way out. My plan worked all right. The minute you saw the child +your instincts and training got the better of your caution. That's what +they'll continue to do if you give them a chance. See here, you don't +mean to quit your profession and take to carpentry, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I expect to practise medicine," Leaver said, and there was a queer +setting of his lips as he said it.</p> + +<p>"Medicine! You? Jack, you couldn't do it."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I? I don't know that I could." He drew a half shuddering +breath. "But I can try, somewhere, if not in Baltimore."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to thrash you!" cried Red Pepper Burns, and he looked it. +"Standing there the picture of a healthy man and telling me you're going +to take to doling out pills and writing prescriptions.... See here. We've +put in a little surgery up there in the north wing, it's a peach of a +place. Come and see it."</p> + +<p>He led the way rapidly back up to the house, in at the door and up the +stairs. At the end of a long corridor he threw open the door of a small +room, whose whole northern side was of glass. Its equipment was as +complete as could be asked by the most exacting of operating surgeons.</p> + +<p>"Good!" Leaver cried, quite forgetting himself for the moment. "I had no +idea you meant to carry things so far as this. Fine!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it? Could you have a better place to try your hand again? Nobody +looking on but Amy Mathewson, Miss Dodge—whom you met downstairs—and +Dr. Buller—for the anesthetic. Buller's the best anesthetizer in the +state and a splendid fellow besides. Also my humble self, ready to be +your right-hand man. I promise you this,—if the least thing goes +wrong—<i>and you ask it</i>—I'll take your place without a word. Jack, the +case is one that needs you. I've never done this operation: you have. +You've written a monograph on it. It's up to you, John Leaver. I don't +dare you to do it, <i>I dare you not to do it</i>!"</p> + +<p>For the first time, in response to his arguments on this subject, Burns +got no answer but silence. But his friend's face was slowly flushing a +deep, angry red. At this sight Burns rejoiced. His theory had been that +if he could wake something in Leaver besides deep depression and sad +negation he had a chance to influence him. He believed thoroughly that if +he could force the distinguished young surgeon through one successful +operation confidence would return like an incoming tide. He had hoped +that the pathetic sight of the little malformed body of Jamie Ferguson +would arouse the passion for salvage which lies in the breast of every +man who practises the great profession; he saw that thus far his plan had +succeeded. Now to accomplish the rest.</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Leaver, turning slowly toward the other man, "I agree to +stand beside you and direct the operation?"</p> + +<p>It was Burns's turn to colour angrily, his quick temper leaping to fire +in an instant.</p> + +<p>"Not <i>much</i>! Let every tub stand on its own bottom! Either I do the +job or I don't do it; but I don't take the part of an apprentice. I'll +agree to play second fiddle to you, with you playing first. But I'll +be—condemned—if I'll play first, with a coach at my elbow. Take that +and be hanged to you!"</p> + +<p>He walked over to the open window, threw back the screen and put his +head out, as if he needed air to breathe. Leaver was at his side in an +instant.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, my dear fellow, I do sincerely. It was an unworthy +suggestion, and I don't blame you for resenting it. Nobody needs help +less than you. You could do the operation brilliantly. That's why there's +no need in the world to force me into the situation—no need—"</p> + +<p>Burns wheeled. "There <i>is</i> need! There's need for you—to save your soul +alive. You've been no coward so far—your overworked nerves played you a +trick and you've had to recover. But you have recovered, you are fit to +work again. <i>If you don't do this thing you'll be a coward forever!</i>"</p> + +<p>It bit deep, as he had known it would. If he had struck a knife into his +friend's heart he could not have caused so sharp a hurt. Leaver turned +white under this surgery of speech, and for an instant he looked as if he +would have sprung at Burns's throat. There followed sixty silent seconds +while both men stood like statues. But the merciless judgment had turned +the scale. With a control of himself which struck Burns, as he recalled +it afterward, as marvellous, Leaver answered evenly: "You shall not have +the chance to say that again. I will operate when you think best."</p> + +<p>"Thank God!" said Red Pepper Burns, under his breath.</p> + +<p>The two walked out of the little white room, with its austere and +absolute cleanliness, without another word concerning that which was to +come. Burns took his friend over the house, and Leaver looked into room +after room, approving, commending, even suggesting, quite as if nothing +had happened. And yet, after all, not quite as if nothing had happened. +He was not the same man who had come out to Sunny Farm an hour before. +Burns knew, as well as if he could have seen into Leaver's mind, the +conflict that was going on there. The thing was settled, he would not +retreat, yet there was still a fight to be fought—the biggest fight of +his life. On its issue was to depend the success or failure of the coming +test. Burns's warm heart would have led him to speak sympathetically and +encouragingly of the issue to be met; his understanding of the crisis it +precipitated kept him mute. Whatever help he was now to give his friend +must be given, not through speech but through silence, and by that +subtler means of communication between spirit and spirit which cannot be +analyzed or understood, but which may be more real than anything in life.</p> + +<p>They went downstairs, presently, and rejoined the party. Miss Ruston and +Miss Mathewson, Mr. James Macauley and his son Tom, with Bobby Burns, +were engaged in a spirited game of "puss in a corner," for the benefit of +Patsy Kelly, who lay looking on from his chair with sparkling, excited +eyes. Beside Jamie Ferguson, who could not see, Mrs. Burns sat, +describing to him the game and interpreting the shouts of laughter which +reached his ears as he lay, too flat upon his back to see what was +happening twenty feet away.</p> + +<p>Ellen looked up, as her husband approached, and something in his face +made her regard him intently. He smiled at her, his hazel eyes dark as +they often were when something had stirred him deeply, and she guessed +enough of the meaning of this aspect to keep her from looking at Dr. +Leaver until he had been for some time upon the porch.</p> + +<p>When she did observe him, he was standing, leaning against a pillar +and looking at the wan little face below her, from a point at which +Jamie could not know of his scrutiny. His back was turned upon the +game upon the grass, though the others were watching it. When it ended +Burns called Charlotte Ruston to the taking of the photographs he +wanted—snapshots of the two little patients carried into the full +sunlight. This being quickly accomplished, he announced his own immediate +departure.</p> + +<p>"Will you go back with me in the Imp, or at your leisure with the crowd +in the car?" Burns asked Leaver, in an undertone. "My wife will be glad +to go in either car; she suggested your taking your choice."</p> + +<p>"If the Macauleys will not misunderstand, I should prefer to go with +you," Leaver replied.</p> + +<p>"They won't. Two medicine-men are supposed always to wish for a chance to +hobnob, and we'll put it on that score. I really want to consult you +about Patsy's case."</p> + +<p>"Not going with us? Willing to forsake three fair ladies for one +red-headed fiend, just because you know he's going to give us his dust? +I like that!" cried Macauley, who could be trusted never to make things +easy for his friends.</p> + +<p>"Abuse him as you like. He's off with me at my request," called Burns, +pulling out into the road and turning with a sweep.</p> + +<p>Martha Macauley looked after the Green Imp's rapidly lessening shape +through the dust-cloud which it left behind. "I never thought till to-day +that Dr. Leaver seemed the least bit like a noted surgeon," said she, as +they waited for Macauley to get his car underway. "I could never imagine +his acting like Red, and rushing enthusiastically from bedside to +operating-room, pushing everything out of his way to make time to cut +somebody to pieces and sew him up again, for his ultimate good. But +to-day somehow, he seemed more—what would you call it—professional?"</p> + +<p>"That's the word," her husband agreed. "It's the word they juggle with. +If a thing's 'professional,' it's all right. If it's not, it may as well +be condemned to outer darkness at once."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>A CRISIS</h3> + + +<p>"Little wife?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Redfield Pepper—"</p> + +<p>"I'm as nervous as a cat up a tree with a couple of dogs at the foot!"</p> + +<p>"Why, Red, I never heard you talk of being nervous! What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"An operation to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"But you never are 'nervous,' dear."</p> + +<p>"I am now."</p> + +<p>"Is it such a critical one?"</p> + +<p>"The most critical I ever faced."</p> + +<p>Ellen looked at her husband, or tried to look, for they were moving +slowly along the street, at a late hour, Burns having suggested a short +walk before bedtime. It was quite dark, and Ellen could judge only by her +husband's voice that he spoke with entire soberness.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell me anything about it?" she suggested, knowing that relief +from tension sometimes comes with speech. Any confession of nervousness +from Red Pepper Burns seemed to her most extraordinary. She knew that he +often worked under tremendous tension, but he had never before admitted +shakiness of nerve.</p> + +<p>"Not much, if anything at all. It's a particularly private affair, for +the present. It's a queer operation, too. I may not handle a knife, tie +an artery, or stitch up a wound—may do less than I ever did in my life +on such an occasion, yet—I'll be hanged if I'm not feeling as owly about +it as if it were the first time I ever expected to see blood."</p> + +<p>Ellen put her hand on his arm, slipped it into the curve, and kept it +there, while he held it pressed close against him. "Red, have you been +working too hard lately?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. I'm fit as a fiddler. Don't worry, love. I've no business +to talk riddles to you, of all people. But for a peculiar reason I'm +horribly anxious about the outcome of to-morrow's experiment, and had +to work it off somehow. Just promise me that when you say your prayers +to-night you'll ask the good God not to let me be mistaken in forcing a +situation I may not be able to control."</p> + +<p>"I will," Ellen promised, with all her heart, for she saw that, whatever +the crisis might be, it was one to which her usually daring husband was +looking forward with most uncharacteristic dread.</p> + +<p>She was conscious that Burns spent a restless night. At daybreak he was +up and out of the house. Before he went, however, he bent over her and +kissed her with great tenderness, murmuring, "A prayer or two more, +darling, won't hurt anything, when you are awake enough. I've particular +faith in your petitions."</p> + +<p>She held him with both arms.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Red. It isn't like you. You will succeed, if it is to be."</p> + +<p>"It's got to be," he said between his teeth, as he left her.</p> + +<p>He swallowed a cup of Cynthia's hot coffee—bespoken the night before, +as on many similar occasions—and ran out to his car just as the slow +September sunrise broke into the eastern sky. In two minutes more he +was off in the Imp, flying out the road to Sunny Farm.</p> + +<p>Arrived there he astonished Miss Dodge, the nurse in charge, who was not +accustomed to Dr. Burns's ways. He had left the small patient, Jamie +Ferguson, the night before, entirely satisfied with his condition for +undergoing the operation set for nine o'clock this morning. He now went +once more painstakingly over every detail of the preparation he had +ordered, making sure for himself that nothing had been omitted.</p> + +<p>Then he called for Miss Mathewson, who had spent the night at the Farm. +She was to assist Leaver as she was accustomed to assist Burns. He took +her off by herself and addressed her solemnly, more solemnly than he had +ever done.</p> + +<p>"Amy, if you ever had your wits on call, have them this morning. In all +my life I never cared more how things went at a time like this. I care +so much I'd give about all I own to know this minute that the thing would +go through."</p> + +<p>"Why, Dr. Burns," said she, in astonishment, "it should go through. It is +a critical operation, of course, but the boy seems in very fair shape for +it, and Dr. Leaver has done it before. Dr. Leaver is quite well now—"</p> + +<p>"I know, I know. Feel of that!"</p> + +<p>He touched her hand with his own, which was icy cold. She started, and +looked anxiously at him.</p> + +<p>"Doctor, you can't be well! This isn't you—to be so—nervous! Why, think +of all the operations you've done, and never a sign of minding. And this +isn't even your responsibility—it's Dr. Leaver's."</p> + +<p>"That's right, scold me," said he, trying to laugh. "It's what I need. +I'm showing the white feather, a hatful of them. But you're mistaken +about one thing. It <i>is</i> my responsibility, every detail of it. Don't +forget that. If the case goes wrong, it's my fault, not Dr. Leaver's."</p> + +<p>Then he walked away, leaving Miss Mathewson utterly dumbfounded. She +understood perfectly that Dr. John Leaver had suffered a severe breakdown +from overwork, and that this was his first test since his recovery. But +she knew nothing of the peculiar circumstances of his last appearance in +an operating-room, and could therefore have no possible notion of the +crisis this morning's work was to be to him. She did know enough, +however, to be deeply interested in the outcome, and she watched the +Green Imp flying down the road toward home with the sense that when it +returned it would bear two surgeons for whom she must do the best work +of support in her life.</p> + +<p>"Ready, Jack?"</p> + +<p>"Ready."</p> + +<p>John Leaver took the seat beside Burns, giving the outstretched hand a +strong grip. He carried no hand-bag, there was no sign of his profession +about him. He had sent to Baltimore for his own instruments, but they +were waiting for him in the little operating-room at Sunny Farm, having +been through every rite practised by modern surgery.</p> + +<p>The car set off.</p> + +<p>"It's a magnificent morning," said Red Pepper Burns.</p> + +<p>"Ideal."</p> + +<p>"September's the best month in the year, to my fancy."</p> + +<p>"A crisp October rivals it, to my notion."</p> + +<p>"Not bad. There's a touch of frost in the air this morning."</p> + +<p>"Quite a touch."</p> + +<p>The car sped on. The men were silent. His one glance at his friend's face +had showed Burns that Leaver had, apparently, his old quiet command of +himself. But this, though reassuring, he knew could not be trusted as an +absolute indication of control within. For himself, he had never been +so profoundly excited in his life. He found himself wondering how he was +going to stand and look on, unemployed, yet ready, at a sign, to take the +helm. He felt as if that moment, if it should come, would find him as +unnerved as the man he must help. Yet, with all his heart and will, he +was silently assuring himself that all would go well—must go well. He +must not even fear failure, think failure, imagine failure. Strong +confidence on his own part, he fully believed, would be definite, if +intangible, assistance to his friend....</p> + +<p>Rounding a curve in the road, the white outlines of Sunny Farm house +stood out clearly against the background of near green fields, and +distant purple hills.</p> + +<p>"House gets the sun in great shape mornings," observed Burns.</p> + +<p>"The location couldn't be better," responded Leaver's quiet voice.</p> + +<p>The car swung into the yard. The two men got out, crossed the sward, and +stood upon the porch. Miss Mathewson met them at the door, her face +bright, her eyes clear, only a little flush on either cheek betraying +to Burns that she shared his tension.</p> + +<p>"Jamie seems in the best of condition," said she.</p> + +<p>"That's good—that's good," Burns answered, as if he had not made sure of +the fact for himself within the hour.</p> + +<p>"I will go in and see him a minute," Leaver said, and disappeared into +Jamie Ferguson's room.</p> + +<p>Outside Burns walked up and down the corridor, waiting, in a restlessness +upon which he suddenly laid a stern decree. He stopped short and forced +himself to stand still.</p> + +<p>"You idiot," he savagely addressed himself, "you act like a fool medical +student detailed to give an anesthetic at a noted surgeon's clinic for +the first time. Cut it, and behave yourself."</p> + +<p>After which he was guilty of no more outward perturbation, and, +naturally, of somewhat less inner turmoil.</p> + +<p>"Satisfied?" he asked of Leaver, as the other came out of Jamie's room.</p> + +<p>Leaver nodded. "Rather better than I had hoped. He's a plucky little +chap."</p> + +<p>"You're right, he is."</p> + +<p>The two went up to the dressing-room. Half an hour later, clad in +white from head to foot, arms bare and gleaming, hands gloved, +allowing assistants to open and close doors for them lest the slightest +contamination affect their rigid cleanliness, they came into the +operating-room. For the moment they were left alone there, while the +nurses went to summon the bearer of the little patient. It was the +moment Burns had dreaded, the stillness before action which most tries +the spirit at any crisis.</p> + +<p>He could not help giving one quick glance at his friend before he turned +away to look out of the window with eyes which saw nothing outside it. +In that instant's glance he thought the old Leaver stood before him, +cool, collected, armed to the teeth, as it were, for the fight, and +looking forward to it with eagerness. There had been possibly a slight +pallor upon his face, as Miss Dodge had adjusted his mask of gauze, but, +as Burns recalled it, this was a common matter with many surgeons, and it +might easily have been characteristic of Leaver himself, even though +Burns had not remembered it. His own heart was thumping heavily in his +breast, as it had never thumped when he had been the chief actor in the +coming scene.</p> + +<p>"Lord, make him go through all right," he was praying, almost +unconsciously, while he eyed the September landscape unseeingly, and +listened for the sound of the stretcher bearers....</p> + +<p>As they came in at the door Burns turned, and saw, or thought he saw, +Leaver draw one deep, long breath. Then, in a minute or so, the fight was +on. He remembered, of old, that there was never much delay after the +distinguished surgeon saw his patient before him, had assured himself +that all was well with the working of the anesthetic, and had taken +up his first instrument....</p> + +<p>Swift and sure moved Leaver's hands, obeying the swift, sure working of +his brain. There was not a moment's indecision. More than one moment of +deliberation there was, but Burns, watching, knew as well as if his +friend had been a part of himself that the brief pauses in his work were +a part of the work itself, and meant that as his task unfolded before him +he stopped to weigh feasible courses, choosing with unerring judgment the +better of two possible alternatives, and proceeding with the confidence +essential to the unfaltering touch. As Burns beheld the process pass the +point of greatest danger and approach conclusion, he felt somewhat as a +man may who, unable to help, watches a swimmer breasting tremendous seas, +and sees him win past the last smother of breakers and make his way into +calmer waters. He was conscious that he himself had been breathing +shallowly as he watched, and now drew several deep inspirations +of relief.</p> + +<p>"By George, that was the gamest thing I ever saw," thought Burns, +exultingly. "He hasn't shown the slightest sign of flinching. And Amy +Mathewson—she's played up to every move like a little second brain of +his."</p> + +<p>He looked at the small clock on a shelf of the surgery, and his head +swam. "He's outdone himself," he nearly cried aloud. "This will stand +beside anything he's ever done. If he'd been slower than usual it would +have been only natural, after this interval, but he's been faster. Oh, +but I'm glad—glad!"</p> + +<p>The event was over. Both Leaver and Burns, no longer under the necessity +of avoiding contact with things unsterilized, felt the small patient's +pulse and nodded at each other. The assistants bore Jamie Ferguson's +little inert body away, Miss Dodge attending.</p> + +<p>Dr. Leaver turned to Miss Mathewson. He drew off the masking gauze from +his head, showing a flushed, moist face and eyes a little bloodshot. But +his voice was as quiet as ever as he said:</p> + +<p>"I've never had finer assistance from any one, Miss Mathewson. If you had +been trained to work opposite me you couldn't have done better."</p> + +<p>"You work much like Dr. Burns," she said, modestly. "That made it easy."</p> + +<p>Burns burst into a smothered laugh. "That's the biggest compliment I've +had for a good while," said he.</p> + +<p>As they dressed, neither man said much. But when coats were on, and the +two were ready to go to Jamie's room, they turned each to the other.</p> + +<p>"Well, old man?" Burns was smiling like the sunshine itself into his +friend's eyes. "I think I never was so happy in my life."</p> + +<p>"I know you're happy," said the other man. "I don't believe I'll trust +myself yet to tell you what I am."</p> + +<p>"Don't try. We won't talk it over just yet. But I've got to say this, +Jack: You never did a more masterly job in your life."</p> + +<p>Leaver smiled—and shivered. "I'm glad it's over," said he.</p> + +<p>They went down to Jamie's room, and there, on either side of the high +hospital cot, watched consciousness returning. With consciousness +presently came pain.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to stay with him," Leaver announced, by and by. Jamie's +little, wasted hand was fast in his, Jamie's eyes, when they rested +anywhere with intelligence, rested on his face—a face tender and +pitiful.</p> + +<p>"Good for you. I shall feel easier about him if you do," and Burns went +away with the feeling that this course would be as good for the surgeon +as for the patient.</p> + +<p>He stopped in the lower hall to telephone Ellen.</p> + +<p>"All safely over, dear," he said. "The patient doing well so far, and no +reason why he shouldn't continue, as far as we can see."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad, Red," came back the joyous reply, and Burns responded:</p> + +<p>"That goes without saying, partner. I'll tell you a lot more about it, +now, when I get back."</p> + +<p>The Green Imp went back at a furious pace. Half-way home, however, as it +neared a figure walking by the roadside, it suddenly slowed down.</p> + +<p>"Will you ride home, Miss Photographer?" Burns called. "Or do you prefer +trudging all the way back with that camera and tripod?"</p> + +<p>"I'm delighted to ride, Dr. Burns," replied Charlotte Ruston. +"Captivating roadside views enticed me much farther than I intended, +and the camera weighs twice what it did when I started."</p> + +<p>"Jump in, then, and let me give you a piece of good news I'm bursting +with," and Burns held out his hand for the camera. "You're getting a +beautiful sunburn on that right cheek," he commented.</p> + +<p>"I'll burn the left to match it, if you won't drive too fast. You'll have +to go a little slower while you talk. I've noticed you're always silent +when you're scorching along the road."</p> + +<p>"So I am, I believe. Well, I'm not going to be silent now. I've just come +from seeing Jamie Ferguson put on the road to future health and +happiness, the good Lord willing—and I've a notion He is."</p> + +<p>"Jamie—the little cripple who lies on his back?"</p> + +<p>"The same. He'll lie on his back some time longer and then, I think, +he'll get up."</p> + +<p>"You operated on him to-day? How glad I am!"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't operate. It took a better man than I. I've never done +this particular stunt, and Jamie was not a patient for experiment. Jack +Leaver did the trick, and a finished trick it was, too. I'm so full of +enthusiasm over his performance that I'm bursting with it, as I warned +you."</p> + +<p>Charlotte Ruston had turned suddenly to face him. As he looked at her, +with this announcement, he had a view of lovely, startled eyes.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked, wondering. He had to look ahead at the +road, but he cut down on the Imp's speed, so that he could spare a glance +at his companion again. "You look as if I'd given you bad news instead of +good."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!—oh, no!" she said, in odd, short breaths. "It's +great—wonderful! Poor little fellow! I'm very glad. You said—Dr. +Leaver did it? I was simply—surprised."</p> + +<p>"Did it brilliantly. But there's no occasion for surprise about that. +Having been in Baltimore as much as you have, you must know his position +there. There's nobody with a bigger reputation."</p> + +<p>"But I thought he had been—ill?"</p> + +<p>"Tired out. Small wonder, at the pace he was going—the working pace, I +mean. He never let up on himself. I got him here to rest up. He would +have been off long ago if I would have given him leave, but I had his +promise to keep away from work till he was thoroughly fit for it, so I've +made the most of my chance. I shall never get another. If I know him +he'll be back in his office before the week ends. Once give a chap like +him a taste of work after idleness, and there's no use trying to hold +him."</p> + +<p>"You think him fully fit, now?"</p> + +<p>"Never so fit in his life, if I'm any judge. I've seen him at work many +a time, and I never saw finer methods than his to-day, his own or any +man's—and I've watched some pretty smooth things. By the way, I +understand you had met Dr. Leaver before you met him here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had met him."</p> + +<p>Burns was not possessed of more than the ordinary amount of curiosity +concerning other people's affairs, but he was accustomed to observe human +nature and note its signs, and it struck him now rather suddenly that +both John Leaver and Charlotte Ruston had seemed rather more than +necessarily non-committal concerning an acquaintance which both admitted. +He saw no reason why he should not ask a question or two. Asking +questions was a part of his profession.</p> + +<p>"I hope you've managed to coax him before your camera. He's looking so +well now, I'd like a picture of him before he goes back and works himself +down again."</p> + +<p>"You might suggest it to him," said Miss Ruston. She was looking straight +ahead. She wore a hat of white linen, of a picturesque shape, such as are +in vogue in the country in warm weather, and it drooped more or less +about her face. Burns could not see her eyes when she looked forward, +but he could see her mouth. It was an expressive mouth, and it looked +particularly expressive just now. The trouble was that he could not tell +just what it expressed.</p> + +<p>"I'll do it, this afternoon, and keep it as a reminder of a patient of +whom I think a heap. No, I can't do it this afternoon, either, for he +won't leave Jamie till he can leave him comfortably over the first stage. +But by to-morrow afternoon, perhaps. We'll have to catch him on the fly, +for I'm confident he'll be off the minute the youngster is out of danger. +Well, I hope you know my friend well enough to appreciate that he's about +the finest there is anywhere?"</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning to know <i>you</i> well enough, Dr. Burns, to see that you care +more to have your friends appreciated than to win praise yourself."</p> + +<p>"No, no—oh, Cesar, no! I've not reached such a sublime height of +altruism as that. To tell you the honest truth—which is supposed to be +good for the soul—I'm horribly envious of Jack Leaver for having done +that stunt this morning."</p> + +<p>"Envious? Of course you are. At the same time would you have taken it +away from him and have done it yourself, if you had had the chance?"</p> + +<p>"Trust a woman to confront a man with the unthinkable, and then expect +him to take credit for not having been guilty of it! Would I have +snatched a juicy bone away from a starving lion? That's what Leaver has +been all these months. It's what any man gets to be when his job is taken +away from him and he doesn't know when he will get another. No—at the +same time that I'm envious I'm genuinely happy that the lion got his +bone. He needed it. It's going to make a well lion of him; he is one now. +You're glad, too, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>He gave her one of his quick, discerning glances.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am." She spoke quite heartily enough to satisfy him.</p> + +<p>"Good! Then, if I can wheedle him before the camera, you'll be interested +in making a picture of him that Ellen and I shall want to frame and look +at every day?"</p> + +<p>"I will give you my amateur's best, certainly, Dr. Burns."</p> + +<p>"Prunes and prisms!" he exclaimed, and broke into a laugh. "I didn't +expect that, from a girl like you. I should have expected you to—well, +never mind. I was on the verge of being impertinent, I'm afraid. Forgive +me, will you, for what I might have said? I'll bring him over at the +first opportunity."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>BEFORE THE LENS</h3> + + +<p>"Red, this is certainly the unkindest cut of all! I haven't minded your +other prescriptions, but to insist on giving a well man the worst dose +of his experience to take—"</p> + +<p>"Stuff and nonsense! A bad prescription—to go across the street and let +the prettiest photographer in the United States take a sun picture of +you before you leave town? Besides, you owe it to us. I haven't the +smallest kind of a likeness of you. I want a nice big one, to use in my +advertisements. I only wish I had a picture of you 'as you were,' to +put beside the 'as you are.' It would be telling. 'The great Burns's +greatest cure. The celebrated Leaver of Baltimore as he was when Burns +finished with him.' I'll send you a dozen copies of the paper."</p> + +<p>"Please, Dr. Leaver." Mrs. Red Pepper Burns added her plea. "Red really +wants it very much, and so do I. You admit you have no photograph to send +us, and we know quite well you won't go and have one made by Mr. Brant, +as you should. So please let Miss Ruston try her art. We think you owe it +to us."</p> + +<p>Leaver looked at her, and his determined lips relaxed into a smile. +"I admit that argument tells, Mrs. Burns," he said. "I suppose it is +ungracious of me, but, to tell the truth, I've always preferred to be +able to say I had no portraits of myself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," Burns broke in. "We're not considering, Ellen, the urgent +demands for a popular bachelor surgeon's photograph. It's precisely like +Jack not to hand them out to the ladies, or to the newspaper men. All +right, old chap. Give us what we want and we'll have the plate smashed. +Now will you be good? Come, let's go over. If you really mean to leave +to-night this is our last chance."</p> + +<p>The two men crossed the street, in the mellow September sunshine. Burns +preceded Leaver and knocked at the door.</p> + +<p>"Will you take a shot at my friend before he goes?" Burns asked +Charlotte. "He hates standing up to be shot at, but I have him primed +for the ordeal."</p> + +<p>"Must it be a shot, or may I make a portrait?" asked the photographer, in +her professional manner.</p> + +<p>"I want a portrait," replied Burns, promptly. "Your best indoor +work—Brant and the Misses Kendall put on their mettle to rival it."</p> + +<p>While Charlotte was absent, making ready her plates, her visitors waited +in the little living-room and looked about it. Its walls were now +possessed of many interesting photographs of people in the village, +among them several of Burns himself, at which he gazed with a quizzical +expression.</p> + +<p>"She certainly succeeds in making a hero of me, doesn't she?" he +observed. "Red hair turns dusky before the camera, luckily for me. I look +as if there wasn't much of anything I couldn't do, including playing +leading man in a melodrama—eh?"</p> + +<p>"She has caught the personality, cleverly enough," Leaver commented, +looking over Burns's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I rather think, though," mused Burns, "that I don't look so much as if +there wasn't anything I couldn't do as that I thought there wasn't. +There's a difference, Jack,—eh? Do I really seem as ready to bounce out +of my chair and tackle somebody as that picture makes me look? If I do I +need to have a tourniquet applied somewhere about my neck to stop the +flow of blood to my bumptious head."</p> + +<p>Smiling, Leaver studied the photograph in question. "It's the best I ever +saw of you. It's precisely that air of being all there and ready for +action which is your most endearing characteristic. It is the quality +which made me willing to put myself in your hands last April."</p> + +<p>"Much obliged. But you didn't put yourself in my hands. I laid hands +on you and tied you down. I couldn't do it now, though," and Burns +turned to survey his friend with satisfaction. "You are in elegant trim, +if I do say it who shouldn't, and that's why I want a picture of my +handiwork—and Nature's. It's just possible that Nature deserves some +credit, not to mention Amy Mathewson. By the way, she's another who must +have this portrait of you, my boy."</p> + +<p>"She certainly shall, if she cares for it," admitted Leaver, gravely. +"I'm very willing to remind her how much I owe her, in that and better +ways."</p> + +<p>Charlotte appeared. As she set about her work Bob came racing over the +lawn and in at the open door.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Red, somebody wants you right away quick!" he announced.</p> + +<p>"Just my luck! I wanted to help pose the picture," grumbled Burns, but +went off, the boy on his shoulder shouting with delight.</p> + +<p>The photographer, in the plain dress of dull blue, which, artist-wise, +she had chosen as her professional garb, and in which she herself made a +picture to be observed with enjoyment, moved deftly about the room +arranging her lights and shadows. This done, she turned to her sitter. +When she came in he had been standing before a set of prints upon the +wall, studying them critically, but from the moment of her entrance he +had been watching her, though he held a photograph in his hand with which +he might have seemed to be engaged.</p> + +<p>"Ready?" she asked, smiling. "Or, rather, as ready as you ever will be?"</p> + +<p>"Does my reluctance show as plainly as that? But I am quite ready now to +do your bidding."</p> + +<p>"Sit down in that chair, please. But first—I really can't wait longer to +ask you—how is Jamie Ferguson?"</p> + +<p>"Doing finely." His face lighted with pleasure at the thought.</p> + +<p>"Will he have the full use of his poor little legs?"</p> + +<p>"It is too soon to say positively. We hope quite confidently for that +result. He shows better powers of recuperation than we dared expect."</p> + +<p>"Yesterday," said Charlotte, her hand on a certain bulb out of sight, +"Miss Mathewson told me something Jamie had said. It was the most +extraordinary thing—"</p> + +<p>She related the incident, in which the lad had shyly praised both +Leaver and Burns as seeming to him like big brothers. She told it with +animation, her watchful eyes on her sitter's face. At a certain point, +just before the climax of the story, she gave the bulb a long, slow +pressure; then, ending, she remarked:</p> + +<p>"Now, if you are ready, Dr. Leaver."</p> + +<p>His face immediately grew grave, lost its expression of interested +attention, and set in lines of resignation. She went through a number of +motions and announced that the sitting was over.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so bad, was it?" she questioned, gayly, as she removed the +plate she had used. "I'm not even going to try again. I've discovered +that it's not always best to repeat an attempt, and when you are pretty +sure you have what you want, it doesn't pay."</p> + +<p>"Thank you for making the operation so nearly painless. I haven't had +a photograph taken since I was a medical student, and I wasn't prepared +for so short a trial. But, even so, I felt the desperateness of the +situation. Doubtless that will show plainly in the final result."</p> + +<p>"Mine is a discreet camera, and doesn't tell all it sees, so it is +possible it may keep your reluctance disguised."</p> + +<p>She took away the plate, left him for a few minutes alone among the +photographs, and returned.</p> + +<p>"It is quite all right, I think, Dr. Leaver," she said, "and the agony is +over. You are leaving town to-day?"</p> + +<p>He rose. "I go to-night. I should have come to say good-bye, in any case, +but, as I go out to Sunny Farm for one more look at the boy, I must be +off. So—I'll make this the good-bye."</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll have the busiest, happiest sort of winter," she said, in +the charming, friendly way which was naturally her own. "So busy and so +happy you'll forget this long, trying time of waiting to be well. Surely, +the rest—and Dr. Burns—have done the work. When you see the portrait +I hope it will show you, better than looking at yourself in any mirror, +what good has been done."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. I know a great change has been wrought, somehow, thanks to a +man who insisted on having his own way when I didn't want to let him. You +expect to stay in this cottage all winter?"</p> + +<p>"All winter, and all spring. Imagine us by a splendid fire in this good +fireplace."</p> + +<p>"I hope it won't smoke on windy days." Leaver looked doubtfully at it. +"It strikes me as better photographic material than as practical defence +against the cold."</p> + +<p>"I shall demonstrate that it is entirely practical. And Granny's little +feet will seldom touch the floor. I have a beautiful foot-warmer for her, +which will keep her snug as comfort."</p> + +<p>"I know you have a strong courage, and will face any discomfort bravely."</p> + +<p>His eyes were dwelling upon her face, noting each outline, as if he meant +to take the memory of it with him.</p> + +<p>"All the courage in the world. What would life be without it? With it, +one can do anything."</p> + +<p>"I believe you." He was silent for a moment, still looking at her +intently. "I wonder," he said then, "if you would be willing to give me +something I very much want. I have no right to ask it, and yet, for the +sake of many pleasant hours we have spent together—that's a tame phrase +for me to use of them, from my standpoint—for their sake would you be +willing to let me have—a picture of yourself? I promise you it shall be +seen by no one but myself. It would mean a good deal to me. Yet, if you +are not entirely willing, I won't ask it."</p> + +<p>He spoke in the quietest, grave way. After a moment's hesitation she +answered him as quietly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why I should mind, Dr. Leaver, and yet, somehow, I find +I do. Will you believe it's not because I don't want to please you?"</p> + +<p>His face showed, in spite of him, that the denial hurt him. He held out +his hand.</p> + +<p>"You are quite right to be frank. Shall we say good-bye? All kinds of +success to you this winter—and always."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Dr. Leaver. I give you back the wish."</p> + +<p>They shook hands, the two faces smiling at each other. Then he went +quickly away. Looking after him she saw that he carried his hat in his +hand until he had reached the gate in the hedge. He closed the gate +without a backward glance, and in a minute more was out of sight.</p> + +<p>She went into her dark-room and examined again the plate she had just +developed. Holding it in a certain light, against darkness, she was able +to obtain a faint view of the picture as it would be in the print. +Unquestionably she had made a lifelike and extraordinarily attractive +portrait of a man of distinguished features, caught at a moment when he +had had no notion that the thing was happening. She studied it long and +attentively.</p> + +<p>"It would have been better if I hadn't made it," she said slowly to +herself. "For now I shall have it to look at, and I shall have to look at +it. I'm not strong enough—not strong enough—I don't <i>want</i> to be strong +enough—to forego that!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After nightfall, on that September evening, Leaver took his departure. +Burns was to convey him in the Imp to the city station, because his +train did not stop in the suburban village. For a half-hour before his +going Burns's porch was full, the Macauleys and the Chesters having come +over to do Dr. Leaver honour. They found less chance for talking with him +than they might have done if he had not gone off with Miss Mathewson for +a short walk.</p> + +<p>"Something in it, possibly, do you think?" James Macauley asked, in an +aside, of Mrs. Burns. "Miss Mathewson certainly has developed a lot of +good looks this summer that I, for one, never suspected her of before. +Whether she could interest a man like him I don't know and can't guess. +He's no ordinary man. I didn't like him much at first, but as he's +improved in health he's shown up for what he is, and I can understand +Red's interest in getting him on his feet again. He's certainly on 'em +now. That was a great stunt he did for the little chap, according to Red. +Looks a bit suggestive of interest, his going off with Miss Amy for a +walk, at the last minute, don't you think? Still, I can't imagine any +man's looking in that direction when there's what there is across the +street. He hasn't shown any signs of life, there, has he?"</p> + +<p>"Jimmy, you're a sad gossip. If I knew all these people's affairs, or if +I knew none of them, I shouldn't discuss them with you. But I'm quite +willing to agree with you that both Amy and Charlotte are delightful, +each in her way."</p> + +<p>"Never did get any satisfaction out of you," grumbled James Macauley, +good humouredly. "I didn't suppose women had such a fine sense of honour +when it came to talking over other women."</p> + +<p>"Then it's time you found it out."</p> + +<p>"What's this? Ellen giving you hot shot?" Burns came up, watch in +hand. "It's time those people were back. They've probably fallen into +a discussion of surgical methods, and forgotten the time."</p> + +<p>The missing pair presently appeared. James Macauley looked curiously at +them, but could detect no sign of sentiment about them. Indeed, as they +came up the walk Leaver's voice was heard saying in a most matter-of-fact +way:</p> + +<p>"I'll send you a reprint on that subject. You'll find the German notion +has completely changed—completely. Nothing has happened in a long time +that so marks advance in research along those lines."</p> + +<p>"He's safe," the observer whispered to Mrs. Burns. "No fun to be had out +of that. Unless—he was clever enough to change his line when he came +within earshot. It has been done, you know. I've done it myself, though I +never jumped to German reprints as a safety station. But, you can usually +tell by the woman. She looks as if she had merely been out for a nice +walk. Not a hair out of place, no high colour, no—"</p> + +<p>Ellen moved away from him. She was conscious that she, too, had been +noting signs, but she would not join him further in discussing them.</p> + +<p>"I am not good at farewell speeches," said John Leaver, holding Ellen's +hand in both his own, when he had taken leave of every one else. "I only +hope I can show you, somehow, how I feel about what you and your husband +have done for me. I tried to tell Miss Mathewson something of the same +thing, but she wouldn't have it, which was fortunate, for the words stuck +in my throat."</p> + +<p>Burns took him away. "If they hadn't, you'd have missed your train. We've +got to make time, now."</p> + +<p>As he took his place in the Green Imp Leaver looked across the street at +the cottage back among the trees. Its windows were quite dark, although +the hour was barely ten o'clock. Burns looked over, too.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he said, as they moved away, "why wasn't Miss Ruston among +the crowd assembled to see you off? As an acquaintance of yours in +Baltimore she ought to join in the send-off back to that town."</p> + +<p>"She gave me her good wishes this afternoon, after taking the photograph. +Red, speaking of Baltimore, when are you coming down?"</p> + +<p>"When I get a card saying you are holding a clinic on a subject I'm +anxious to see demonstrated."</p> + +<p>"Do you expect me to go to holding clinics?"</p> + +<p>"Surest thing in the world. You can't keep out of them."</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose the men who saw my breakdown will be eager to welcome me +back?"</p> + +<p>"No question of it. Good Lord, man, you're not the first nor the +ten-thousandth man who has broken down from overwork. Because my axe +becomes dull I'm not going to refuse to use it when it comes back from +the grindstone with a brighter edge than ever on it, am I? Wait till you +see your reception. Some of those fellows have been making a lot of +mistakes in your absence—have been trying to do things too big for them. +They'll be only too glad to turn some of their stunts over to you. And +the big ones, who are your friends, will rejoice at sight of you. Of +course you have rivals; you don't expect them to welcome you with open +arms. They'll be sorry to see you back. Let them be sorry, and be hanged +to them! Go in and show them that they're the ones who need a rest now, +and that you'll take care of their work in their absence."</p> + +<p>Leaver laughed. "Red, there's nobody just like you," he said.</p> + +<p>"That's lucky. Too many explosives aren't safe to have around. I know, +and have known all along, Jack, that it's been like a cat lecturing a +king, my advice to you. A better simile would be the old one of the mouse +gnawing the lion out of the net. If I've done anything for you, that's +what I've done."</p> + +<p>Leaver turned in his seat. "Red," said he—and his voice had a deep ring +in it as he spoke—"you're about the biggest sized mouse I ever saw. I +want to tell you this: Since I've been watching your work up here I've +conceived a tremendous admiration for your standards. There are none +finer, anywhere. I've come to feel that you couldn't do anything bigger +or better in the largest place you could find. Indeed, this, for you, is +the largest place, for you fill it as another man couldn't."</p> + +<p>"The frog, in the marsh, where he lived, was king," Burns quoted, in an +effort at lightness, for he was deeply touched.</p> + +<p>"That's not the sort of king you are. You would be king anywhere. But +you're willing to rule over a kingdom that may look small to some, but +looks big as an empire to me, now that I understand. I've reached this +point: I am almost—and sometime I expect to be entirely—glad that the +thing happened to me which brought me here to you. You have done more for +me than any man ever did. And there's one thing I think I owe to you to +tell you. The greatest thing I've learned from you, though you haven't +said much about it, is faith in the God above us. I'd about let go of +that when I came here. Thanks to you, I've got hold of it again, and I +mean never to let go. No man can afford to let go of that—permanently."</p> + +<p>Burns was silent for a moment, in answer to this most unexpected tribute, +silent because he could find no words. When he did speak there was a +trace of huskiness in his voice. "I'm mighty glad to know that, Jack," he +said simply.</p> + +<p>Then, presently, for they had flown fast over the smooth road, they +were entering the city limits, traversing a crowded thoroughfare, and +approaching the great station on whose tower the illuminated face of the +clock warned them there was little time to spare. Arrived there, every +moment was consumed in a rush for tickets and in checking baggage. +Leaver secured his sleeper reservation with some difficulty, owing to a +misunderstanding in the telegram engaging it, and at the last the two men +had to run for the train. At the gate there was only space for a hasty +grip of two warm hands, a smile of understanding and affection, and an +exchange of arm-wavings at a distance as Leaver reached his car, already +on the verge of moving out.</p> + +<p>As Burns drove away he was feeling a sense of loneliness as unpleasant as +it was unexpected, and found himself longing to get back to a certain +pair of arms whose hold was a panacea for every ache.</p> + +<p>"He thinks he owes it all to me," he was saying by and by, when this +desirable condition had been fulfilled. "But maybe I don't owe something +to him. If the sight of a plucky fight for self-control is a bracing +tonic to any man I've had one in watching him. I never saw a finer +display of will against heavy odds. Another man in the shape he was in +last spring would have gone under."</p> + +<p>"It would be pretty difficult, I think, dear," said his wife, softly +touching his thick locks, as his head lay on her lap, "for any man to go +under with you pulling him out."</p> + +<p>"I didn't pull him out. No man in creation can pull another out, no +matter how strong his effort. The chap that's in the current has got to +do every last ounce of the pulling himself. I don't say God can't help, +for I'm positive He can, but I don't think a man can do much. And it's my +belief that even God helps chiefly through making the man realize that he +can help himself."</p> + +<p>"For which office he sometimes appoints a man as his human instrument, +doesn't he?"</p> + +<p>Burns turned his head and touched his lips to the hand which had laid +itself against his cheek.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, when he can't find a woman. As a power conductor she is the +only, original, copper wire!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The curiosity which James Macauley had freely expressed as to the +probable degree of friendship between Leaver and Amy Mathewson, developed +by months of close association, was, with him and with others, not +unnatural. But, in Ellen's case, the desire to know just how much the +situation had meant to Amy herself, was a result of her increasingly +warm affection for a young woman of character and personal +attractiveness, mingled with a sense of her own and her husband's +responsibility in bringing together two people who might be expected +to emerge from the encounter not a little affected by it.</p> + +<p>On the morning after John Leaver's departure, Ellen, standing at a +window, found herself watching with more than ordinary intentness the +face of Amy as she came up the walk to the house. Lest Leaver should +realize to what an extent his presence had disturbed the regular routine +of Burns's office, Amy had not been allowed to resume her position +according to the old régime, but had spent only a portion of her time +there, more as a guest of the house might assume certain duties than as a +regularly hired assistant would attend to them. This was, therefore, the +first time, since Leaver had left the confinement in his room, that Amy +Mathewson had appeared in the office in her old rôle, announced by the +donning of her uniform.</p> + +<p>"I certainly don't see any unhappiness there," said Ellen to herself, +watching Amy as she stooped to pick up an early fallen scarlet leaf upon +the lawn. She fastened it upon the severe whiteness of her attire, then +came on to the house with an alert step, as if she approached work she +looked forward to with zest. Her colour was more vivid than it had been +last June, when first she began to live the outdoor life with her +patient, her eyes were brighter, her whole personality seemed somehow +more significant. Ellen had noted in her these signs of enriched life +many times before during these weeks; but the fact that Amy's aspect, on +the day after the departure of her comrade of the summer, seemed to have +suffered no change, but that her whole air, as she came to her old task, +was that of one who hastens to a congenial appointment, gave to Ellen a +distinct sense of relief from an anxiety she had suffered from time to +time throughout the whole experience.</p> + +<p>Burns had gone away early, summoned by an insistent call, and the office +was empty. Knowing this, Ellen went in to greet her friend. There could +be no other term, now, for the whole-hearted bond between the two.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it glorious, this touch of frost in the air?" Amy came in smiling, +her cheeks bright with the sting of the early October morning. "And +to-day—to-day, at last, I am free to go to work as I like. I don't +believe Dr. Burns has sent out a bill for three months. He would go +bankrupt before he would tell a man what he owed him."</p> + +<p>"Do you like sending out bills so well as that?" Ellen asked, +incredulous.</p> + +<p>"I like anything that means being at work again, without having to play +that I'm a lady of leisure at any moment that anybody wants my company. +I like to have things methodical and systematic. I don't even mind +sending out bills, when I know they should be sent."</p> + +<p>She stirred about the office, getting out her typewriter and oiling it, +while the two talked of various things. Her whole manner was consistent +with her words: she seemed to be full of the very joy of living. It +occurred to Ellen once to wonder if, by any possibility, this could be +the result of expectation of future continuance of her friendship with +Leaver. But something happened presently which, though but a simple +incident enough, and all in the day's routine, made any such supposition +seem most unlikely.</p> + +<p>The telephone bell rang. Ellen saw Amy's face change at the first sound +of her questioner's voice, with that subtle change which sometimes tells +more than the person engaged in this form of communication realizes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dr. Burns," she said. "Yes ... Yes ... Yes ... Yes, I can +have everything ready in an hour ... I will ... I won't forget one +thing.... Yes ... Good-bye!"</p> + +<p>Not an illuminating set of replies, given at long intervals which +evidently spelled instructions from the other end of the wire. But Amy's +voice was eager, her concise replies by no means veiled that fact, and +Ellen could read, as plainly as if Amy had said it, that the voice which +spoke to her was the one of all voices, as it had been for so long, which +could give the commands she loved to obey.</p> + +<p>She turned from the desk and looked at Ellen with the same animated +expression of face. But even as she explained, she was taking instruments +from their cases, setting out certain hand-bags, and preparing to fill +them.</p> + +<p>"It is an emergency case—operation—out in the country. Impossible to +take the patient to the hospital; everything must be made ready on the +spot. Dr. Burns is to come for me in an hour. He will let me stay with +the case. It's work, Mrs. Burns; real work again, at last!"</p> + +<p>"You extraordinary girl! A débutante, going to a party again, after +enforced confinement at home, couldn't be gayer about it. I knew you +loved your work, but I didn't know you loved it like that!"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you?" Her hands moving swiftly, she seemed not to stop and think +what was going to be wanted, she went from one preparation to another +with swift, sure knowledge. "I'm not sure I did, myself, until I had to +stop and take what was really just a long vacation, with hardly a thing +to do. Vacations are very pleasant—for a while—but they may last too +long."</p> + +<p>"Evidently Dr. Leaver thought so, too. He seemed ready enough for work +again."</p> + +<p>"Of course he was. And work—and only work—will put him quite back where +he was before the breakdown. I fully believe, Mrs. Burns, that labour is +a condition of healthy life. And of the two evils, too much labour or too +much idleness, the latter is the greater."</p> + +<p>"You make me feel a drone," Ellen declared.</p> + +<p>Amy gave her a quick, understanding glance.</p> + +<p>"You? Oh, no, Mrs. Burns. You do the prettiest work in the world, and the +most necessary."</p> + +<p>"But yours is fine—wonderful."</p> + +<p>"Not fine, nor wonderful. Dr. Burns's work is that. Mine is +just—supplementary."</p> + +<p>"But absolutely essential. How many times has he told me what he has owed +you all these years for perfection of detail. He says he doubts if he +himself could secure such perfection if it all depended upon his care."</p> + +<p>Amy Mathewson bent suddenly over a strange looking instrument, whose +parts she had been examining before putting them into the bag. Her fair +cheek flushed richly. "I am glad to give him the best I can do," she +said, quietly, yet Ellen could detect an odd little thrill in her voice.</p> + +<p>Within herself Ellen understood the truth, which she had long ago +guessed. And with it came a fresh revelation. This was the reason why Amy +Mathewson could see, unmoved, the departure of Leaver, who had been so +closely thrown with her all that strange summer. With the deep loyalty of +a few rare natures, having once given her love, even though she received +nothing but friendship in return, she could care for no future which did +not include that friendship, dearer than the love of other men.</p> + +<p>Ellen was still in the office, held there by a curious fascination of +interest in Amy's rapid, skillful preparations. It meant so much, this +operating at a country house, she explained to Ellen. It meant the +working out of all manner of difficult details, that the final conditions +might as closely as possible resemble those which were to be had, ready +to hand, in the operating-room of any hospital.</p> + +<p>"It's a serious handicap to a surgeon's best work," she asserted, "when +he has to do it at a home. With all my precautions, I can never feel so +sure of giving him perfect cleanliness of surroundings."</p> + +<p>"You can, if any one can," Ellen said, feeling for the first time as she +spoke, a curious little twinge of envy of the one whom her husband had +long called, with affectionate familiarity, his "right-hand man."</p> + +<p>Often as she had seen the two drive away together it seemed to her to-day +that she looked at them with new eyes. Just as Amy set out the closed +hand-bags, with a box and a bundle beside them, and donned hat and +driving-coat, the Green Imp came rushing up the road and stopped in front +of the house. Burns ran in, fired half a dozen rapid questions at Amy, +nodding his head with approval at her answers, said, "All right, we're +off," and picked up the hand-bags. Then he dropped them, snatched off his +cap and strode over to his wife.</p> + +<p>"We're in a mess of a hurry," he apologized, and kissed her as if he were +thinking of something else, as he undoubtedly was. Then he seized the +bags, Amy the box and bundle, and the two hurried out. A moment later +Ellen saw the car start, getting under headway in twice its own length, +and disappearing down the road in a cloud of dust.</p> + +<p>"She would rather stay where she can help him than go away to a home of +her own with any other man," Ellen said to herself; and the little twinge +of envy became almost a pang. She stood staring out of the window, her +dark eyes heavy with her thoughts, her lips taking on a little twist of +pain. Then, presently, she lifted her head. "She will never, never let +him know. He will never discover it for himself. But if she can find +happiness in being of use to him, and he can reward her by being her good +friend, why should I mind? Can't I be generous enough for that, when I +know I have his heart? Her love for him won't hurt him. She can't take it +back, but she will never let it show so that he can feel more of it than +is good for him. It is so little for me to spare her—so much for her to +have. I will be glad, I <i>will</i> be glad!"</p> + +<p>She smiled at Bobby Burns, running up the walk, but, being a woman, she +smiled through tears.</p> + +<p>The little lad ran in. "Oh, Auntie Ellen," he cried, "do you care 'cause +I gave my new ball away? It was a new boy came to school, all patched. +He'd never had a ball in his life. Uncle Red said I had to be good to +other boys, 'cause I've got so much more'n some of them. I sort o' wanted +to keep the ball, too," he added, regretfully. "It was a dandy ball."</p> + +<p>"But it was nice to give it away, too, wasn't it, Bob?"</p> + +<p>He nodded, looking curiously up at her. "You're cryin', Auntie Ellen," he +said, anxiously. "Does sumpin' hurt you?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing that ought to hurt, dear. It's too bad that being generous does +hurt sometimes. But it ought not to hurt, when we have so much more than +some of the others, ought it, Bob?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>FLASHLIGHTS</h3> + + +<p>"Please tilt your parasol back the least bit more, Miss Austin. That's +it! Now walk toward me, up this path, till you reach the rosebush."</p> + +<p>Miss Austin, a tall, thin young woman clad in white muslin and wearing +also a prim expression with which her photographer had been struggling +for some time in vain, obeyed these directions to the letter. Her lips +in lines of order and discretion, her skirts hanging in perfect folds, +she advanced up the straggling path, the picture of maidenly composure. +The nearer she drew to the rosebush the more fixed became the look of +meeting a serious obstacle and overcoming it by sheer force of will.</p> + +<p>Charlotte Ruston, standing by her camera focussed on the spot of path +beside the rosebush, drew a stifled, impatient breath. "I'm going to +scream at her in a minute," she thought, "or fall in a faint. I wonder +which would startle her out of herself most."</p> + +<p>"Do you mind," she said aloud, "if I tell you how perfectly charming you +look?"</p> + +<p>Miss Austin's lips tightened into a little set smile, more artificial +than ever. But just as she reached the rosebush a motor car rushed up the +street and came to a standstill before the gate in Charlotte's hedge. Out +of the car—a conspicuous affair of a strong yellow colour, and hitherto +unseen in the town—descended a figure in a dust-coat, a figure upon +which Miss Edith Austin had never set eyes before. Pausing by the +rosebush she looked toward the scene at the gate, and her face relaxed +into an expression of alert interest.</p> + +<p>The camera clicked unnoticed. Quicker than a flash Charlotte had gone +through a series of motions and had made a second exposure, smiling +delightedly to herself.</p> + +<p>"It's a gentleman to see you," called Miss Austin, softly, as the heavily +built figure in the dust-coat opened the gate and advanced up the path.</p> + +<p>Miss Ruston made all secure about her camera, and turned to meet the full +and smiling gaze of the newcomer, standing, cap in hand, just behind +her. He was a man who might have been thirty or forty—it would not have +been easy for a stranger to tell which at first glance, for his fair hair +was thick upon his head, his face fresh and unwrinkled, and his eyes +bright. Yet about him was an air of having been encountering men and +things for a long time, and of understanding them pretty well.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brant!" Charlotte's tone was that of complete surprise.</p> + +<p>"You were not expecting me?" He shook hands, gazing at her in undisguised +pleasure. He was not much taller than she, and the afternoon sun was at +his back, so he had the advantage.</p> + +<p>"I certainly was not. How does it happen? A business journey?"</p> + +<p>"A most luckily opportune one—for me. It brought me within a hundred +miles, and my descriptions to my friend of an interesting region did +the rest."</p> + +<p>His eyes swerved to the figure of Miss Edith Austin, standing tensely by +the rosebush, an observer whose whole aspect denoted eager absorption in +the meeting before her. Charlotte presented him. Miss Austin expressed +herself as assured of his being a stranger to the town the moment her +eyes fell upon him.</p> + +<p>"And a very dusty and disreputable one, I'm afraid," Mr. Brant declared. +"I should have stopped at some hotel and made myself presentable," he +explained to Charlotte, "if I had not been afraid I should lose a minute +out of the short time Van Schoonhoven agrees to leave me here."</p> + +<p>Charlotte took him to the house and left him politely trying to converse +with her grandmother—at tremendous odds, for he was not a rival of Red +Pepper Burns in his fondness for old ladies, not to mention deaf ones. +The photographer returned to her sitter.</p> + +<p>"I have several pictures of you now, Miss Austin," she said, "and I think +among them we shall find one you will like."</p> + +<p>"But aren't you going to have one of this last pose?" Miss Austin +inquired, anxiously. "Of course, I know you have company now—"</p> + +<p>"That doesn't matter. But I have two exposures, by the rosebush, and I +think they are both good. I have kept you standing for quite a long time, +and I want you to see proofs of these before we try any more."</p> + +<p>"I haven't once known when you were taking me. I can't help feeling that +if you just let me know when you were going to take the picture I could +be better prepared."</p> + +<p>"One can be a bit too much prepared. The best one I ever had made of me +was done an instant after I had carelessly taken a seat where the +operator requested. I looked up and asked, 'How do you want me to sit?' +He answered, 'Just as pleases you. I have already taken the picture.'"</p> + +<p>"Dear me! How methods change! Our best photographer here is always so +careful about every line of drapery, and just how you hold your chin +I don't see how you can just snap a person and be sure of an artistic +result."</p> + +<p>"You can't. And perhaps you won't like these at all. But I will show you +proofs to-morrow. And if they are not right we'll try again, if you are +willing."</p> + +<p>Miss Austin went away, parasol held stiffly above her head, though the +sun was behind her. She was wondering, as she went, who the man was who +had come to see Miss Ruston, and she arrived without much difficulty at +the conclusion that he was probably going to marry her. His speech about +being in such haste to reach her that he couldn't take time to go to a +hotel and make himself neat seemed to her sure evidence that the two were +upon a footing more intimate than that of mere friendship.</p> + +<p>"If you are not too proud," said Miss Ruston to Mr. Eugene Brant, "you +may come into the kitchen and wash your hands and face. Afterward you may +stroll about my garden while I get supper."</p> + +<p>"I am not too proud to wash my face in your kitchen," responded Mr. +Brant, following her with alacrity, "but I shall not be willing to stroll +about your garden while you get supper. After supper, if you like, we +will explore it to its mystic end down by the currant bushes I see from +the window here."</p> + +<p>He accepted the basin of water Charlotte gave him, as gracefully as she +presented it, dried his face upon the little towel she handed him, and +declared himself much refreshed. She did not apologize for the lack of a +guest-room where he might remove the signs of dusty travel, nor did she +allude to the absence within the house of most of the appliances +considered necessary in these days for creature comfort. But she +dismissed him to the garden with a finality against which his pleadings +to be allowed to be of use to her proved of no avail, and only when, +after a half-hour, she appeared in the doorway with a pail, and +approached the old well nearby, did he discover a chance to show his +devotion.</p> + +<p>"If you knew what fun I should consider it to be carrying plates and +things around for you in there," said he, as he drew the water for her, +"you wouldn't keep me out here. What do you imagine I came a hundred +miles out of my way for—to study the possibilities of landscape +gardening as applied to miniature estates like these of yours?"</p> + +<p>"You might do much worse," she responded promptly. "I have spent not a +little thought on just how much trimming to give my old shrubbery and how +much to leave in a wild tangle. Will you come in now and have supper? We +will take it with Granny in the front room."</p> + +<p>Mr. Brant was hungry, after his long drive, and he eyed with satisfaction +the small table by the door, set out with fine old china and linen. He +consumed two juicy hot chops with keen relish, accompanied as they were +by well-cooked rice. A simple salad followed, and gave way to a dish of +choice peaches, upon which his hostess poured plenty of rich cream. She +gave him also two cups of extremely good coffee, and he rose from the +repast feeling content, though the fact that he had made a heartier meal +than either of the ladies had not escaped him.</p> + +<p>By and by he had his way, and took Charlotte out to the garden. Little +Madam Chase had been put to bed at what she called "early candle-light," +because such an hour best suited her.</p> + +<p>"Well, are you going to do me the honour of telling me all about it?" Mr. +Brant asked, as he settled himself upon the old bench by Charlotte's +side. He scanned her closely once more in the waning light.</p> + +<p>"What do you want me to tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Just what I ask—all about your coming here. How you get on. What it +means to you. Your hopes—your fears, if you have any. I realize, better +than you do, perhaps, that this is not a small venture for you to make. +I am interested—you understand how interested—to know just the +situation."</p> + +<p>His tone was that of a brother, warm and kind. She responded to it.</p> + +<p>"I am doing as well as I could expect. Almost every day I have a +sitter—sometimes two. My friends are very good; they bring me every one +who will come. People seem to like the things I do—some of them."</p> + +<p>"Almost every day you have a sitter!" he repeated. "Do you call that +doing well? How long have you been here?"</p> + +<p>"Just seven weeks. Yes, I do call that doing well. It takes time to +become established, of course. Now that I have made pictures of many +of the prominent people others will follow, I'm confident. You know this +isn't the portrait season—too many have cameras of their own and are +taking snapshots of outdoor scenes, with themselves in the foreground."</p> + +<p>"You don't find yourself wishing you had stayed in the city, as I +advised?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. I want more experience first. I want to be able to do work +I needn't apologize for when I really begin with a city studio."</p> + +<p>"You are doing finished work, in my opinion."</p> + +<p>"Not in mine."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "There is nothing weak about your will," said he.</p> + +<p>"I hope not. I need a strong one."</p> + +<p>"Granted, if you mean to persist in making your own way. But I live in +hope that when you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that you +are perfectly competent to hew out that way for yourself, you will be +willing to let some stouter pair of arms take a turn with the axe."</p> + +<p>His tone had meaning in it, but she turned it aside.</p> + +<p>"Could anybody take your studio away from you? Even though you don't do +it for a living, but only because you adore it, could you be induced to +give it up?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not trying to induce you to give yours up. I'll build a separate one +for you right beside mine, any time you say the word, and you shall +pursue your avocation in perfect freedom. All I object to is your making +the thing your vocation. I know of a better one for you."</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "We went over all this ground—over and over +it—before I came away. Why do you come out here and begin it all over +again? I don't want to talk about it."</p> + +<p>"I came because I had to see for myself what sort of a place you were +in. I had a notion that it wasn't good enough. It isn't. You can't be +comfortable in it, through the most of the year. Neither can Madam +Chase."</p> + +<p>"We can be perfectly comfortable." She spoke quickly and decidedly. "You +know absolutely that I wouldn't sacrifice what is dearest to me in the +world for the sake of having my own way. The little house is primitive, +but Granny can be made as snug in it as in any stone mansion."</p> + +<p>"The thing may tumble down about your ears in the first high wind."</p> + +<p>"It will not. Dr. Burns went over it thoroughly, and says it is much more +substantial than it looks."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Burns! May I ask who the gentleman is?"</p> + +<p>"My neighbour across the street. He is devoted to Granny, and had as many +fears as you could have before he tested the house."</p> + +<p>"Is he married?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly." It was impossible to help laughing a little at his tone, +which was that of a jealous boy.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven for that! I'm suspicious of men who are devoted to your +grandmother, charming old lady though she is. But, in spite of Dr. +Burns's invaluable opinion, I must beg to differ with him. You can't be +comfortable in that chicken-coop through the winter."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Charlotte said slowly, sitting up very straight in the +twilight, and looking steadily in front of her, "that you have any right +to care whether we are comfortable or not."</p> + +<p>"No right to care? Not the right of an old friend? Charlotte, you +wouldn't deny me that? Why, child, I saw you grow up. I was your father's +trusted friend, in spite of being much younger than he. And I'm not so +much older than you, after all—only fifteen years. You might at least +let me play at being elder brother to you."</p> + +<p>"I did let you play that for a long, long time. It was only when—"</p> + +<p>She paused. He took her up.</p> + +<p>"Only when I began to intimate that the relation wasn't fully satisfying +that you began to give me the cold shoulder. You haven't even written to +me since you've been here. Are you aware of that?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "There was nothing to write. And I've been very busy."</p> + +<p>He drew in his breath, held it for a minute, and let it go again +explosively.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte," said he, presently, "it seems to me I've lost ground with +you. I wish I knew why. You know perfectly well that I won't bother you +with my suit if you won't listen to it,—at least, I won't bother you +with it all the time. I don't promise to give up hope. But what I can't +bear is to have you treat me as if you wouldn't have even my friendship +any longer. It hurts to hear you say I have no right to care whether you +live in a comfortable home or not."</p> + +<p>She turned impulsively. "Then I take it back. You have a certain right, +it's true. You have been a good friend, and I owe you much. It's because +I'm foolishly sensitive about this little cottage. I can see, of course, +that it looks like a poor place to a man who lives in one of the finest +houses in the State of Maryland, but I can't let that influence me. If +you happened to be the sort of man who loves to go off into the woods and +live in a log shack for a whole hunting-season you'd understand its charm +for me. I don't in the least mind washing my face in a tin basin. You do +mind."</p> + +<p>"Not when you offer it. But it's not the tin basin I object to. That +is—"</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> the tin basin. You don't like to see a woman live in such a +plain way. But I tell you this, Mr. Brant: she can be just as much a +woman of refinement—"</p> + +<p>"My dear girl—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I lost my temper for a minute," she admitted. "I shouldn't have +said that. I shouldn't offend you by implying that you don't know it. +What I mean is that the luxuries you consider essential are not +essential. I was brought up among them. I loved them as you do. It is +good for me to do without them—I am conscious of it every day. I shall +be a stronger woman and a better woman if I can learn not to care."</p> + +<p>"But you haven't wholly learned yet." He said it with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"<i>I have learned!</i>" She flung it at him. "I don't mind living in +this simple way, except when a man like you comes along and tries, +deliberately tries, to make me conscious of it."</p> + +<p>He leaned toward her with a sudden, passionate gesture. "Charlotte, +forgive me! It is because I long so to take you away from it, to give +you the sort of home you have known in the old days. It fits you so +well—that sort of home. You were a princess in the old home; you would +be a queen in a new one."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't!"</p> + +<p>"All right, I won't."</p> + +<p>There was silence between them for some time after this. Brant sat with +his hands clenched and resting upon his knees, his head bent a little. +Charlotte had turned and laid one bended arm upon the high back of the +old bench—her head rested against it. She was the first to speak, in the +light tone with which her sex is accustomed to let a situation down from +the heights of strong emotion to a more normal level.</p> + +<p>"What do you do with a sitter who won't let you bring out her best +points, but insists on making herself into the stiffest sort of a lay +figure?"</p> + +<p>"Chloroform her and relax the tension." Brant's tone was grim. Then, +suddenly, he looked up. "Will you let me go in and make a flashlight of +you by a new method I've worked out? I promise you you'll find it a trick +worth knowing."</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted. You've taught me half I know, and I'm more +grateful than I seem."</p> + +<p>"I hope that's true," he said, still in the grim tone, as they went up +the garden path toward the house.</p> + +<p>Inside the house he became the exponent of the art of which he was past +master. His study was to him only a diversion, but he had become +distinguished in it as an amateur who played at being a professional +for the interest of it, and who possessed a collection of photographic +portraits of half the celebrities in the world. With eager interest +Charlotte watched him manipulate improvised screens and devices for +casting light and shadow, and when he posed her understood the result +he meant to produce.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that will give a new effect!" she said, delightedly. "I should never +have thought of it in the world."</p> + +<p>"It will almost absolutely overcome the flatness of the flashlight, as +you will see when we develop it—if you will let me stay so long. Now—"</p> + +<p>The flash flared and died. Brant smiled with gratification. If he knew +what he was doing he had a new portrait of Charlotte Ruston which would +surpass anything he had yet made of her. It seemed to him that during +these last weeks she had grown even more desirable than he had ever known +her. There had always been a spirit and enchantment about her personality +which had been his undoing, but there was now a quality in it which was +well nigh his despair—the quality born of self-sacrifice and endeavour, +those invisible but potent agencies in the creating of the highest type +of womanly charm.</p> + +<p>The pair went into the dark-room together. Here, at least, Mr. Brant +was able to give sincere approval. Although the place was cramped +no necessary detail was lacking. Charlotte had not spared expense +in transporting material or in fitting the spot with the requisite +conveniences for swift and sure work. In a very few minutes Brant was +showing his pupil the negative, which her trained eye was fully able +to appreciate.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that will make a perfect print," she exclaimed, everything else +forgotten in the joy of the artist over the overcoming of difficulties. +"You certainly have conquered almost the last obstacle to the making of +flashlight portraits. That will be soft as daylight. I will make the +print to-morrow and let you know."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to send me merely a report of its appearance, I hope."</p> + +<p>She laughed. "Of course I'll make a print for you, if you want it. +Perhaps you'll admit, when you see the setting, that the old room isn't +such an inartistic choice for a photographer."</p> + +<p>"The old room is delightful—as a background. But when your feet are +freezing on its cold floor, in the dead of next winter—Never mind, we +won't go back to that. I admit it's a September night, and there's no use +in my borrowing trouble. Besides, I suppose I must be off in half an +hour. Let's make the most of it."</p> + +<p>They sat in the room in question and talked of developers and +fixing-baths, of processes and results, and Charlotte found such interest +in these technical topics that she glowed and sparkled as another woman +might have done at talk of quite different things. She knew well enough +that nobody could give her greater aid or inspiration in her work than +Eugene Brant, whose signature upon any portrait meant approval in the +large world where he was known.</p> + +<p>In spite of his over-heaviness of outline he was not an uninteresting +figure as he sat there. His face had not taken on superfluous flesh as +his body had acquired weight, and its lines were good to the eye of the +artist. His eye was clear, his smile full and not lacking in a certain +winning quality which spoke of sympathy and understanding. One who had +never before seen him would not doubt that here was a man worth +acquaintance, in spite of the fact that his only labour was in the +pursuit of a fancy rather than in the making of a living.</p> + +<p>The hour came for his reluctant departure. Standing on Charlotte's shaky +little porch he looked up at her as she stood on the threshold above him. +Against the light in the room behind her the outlines of her lithe young +figure were to him adorable. He took her hand and held it for a minute +with a strong pressure which spoke for him of his longing to keep it in +his permanent possession.</p> + +<p>"Will you send me off with the assurance that at least my friendship is +still something to you?" he asked her. "You can be as independent as you +like, but you need friends. Or, if that has small weight with you, let me +appeal to your generosity. I need your friendship even more than you need +mine."</p> + +<p>"Unhappy Mr. Brant." She was smiling. "So few friends, so few pleasures, +he needs poor Charlotte Ruston's support!"</p> + +<p>"Poor Charlotte Ruston is a greater inspiration to Eugene Brant's good +work than any dozen of his fashionable patrons."</p> + +<p>"I am honoured—truly. And, of course, we are friends, the best of +friends. I will send you the print soon. Thank you for coming. You have +helped me very much."</p> + +<p>With which he was obliged to be content.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>IN FEBRUARY</h3> + + +<p>One cold December morning Charlotte Ruston, sweeping up her hearth after +making her fire for the day, preparatory to bringing little Madam Chase +downstairs, heard the knock upon her door which heralded Mrs. Redfield +Pepper Burns. It was a peculiar knock, reminiscent of the days at +boarding-school when certain signals conveyed deep meaning. This +particular triple tattoo meant "I have something to tell you."</p> + +<p>Charlotte opened the door, smiling at sight of her friend. "You are worth +looking at, in those beautiful furs, with the frost on your cheeks," she +said, drawing Ellen in to the fire, and passing a caressing hand over the +rich softness of her sleeve. "Furry hat and furry gloves—and furry +boots, too, probably—let me see? I thought so," as she examined Ellen's +footgear. "You could start on a trip to Greenland, this minute, and not +freeze so much as the tip of your nose, behind that wonderful muff."</p> + +<p>"It will be Greenland on the Atlantic liner next week," said Ellen, +drawing off the enveloping coat at Charlotte's motion, and seating +herself in Granny's winged chair. "The trip to Germany is on foot, at +last. Red has had to put it off so many times I began to think we +shouldn't get away this year at all. But he's taken our passage now, and +vows that nothing shall hinder. So I'm packing in rather a hurry, for we +mean to be off on Saturday, though we shall not sail until Tuesday. One +can always use a day or two in New York."</p> + +<p>"Lucky mortals. I wish I were going with you." Charlotte said it gayly, +but her eyes were suddenly wistful. "How long shall you stay? I shall +miss you horribly."</p> + +<p>"I wish you were going, dear. Nothing could make me happier. We should be +a great party then, for Dr. Leaver goes with us. It's a sudden decision +on his part. Red wrote him of certain work he wanted to do in the clinics +and urged him to go along, thinking it would be just the thing for him +now, after plunging into work again with such a will. You know they spent +a year there together, ten years ago, and Dr. Leaver wrote that the +thought of going over the old scenes with Red tempted him beyond +resistance. He's been across twice since, but only for a special purpose +of study. Of course both will do more or less observing in clinics now, +but I imagine they will get in a bit of merrymaking together. If I only +had you to go about with me while they were busy I should ask nothing +better."</p> + +<p>"Shall you be gone all winter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; only two months in all. Neither Red nor 'Jack'—as he always +calls him—feel that they can spare longer than that, this time. So by +the first of March you will see us returning to our own fireside, and +probably glad enough to get back to it. German fires, as I remember them, +are by no means as hot as American ones. And that brings me to my plan +for you and Granny. I want you to come over and live in the house in our +absence. There'll be only Cynthia there, for Bob is to stay with Martha. +He will be happier over there with her boys than with Cynthia. So you +will have the whole house to yourselves and can be as snug as possible +all through the heaviest part of the winter."</p> + +<p>She smiled confidently at Charlotte, seeing no possible reason why her +friend should object to a plan so obviously for the comfort of all +concerned. But to her surprise Charlotte slowly shook her head.</p> + +<p>"It's a beautiful, kind plan, and exactly like you, but I couldn't think +of accepting it."</p> + +<p>"My dearest girl, will you tell me why? You would be doing me all kinds +of a favour."</p> + +<p>"No favour at all. Cynthia doesn't need us to help her take care of the +house. We shall be perfectly comfortable here, and—my business is here."</p> + +<p>"Charlotte, I'm afraid you won't be perfectly comfortable. This room +isn't really warm this morning, and it's not an extremely cold morning. +Through midwinter we're likely to have very heavy weather, as you don't +know, not having spent a winter here."</p> + +<p>"Have you? Isn't this your first winter North? You're just as much of a +Southerner as I am. You don't a bit know about Northern winters. You just +imagine they must be dreadful."</p> + +<p>"I've heard about the snowdrifts over the fences, the terrific winds, +and the intense cold. The storms will beat upon this little old house, +and I shall think about it away off in Germany—and be anxious. Please, +Charlotte, don't be unreasonable. Why in the world shouldn't you do me +a favour like this? Red wants it just as much as I do, particularly on +the grandmother's account. Think how comfortable she would be in my +living-room, and in my guest-room. And I should so love to have her +there."</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'm an ungrateful person, but I truly don't want to do it, +Len. Of course you know I wouldn't persist in a course that I thought +would do Granny harm, but I don't see how this can. She stays in bed in +the morning, as warm as toast, until I bring her down here, and I don't +bring her until the room is thoroughly warm. I give her her breakfast +here, and keep her perfectly comfortable all day, as she can tell you. At +night I take her up to a nest as cosy as a kitten's, and she has her hot +milk the last thing to send her off. Not a breath of discomfort touches +her beloved head."</p> + +<p>The two looked at each other, Charlotte's expression proudly sweet, +Ellen's charmingly beseeching.</p> + +<p>"I can see it's of no use," admitted Mrs. Burns, disappointedly, "but I'm +very sorry. Will you promise me this? If at any time it seems to you that +my plan is, after all, a better one for you than your own, you'll be good +and come straight over?"</p> + +<p>"I promise you that I'll take proper care of both of us, and love you for +a devoted friend. That ought to satisfy you. Do you know that as you sit +there, with that furry hat on your head and your cheeks glowing, you're +the prettiest thing north of Mason-and-Dixon's line?"</p> + +<p>"I know you're a flatterer, as you always were. If I can rival you in +that blue cotton—Charlotte, do you think you ought to wear cotton in +December?"</p> + +<p>"You wear gauze and low-cut gowns in the evening in January, don't +you?—and would in Labrador, if you went out to dinner. What's the +difference between silver tissue in the evening and blue cotton in the +morning?"</p> + +<p>"Considerable difference, as you very well know. But you're impossible to +argue with this morning, and I must run back to my packing. Red won't +hear of my taking more than a certain quite inadequate amount of luggage, +and I have to plan pretty closely accordingly."</p> + +<p>"That's good for you. You don't know the first thing about curtailing +your desires, and he means to teach you. Perhaps he won't limit you as to +how much you bring home."</p> + +<p>"I hope not. We shall stop for a week in Paris before we sail, and I mean +to bring you the loveliest evening frock you've had in a long time. It's +no use forbidding me, for I shall do it just the same."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to forbid you," laughed Charlotte Ruston, with her cheek +against the furry hat. "I know when not to forbid people to do things +I want them to do. Only make it blue, my blue, and have a touch of silver +on it, and I'll wear it and think of you with adoration."</p> + +<p>"It's a bargain," and Ellen went away smiling, with the image of +Charlotte in the sort of blue-and-silver gown she meant to bring her, +effacing for the moment the other image of Charlotte in a blue cotton +house-dress on a freezing winter morning, in a chilly house.</p> + +<p>A few days later the travellers were off. When Red Pepper Burns and Ellen +came in to say good-bye in the early evening they found the little house +as warm as even the most solicitous person could desire, and both the +elder and the younger inmate looking so rosy and happy that doubts of +their continued welfare seemed unreasonable. Charlotte, expecting them, +was wearing a picturesque, if old and oft-rejuvenated, trailing frock of +dull-rose silk, whose effect was to heighten the already splendid colour +in her face. It gave her also a certain air of grand lady which seemed +hers by right, whether in the dignified old drawing-room Ellen remembered +in the Ruston house, or in this small apartment, illumined by fire and +candle-light, and graced by a little old lady in cap and kerchief of fine +lace. There were flowers on the table under the candles, and a tray with +delicate glasses and a plate of little cakes. Altogether, the whole +atmosphere of the room was so comfortably hospitable, and the charm of +Charlotte's gay manner so convincing, that both her guests went away with +the pleasant sense that they left real home happiness under the patched +shingles of the roof, and contentment greater than that found beside most +hearths.</p> + +<p>"Remember that James Macauley has promised to be a brother to you in +my absence, and will see you through any difficulty that may arise," +declared Burns, shaking hands. "Arthur Chester claims the same privilege +and both will be only too happy to be called on. The small boys will vie +with each other to keep your paths shovelled, and Bob wishes to be +considered guard-in-chief."</p> + +<p>"Cynthia will be flattered to be asked to help you in any way, dear," +Ellen urged. "She will be lonely with no one to cook for,—do make her +happy by letting her do things for you."</p> + +<p>"You dear people," Charlotte responded, "be assured that Granny and I +will remember all these counsels. Don't have us on your minds, but come +back to us with the first crocuses, and know that we shall be wild with +delight at seeing you."</p> + +<p>Burns stooped over Madam Chase's chair, and took both her small hands in +his. "What shall I bring you from Germany, dear lady?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She always heard him better than she heard most people, and laughed like +a pleased child at the question. "I spent a winter in Berlin, when I was +a young woman," said she. "I remember it clearly enough. There was a +little shop in one of the streets—I forget just which—where they sold +pictures of the emperor, in little carved frames. William the First, it +was then, grandfather of the present Emperor. I should like such another +little picture of the present Kaiser—and thank you!"</p> + +<p>"You shall have it—and something else, of my own choosing, if I may. +Good-bye, dear lady. May I kiss you good-bye?"</p> + +<p>She permitted the privilege, beaming with pleasure under the reverent +touch of her fair cheek. Then she gave Burns a parting admonition.</p> + +<p>"Take good care of that wife of yours; she is well worth it," she said.</p> + +<p>"I realize that more every day, Madam Chase. I'll take care of her—with +my life," he said, soberly, close to her ear. Then he bore Ellen away, +both looking back with friendly eyes at the pair they left in the +cottage, and wishing them well with all their warm hearts.</p> + +<p>They had barely sailed when the first heavy snowfall of the season +covered the world with a blanket of white, and this was the forerunner of +almost continuous genuine winter weather. No severe storms such as Ellen +had prophesied assailed the region until the first of February, but then +came such a one as deserved no other name than the modern term of +blizzard, a happening of which Madam Ruston and Charlotte had heard, +but had never genuinely experienced.</p> + +<p>"We're going to show you the real article this time," declared James +Macauley, stamping his way in out of the snow one evening, when the storm +had been in progress for twenty-four hours without intermission. "I came +over to assure you that if in the morning your roof has disappeared under +a drift you may rest easy in the knowledge that you will surely be +shovelled out before noon. My wife sent me over to find out if you had +plenty of supplies on hand."</p> + +<p>"We weren't provided for quite so long a siege, but I was coming over to +telephone from your house this morning. It's a great storm, isn't it? I +think it's fun, for it's my first experience. Do tell your boys to come +over and make a snow fort or something in my front yard."</p> + +<p>"They'll be delighted, when the storm stops. There's no use making forts +now, you know."</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't know. I was prepared to go out this morning and play with +them."</p> + +<p>Macauley looked at her. "Not in that dress, I hope," he observed, +bluntly. "It beats me, the way women wear their thinnest clothes in the +coldest weather. I wonder how I'd feel with the kind of rig you're +wearing. And it's none too warm here, it strikes me, if you don't mind my +saying it, in spite of that good-looking fire."</p> + +<p>"The room warms rather slowly in this extreme weather," Charlotte +admitted. She was standing close to the fire, in the unquestionably +summerlike dress of the blue cotton she chose for all her working frocks. +With its low rolling collar and short sleeves it certainly did not +suggest comfort. If Macauley had suspected that beneath it was no +compensating protection, he would have been considerably more concerned +than he was. His wife was accustomed to explain to him, when he +criticised the inadequacy of her attire, that she fully made up for it by +some extra, hidden warmth of clothing. And when he complained that anyhow +she didn't look warm she invariably replied that nothing could be more +deceiving than looks.</p> + +<p>He walked over to the windows. They were rattling stormily with each gust +of the tempest raging outside, and as he held his hand at their edges he +could feel all the winds of heaven raging in.</p> + +<p>"Jupiter!" he exclaimed. "No wonder you're cold. That stage fire of yours +can't warm all outdoors. I'll send for some window strips and nail you +up."</p> + +<p>"Please don't bother, Mr. Macauley. I am going to stuff them with cotton +myself, and that will do quite well. If you will be so kind as to +telephone this order to the grocery for me I shall be grateful, though +I hardly see how the delivery wagons can get about."</p> + +<p>He took the paper she handed him, and absently, after the manner of the +householder, his eyes scanned it.</p> + +<p>"Why, you want to order in larger lots than these!" he exclaimed. Then, +as he looked up and saw her smiling without reply, he reddened and +stammered hastily: "I beg your pardon; I looked without thinking. But, +if you don't mind my advising you, I'd say double each of these items, +at least; it's economy in the end. And—where's the meat order? Have you +forgotten?"</p> + +<p>"There are eggs on the grocery list," said Charlotte, a little flame of +colour rising in her own cheek. "Granny prefers those. But you may double +each item, if you wish. Probably you don't realize that I'm not ordering +for a family like yours, and things spoil quickly when kept in the +kitchen, as we keep ours."</p> + +<p>"Of course you know your own affairs," mumbled Macauley, in some +embarrassment. "But, if you'd heard R.P. Burns charging me to look after +you as if you belonged to me, you'd pardon my impertinence."</p> + +<p>"I appreciate your interest," Charlotte assured him, lightly. "But I'm +really enjoying the new experience of this storm and don't mind a bit how +long it lasts. Granny is warm as can be upstairs with her little stove, +and as she can't hear the wind howl her spirits aren't in the least +depressed. I admit I don't just love to hear the wind howl. If it would +be still about it I should like to see the snow bury my whole front lawn +three feet deep."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you take it that way. Martha insists that such storms are very +depressing,—principally, I believe, because they keep her from running +in to see her neighbours. Well, I must be off. I'll send the youngsters +over to shovel a path to your front door; I had to wallow through +myself."</p> + +<p>He went away, and the storm raged on. The boys did not come over; their +labours would have been of small avail if they had worked never so +valiantly, for the drifts formed faster than they could have been +shovelled away. Night fell with Nature still unappeased, and the wind, +contrary to the prediction of the grocer's boy, when in the late +afternoon he fought his way in with his basket of supplies, did not +go down with the sun.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the night, Charlotte, waking from an uneasy sleep, felt +the house rocking so violently with the tempest that she became alarmed. +She wondered if the shaky frame could withstand the continued shocks. The +air of the room felt very cold to her cheek, although she had, out of +consideration for the unusual conditions, refrained from opening wide her +window. The rush of cold seemed to be coming from the door which opened +into her grandmother's room, and with a sudden fear she flew out of bed +and ran to investigate. With the first step inside Madam Chase's door her +bare foot encountered the icy touch of snow, and she realized that a +window was undoubtedly open to the full force of the storm.</p> + +<p>Without a thought of herself she rushed across the room, understanding +what must have happened: the shaky little old window frame had blown in, +for the tempest came straight from that direction. Yes, she stumbled upon +it, lying on the floor. She picked it up and tried to replace it, but an +instant's struggle convinced her that this was impossible. With a cry she +ran to the bed, herself chilled through, her heart beating fast with +fear. How long had Granny been lying there in the onslaught of wind and +cold?</p> + +<p>She seized upon the small figure huddled under the blankets, lifted it, +blankets and all, and bore it into her own room. She laid it on her own +cot, covered it with a mountain of clothing, and crushed into place the +door between the two rooms. Then, shaking with chill, her teeth +chattering, she dressed, answering the old lady's one shivering +complaint:</p> + +<p>"I thought I was very cold, in my dreams, Charlotte. What has happened?"</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Granny,—you are safe in my room. I'll get you warm in a +minute."</p> + +<p>She ran down to the kitchen, heated water over a spirit-lamp, and made a +stiff little hot drink, which she carried upstairs, with a hot-water +bottle. The bag at Granny's feet, the stimulating posset drunk, Charlotte +felt easier about her charge and went next at the task of making her +comfortable for the remainder of the night. She ran down again and made +up the fire in the fireplace, convinced that she must get the old lady +downstairs, now that with each blast the terrible wind was filling one +room with the storm and battling at the little old door to make an +entrance into the other. Then she put on a coat, and went up to wrestle +with Granny's bed, while the wind swept round her, and the snow flew +across the room and stung her cheeks. It was a hard task, getting the bed +apart and down the stairs, but she accomplished it, and set it up in the +living-room, far from the windows and with one side to the fire. Then she +brought down springs and mattress, warmed the latter thoroughly at the +blaze, and put it in place.</p> + +<p>"Now, dear," she said presently, bending over the cot, "I'm going to take +you down by the fire. It's too cold for you up here, and you'll be +perfectly comfortable there."</p> + +<p>Granny, wrapped in many blankets, was not quite so light a load as usual, +but Charlotte staggered down with her, and soon had her at ease in her +bed, freshly made up and warm with surrounding blankets. The room itself +could not be so quickly warmed, but Granny knew no discomfort nor +realized that her niece, with all her exertions, was still shaking now +and then with chill and excitement. She had small notion of the anxiety +Charlotte was suffering concerning her frail self.</p> + +<p>"You must get the window replaced at once, my dear," she remarked, +sleepily, from among her pillows. "It must be really quite a storm. +I could feel the bed shake. Down here it seems quieter."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Granny, much quieter. Go to sleep now, and make up for lost time."</p> + +<p>Her charge forgot to ask her what she meant to do herself, and presently +dropped comfortably off into a deep slumber. Charlotte piled on wood, +making a rousing fire, and sat beside it for the rest of the night, +wrapped in a blanket in the winged chair. She shivered away the hours, +unable to become warm no matter how close to the fire she crouched, and +in the morning was conscious that she had taken a severe cold, quite as +might have been expected. But, as her chief anxiety was relieved by +finding that Madam Chase awoke apparently in as good condition as ever +and not in the least the worse for her exposure, Charlotte made light to +herself of her own ill feelings.</p> + +<p>She struggled across the street in the morning to telephone a carpenter, +and as it was the dull season for workmen of his craft obtained one +immediately. He proved a conscientious person, who shook his head over +the ancient window frame and advised putting in a new one with a tightly +fitting sash. By night the room was secure from the weather, and Madam +Chase insisted on returning to it, in spite of Charlotte's entreaties +that she remain downstairs until the storm should be over.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, child," she said firmly, "this is no place for me and my +bed. Any of our friends are likely to come in at any time, and it is +impossible to keep the room looking properly under such conditions. +Besides, I much prefer my own room."</p> + +<p>So at her bedtime Charlotte moved her back to her quarters, having heated +them to a summer temperature with the small oil-stove.</p> + +<p>"Poof!" said the little old lady, as she was brought into the room. "How +unnecessarily warm it is here! Just because a storm rages outside, dear, +why should it be necessary to heat this room so stuffily? The stove +consumes the air. When I'm in bed you must open the window and give me +something to breathe."</p> + +<p>"I was so frightened last night," Charlotte explained hoarsely in Madam +Chase's ear, "I feel like doing you up in cotton wool, lest such another +icy wind blow on you."</p> + +<p>"Why, what a cold you have, child!" cried her grandmother, recognizing +this undoubted fact more fully than she had yet done. "You must make +yourself some hot ginger tea, or some hot lemonade, and get to bed at +once. Promise me you will do it, my dear."</p> + +<p>Charlotte nodded, smiling in the candle-light. Then she tucked her charge +in with more than ordinary care, and spent some time in arranging the +ventilation of the room to her satisfaction. The storm outside was still +heavy, but the wind was less violent, and it had changed its quarter.</p> + +<p>She went downstairs again, finding it too early for her own bedtime, +weary though she was. Martha Macauley presently sent over a maid who was +commissioned to send Charlotte across for an evening with the family, the +maid herself to remain with Madam Chase. "If you have the courage to come +out in the storm," the note read.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I haven't, thank you," Charlotte wrote back, and dismissed +the maid with a word of sympathy for her necessary breasting of the +drift-blown passage across the street.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's awful out," the girl said. "I don't think Mrs. Macauley knows +how bad it is, not being out herself to-day, and Mr. Macauley away."</p> + +<p>Charlotte made up her fire afresh, and pulling the winged chair close sat +down before it. She was cold and weary, and her head felt very heavy. She +had put on a loose gown of a thin Japanese silk—dull red in hue, a relic +of other days. Her hair was loosely braided and hung down her back in a +long, dark plait. Upon her feet were slippers, about her shoulders a +white shawl of Granny's.</p> + +<p>All the gay and gallant aspect of her, as her friends knew her, was gone +from her to-night, as she sat there staring into the fire. She still +shivered, now and then, in the too-thin red silk robe, and drew the shawl +closer. Her heart was as heavy as her head, her mind busy with retrospect +and forecast, neither enlivening. The courage which had sustained her +through almost four years of endeavour was at a singularly low ebb +to-night. It had ebbed low at other times, but usually she had been able +to summon it again by a mere act of the will, by a determination to be +resolute, not to be downcast, never to allow herself so much as to +imagine ultimate failure. To-night, although she told herself that her +depression was the result of physical fatigue, and fought with all her +strength to conquer the hopelessness of the mood, she found herself in +the end prostrate under the weight of thoughts heavier than the spirit +could bear.</p> + +<p>She sat there for an hour; then, still shivering, prepared to rake the +ashes over the remains of the fire and go to bed. It occurred to her +suddenly that before closing things up below she would see if Madam Chase +were asleep, or if she might need something hot to drink again, as +sometimes happened. She went wearily upstairs, her candle flickering in +the narrow passageway. It seemed, somehow, as if the whole house were +full of small conflicting winds pressing into it through every loose +window-frame and under each sunken threshold.</p> + +<p>She stooped over the bed, the candle-light falling on the small, white +face. White—how white! With all its delicate fairness, had it ever +looked like this before? With a sudden fear clutching at her heart she +held the little flame lower....</p> + +<p>She groped her way half-blindly down the stairs, the candle left behind. +As she reached the foot a stamping sounded upon the porch outside the +living-room door. She ran toward it,—never had sound of human approach +been so madly welcome. Before she could reach the door a knock fell upon +it.</p> + +<p>She wrenched at the latch, finding the door frozen into place, as it had +been all through this weather. She tugged in vain for a moment, then a +voice called from the other side:</p> + +<p>"Look out! I'm going to push!"</p> + +<p>With a catch in her throat, her heart pounding even more wildly than it +had done before, she stood aside. What voice was that? It couldn't be +possible, of course, but it had sounded like one she knew in its every +inflection, one which did not belong to any of her nearby friends. It +could not be possible—it could not—but—</p> + +<p>The door crashed open, and a mound of snow fell in with it. Striding in +over the snow came a tall figure in an enveloping great coat, covered +with white from head to foot, the face ruddy and smiling.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>FROM THE BEGINNING</h3> + + +<p>John Leaver turned and tried to close the door, but the mound of snow +prevented. The wind was sweeping in with fury. "Go away from it," he +commanded. "I'll see to it."</p> + +<p>He kicked the snow out with his foot, crowded the door into place, and +turned about again. He stood still, looking at the figure before him, +with its startled face, wide eyes staring at him, breath coming short. +Charlotte's hands were pressed over her heart, she seemed unable to +speak.</p> + +<p>"Did I frighten you, rushing in upon you at this time of night?" The +smile upon his face died, he looked as if she had put out a hand to hold +him off. Then, as he regarded her more closely, he saw that which alarmed +him.</p> + +<p>"Is something wrong? Has something happened?" he asked hurriedly.</p> + +<p>She nodded, still staring with a strange, wild look. Then, in a breath, +she found speech and action.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come!" she gasped. "Granny is—something has happened to Granny!" +and ran to him and caught at his hand, like a child, pulling him.</p> + +<p>"Just a minute," he said, quickly, releasing himself, and pulled off his +snow-covered overcoat and frozen gloves, and threw them to one side. Then +he put out his hand to her.</p> + +<p>"Now!" he said, and they ran together to the stairs, and up them. At the +top Charlotte paused.</p> + +<p>"In there!" she whispered, and let him take the lead.</p> + +<p>Her hand held very tight in his he crossed the room. He took up the +candle from the dressing-table, approached the bed, and gave the candle +to Charlotte. Letting go her hand then, he bent and looked closely into +the still, peaceful old face ... made a brief, quiet examination....</p> + +<p>He led her down the stairs again. She was fully blind now, seeing +nothing, conscious of but two things—the sense of a great blow having +fallen stunningly, and the sense of being held firmly by a warm, strong +hand. She clung to that hand as if it were all that lay between sea and +shore.</p> + +<p>In the living-room, before the fire, she felt the hand draw itself gently +away. But then she found herself clasped in two warm arms, her head +pressed gently down upon a strong shoulder. A voice spoke with a +throbbing tenderness which seemed to envelop her:</p> + +<p>"Don't question anything, just let me take you to my heart—where you +belong. God sent me to you at this hour, I'm sure of it. I felt it all +the way—that you needed me. I am yours, body and soul. Let me serve you +and take care of you as if it had all been settled long ago. Be big +enough for that, dear."</p> + +<p>She listened, and let him have his way. Whatever might come after, there +seemed nothing else to do now. The Presence in the room above seemed to +have changed everything. One could not speak or act as might have been +possible an hour ago. Only the great realities counted now. Here were +two of them confronting her at once—Death and Love. How could she be +less primitively honest in the face of one than of the other?</p> + +<p>He put her in the winged chair, drew the white shawl closely about her +shoulders, dropped upon one knee by her side, and, taking possession once +more of her hand, spoke low and decidedly:</p> + +<p>"I will go over to the Macauleys and send Mrs. Macauley to you. Then Mr. +Macauley and I will take everything in charge—with your permission?"</p> + +<p>He waited for her assent. She gave it with closed eyes, her head tilted +back against the wing of the chair, her lips pressed tight together that +they might not tremble.</p> + +<p>"You will want to take her to Washington, or on to South Carolina?"</p> + +<p>"South Carolina—where she was born."</p> + +<p>"We shall not be able to start till the storm is over. There is no train +or trolley service out from the city to-night, and there will not be +until the wind and drifting stops. My train was ten hours late. I should +have been here this morning. Meanwhile, I will stay just where you want +me. You and Mrs. Macauley can settle that. I wish for your sake Mrs. +Burns were here—and Red."</p> + +<p>"They are not here? Then—how did you come to—"</p> + +<p>"Come home before them? I couldn't stay away contentedly as long as they. +I had had an all-summer's vacation, and wanted to be at work. But I came +from the ship straight up here, to satisfy myself that all was well with +you. I found you—needing me. Can I help being thankful that I came?"</p> + +<p>"Dr. Leaver—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>Charlotte sat up suddenly, opening her eyes, pressing her free hand again +over her heart with that unconscious gesture as old as suffering.</p> + +<p>"If I had not insisted on keeping Granny here she would not have—would +not have—"</p> + +<p>She sank back, covering her face.</p> + +<p>"What had her being here to do with it? You took every care of her. She +was old—ripe—ready to go. The wonder is that she has lived so long, +with such a frail hold on life."</p> + +<p>"But—she had an exposure. This dreadful weather—night before last—her +window blew in—she was chilled—"</p> + +<p>Her voice broke. With difficulty she told him the story of the +experience. He lifted her hand to his lips and held it there. After +a minute he spoke very gently:</p> + +<p>"I doubt if that had anything to do with it. It was probably the crash of +the window blowing in that woke you, although you did not know it; she +may not have lain there but a moment. You overcame the slight chill, if +there was one, with your prompt measures. You brought her downstairs, +and carried her back. There was no strain whatever upon her, it was all +upon you. Dr. Burns has told me that her heart-action was the weakest and +most irregular he had encountered; that, at any hour, without seeming +provocation, it might stop. Why should you mourn? It was a happy way to +go—merely to stop breathing, as her attitude and expression show she +did. Her hour had come—you had nothing to do with it. Take that to your +heart, and don't blame yourself for one moment more."</p> + +<p>She lay back in the chair again, relaxing a little under the firm words.</p> + +<p>"Shall I go now and send Mrs. Macauley? It is nearly ten o'clock, time we +were letting them know. But before I go let me tell you one thing, then I +will say no more to-night. There is no more now to come between us than +there was a year ago when—listen, Charlotte—we knew—we both knew—that +we belonged to each other, and nothing waited but the spoken word. I dare +to say this to you, for I am sure, in my inmost soul, that you know as +well as I do where we stood at that time. And—the thing is gone which +came between us afterward."</p> + +<p>He stood up, put on his coat, said quietly: "You shall be alone but a +very short time," and went out.</p> + +<p>Left alone Charlotte laid both arms suddenly down upon the arm of the +chair—Granny's chair—and broke into a passion of weeping. It lasted +only for a little while, then she raised herself suddenly, threw back her +head, lifted both arms high—it was an old gesture of hers when she was +commanding her own self-control—gripping the clenched fists tight. Then, +as steps and the sound of voices were heard outside, she stood up, +holding herself quietly.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Macauley came in, excitedly sympathetic and eager to comfort, +she found a quiet mourner ready to talk with her more composedly than she +herself was able to do. Martha, shocked though she was by the sudden +call, was full of curiosity as to the return of John Leaver, and only +Charlotte's reticent dignity of manner kept back a torrent of eager +questions.</p> + +<p>"It's certainly very fortunate he's here," she admitted. "He can take +charge of the journey South, knowing trains and routes much better than +Jim or I do. Of course we will go with you, dear. I judge from what Dr. +Leaver says he will go all the way—which will certainly be a comfort. He +seems so strong and capable—so changed from the way he acted when he +first came here, languid and indifferent. Oh, how sorry Red and Ellen +will be not to be here! Red was so fond of dear Madam Chase."</p> + +<p>Martha proved not unpleasant company for that first night, for her +practical nature was always getting the better of her notion that she +must speak only of things pertaining to the occasion. She went out into +Charlotte's kitchen and stirred about there, returning with a tray of +light, hot food. She had been astonished at the meagreness of the +supplies she found, but made no comment.</p> + +<p>"You must keep up your strength, my dear girl," she urged, when Charlotte +faltered over the food. "It's a long way between now and the time when +it will be all over. We may be delayed a day or two in getting off, and +delayed all the way down. I hear this storm is raging all over the +country."</p> + +<p>Her words proved true. It was two days before the little party could be +off. During that time Charlotte was overwhelmed with attention from her +neighbours. The Macauleys and Chesters could not do enough. Either +Winifred or Martha was constantly with her, and their presence was not +ungrateful. John Leaver came and went upon errands, never seeing +Charlotte alone, but making no effort to do so, conveying to her by his +look or the grasp of his hand the comradeship which she felt more +convincingly with every passing hour. His personality seemed somehow as +vital and stirring as the course of a clear stream in a desert place.</p> + +<p>At the short, private service which preceded the departure of the party +for the train, he came and took his place beside her in a quiet way which +had in it the quality of a right. Although he did not touch or speak to +her the sense of his near presence was to her like a strong supporting +arm. When the moment came to leave the room she heard his whisper in her +ear and felt his hand upon her arm:</p> + +<p>"Courage! You are not going alone, you know."</p> + +<p>It went to her heart. On the threshold she suddenly looked up at him +through her veil, and met in return such a look as a woman may lean upon. +Her heart throbbed wildly in response, throbbed as only a sad heart may +when it realizes that there is to be balm for its wounds.</p> + +<p>All through the long journey Charlotte felt Leaver's constant support, +although he made no further effort to define the relation between them, +even when for a short space, now and then, the two were alone together. +Instead he talked of his hurried trip abroad with the Burnses, and once, +when they were pacing up and down a platform, at a long stop, he told her +of his visit to a certain noted specialist in Berlin.</p> + +<p>"I had had a breakdown in my work last spring," he said, in a quite +simple way, as if he were speaking of something unimportant. "I had made +up my mind that I could never hope fully to recover from its effects. Dr. +Z—— told me that I was perfectly recovered, that I was as sound, +mentally and physically, as I had ever been, and that, if I used ordinary +common sense in the future about vacations at reasonable intervals, there +was no reason why the experience should ever be repeated. This assurance +was what sent me home. I found I couldn't stay in Germany and go +sightseeing with my friends after that. I wanted to be at work again."</p> + +<p>"I wonder that Dr. Burns didn't want to rush home with you," Charlotte +observed—though it was not of Red Pepper she was thinking. This simple +statement, she knew, was the explanation he was giving her of the thing +he had said to her last August under her apple-tree. It made clear to her +that which she had suspected before—it somehow seemed, also, to take +away the last barrier between them.</p> + +<p>"Burns needed the change—he hasn't had a vacation except his honeymoon +for years. By the way, he's having a second honeymoon over there."</p> + +<p>"I'm very glad," Charlotte responded.</p> + +<p>Then the summons came for the return to the train, and Mr. and Mrs. +Macauley, waving to them from the other end of the platform, met them at +the step.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the third day the party reached their destination. They +were met at the small station by a staid but comfortable equipage, driven +by an old family coachman with grizzled, kinky hair and a black face full +of solemnity. They were taken to the hospitable home of the owner of the +dignified old carriage and the fat, well-kept horses which had brought +them to her door, and were there welcomed as only Southern hostesses can +welcome. Mrs. Catesby's mother had been a friend of Madam Chase's youth, +and for her sake the daughter had thrown open her house to do honour to +the ashes of one whom she had never seen.</p> + +<p>"How glad I am," Charlotte said, soon after her arrival, standing by a +window with kind Mrs. Catesby, "to come down here where it is spring. I +could never have borne it—to put Granny away under the snow. She didn't +like the snow, though she never said so. Are those camellias down by the +hedge? Oh, may I go out and pick some—for Granny?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you might like them—and might want to pick them yourself, or +I should have had them ready. I sent for no other flowers. I remember my +mother telling me how Madam Chase loved them—as she herself did."</p> + +<p>From an upper window, in the room to which he had been assigned, Leaver +saw Charlotte go down the garden path to the hedge, there to fill a small +basket with the snowy blooms. When she turned to go back to the house she +found him beside her.</p> + +<p>"I see now why you wanted no other flowers," he said, as he took the +basket. "These are like her—fair and pure and fragile."</p> + +<p>"She was fond of them. She wore them in her hair when she was a girl. +They have no fragrance; that is why I want them for her now. How people +can bear strong, sweet flowers around their dead I can never understand."</p> + +<p>"I have always wondered at that, too," Leaver admitted. "My mother had +the same feeling." He looked closely at Charlotte's face, as the bright +sunlight of the Southern spring morning fell upon it. "You are very +tired," he said, and his voice was like a caress. "Not in body, but in +mind—and heart. I wish, by some magic, I could secure for you two full +hours' sleep before—the hour."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't sleep. But I am strong, I shall not break down."</p> + +<p>"No, you will not break down; that wouldn't be like you. And +to-night—you shall sleep. I promise you that."</p> + +<p>"I wish you could," Charlotte said, and her lips trembled ever so +slightly. "But I shall not."</p> + +<p>"You shall. Trust me that you shall. I know a way to make you sleep."</p> + +<p>However that might be, she thought, his presence was now, as all through +this ordeal, the thing which stood between her and utter desolation. A +few hours later, when he stood beside her at the place which was to +receive that which they had brought to it, she felt as if she could not +have borne the knowledge that she was laying away her only remaining +kinswoman, if it had not been for the sense of protection which, even at +the supreme moment, he managed to convey to her. Her hand, as it lay +upon his arm, was taken and held in a close clasp, which tightened +possessively upon it, minute by minute, until it was as if the two were +one in the deep emotion of the hour.</p> + +<p>All the beauty of spring at her tenderest was in the air, as the little +party turned slowly away, in the light of the late afternoon sun. +Somewhere in the distance a bird was softly calling to its mate.</p> + +<p>Behind Charlotte and Leaver, the kindly old clergyman who had been Madam +Chase's life-long friend was gently murmuring:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Dust is dust, to dust returneth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was not written of the soul.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Upon the evening of that day, spent as such evenings are, in subdued +conversation at a hearthside, Leaver came across the room and spoke to +Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"I am wondering," he said, "if a short walk in the night air won't make +you fitter for sleep than you look now. It is mild and fine outside. Will +you come?"</p> + +<p>"It will do you good, Miss Ruston," urged her hostess, who had taken a +strong liking to Dr. Leaver. The Macauleys seconded the suggestion also, +and Charlotte, somewhat reluctantly as to outward manner, but, in spite +of sorrow and physical fatigue, with a strong leap of the heart, made +ready.</p> + +<p>As her companion closed the door behind them Charlotte understood that +she was alone with him at last, as she had not been alone with him in all +these days, even when no person was present. She had small time in which +to recognize what was coming, for, almost instantly, it was at hand. +There was a small park opposite the house, and to the deserted walk which +circled it she found herself led.</p> + +<p>"Dear," Leaver's voice began, in its tenderest inflection, "I have a +curious feeling that no words can make it any clearer between us than it +already is. Last winter we knew how it was with us—didn't we? Won't you +tell me that you knew? It is my dearest belief that you did."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew," Charlotte answered, very low.</p> + +<p>"To me it was the most beautiful thing I had ever dreamed of, that two +people could so understand and belong to each other before a word was +said. When the time came to speak, and—the thing had happened that made +it impossible, I can never tell you what it meant to me. When I found +you there in the North it seemed as if the last ounce had been added to +the burden I was bearing. I couldn't ask for your friendship; I couldn't +have taken it if you had given it to me. I had to have all or nothing. +Can you understand that?"</p> + +<p>She nodded. She put up one hand and lifted the thin black veil she was +wearing, and turned her face upward to the stars. They were very bright, +that February night, down in South Carolina.</p> + +<p>"But now," he went on, after a moment, "it is all plain before us. +Charlotte, am I a strangely presumptuous lover to take so much for +granted? I don't even ask if you have changed. Knowing you, that doesn't +seem possible to me. I have never wooed you, I have simply—recognized +you! You belonged to me. I was sure that you so recognized me. It has +been as I dreamed it would be, when I was a boy, dreaming my first dreams +about such things. I have known many women—have had a few of them for my +very good friends. I never cared to play at love with any one; it didn't +interest me. But when I saw you I loved you. I won't say 'fell in love;' +that's not the phrase. I loved you. The love has grown with every day I +have known you—grown even when I thought it was to be denied."</p> + +<p>"I know," Charlotte said again, and now she was smiling through tears at +the friendly stars above her.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you know," he answered, happily. "That's the wonderful thing to +me—that you should know."</p> + +<p>A little path wound through the park, as deserted as the street. He led +her into this, and, pausing where a group of high-grown shrubs screened +them from all possible passers-by, he spoke with all the passion he had +hitherto restrained.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte, are you my wife? Tell me so—<i>in this</i>!"</p> + +<p>He laid one arm about her shoulders, his hand lifted her face as he +stooped to meet it with his own. When he raised his head again it was to +look, as she had looked, toward the stars.</p> + +<p>"That was worth," he said tensely, "all the pain I have ever known." Then +as he led her on he spoke again with an odd wistfulness.</p> + +<p>"Dearest, I have talked about our love not needing words, and yet, I find +I want to hear your voice after all. Will you tell me, in words, how it +is with you? I want to hear!"</p> + +<p>After a moment she answered him, softly, yet with a vibrant sweetness +in her tone. "John Leaver, it is as you say. I have known, from the +first, that I—must love you. You made me, in spite of myself. I +couldn't—couldn't help it!"</p> + +<p>He bent his head, with a low murmur of happiness. Then: "And I thought I +could do without words!" he said.</p> + +<p>For the first time in many days Charlotte's lips curved suddenly into the +little provoking, arch smile which was one of her greatest charms.</p> + +<p>"I never thought I could!" she said.</p> + +<p>He laughed. "You shall not! And now I'm going to speak some very definite +words to which I want a very definite answer. Charlotte, you are—I can't +bear to remind you—as far as kinspeople go, quite alone in the world. +There is no reason why that should be true. The nearest of all relations +can be yours to-morrow. Will you marry me to-morrow, before we go North? +Then we shall be quite free to stop in Baltimore or to go on as you +prefer. I can go with you, at once, to close up the little house, if you +wish. Is there any reason why we should stay apart a day longer?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know of any that would appeal to you. But there is one."</p> + +<p>"May I know it?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. "I'm—very shabby," she said, reluctantly; "much shabbier +than you can guess."</p> + +<p>"We'll go by the way of New York, and you can buy all you need. That's an +objection which turns into an argument for the other side, for I want +very much to see a certain old friend in New York, who was out of town +when I landed last week. I can do it while you shop. Doesn't that +convince you?"</p> + +<p>"I can let it—if you really think it is best to be in such haste."</p> + +<p>"Why not? Why should we waste another day apart that we could spend +together? At its longest life is too short for love."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"I'm thankful, very thankful, that you are too womanly to insist on any +prolonging of what has certainly been separation enough. I felt that you +wouldn't. Oh, all through, it has been your womanliness I have counted +on, dear,—an inexhaustible, rich mine of sense and sweetness."</p> + +<p>"You rate me too high," Charlotte protested, softly. "I'm only a +working-woman, now, you know. All the old traditions of the family have +been set aside by me."</p> + +<p>"You have lived up to their traditions of nobility understood in just a +little different way. It is these years of effort which have made you +what you are. If I had known you in the days before trouble came to you +I might have admired your beauty, but I shouldn't have loved your soul."</p> + +<p>"Then"—she looked up into his face—"I'm glad for everything I've +suffered."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The sunlight was pouring in again, next morning, when Charlotte awoke. +She lay, for a little, looking out into the treetops, holding the coming +day against her heart.</p> + +<p>"I can't believe it; oh, I can't believe it," she whispered to herself. +"A week ago so heavy and forlorn and poor—to-day, in spite of losing +Granny, so rich, rich. I'm to be—his wife—this day—his wife! O God! +make me fit for him; make me fit to take his love!"</p> + +<p>When she went downstairs she found him waiting at the foot, looking up at +her with his heart in his eyes, though his manner was as quiet and +composed as ever. At his side stood Martha Macauley, excited and eager. +The moment that Leaver's hand had released Charlotte's Martha had her in +her arms.</p> + +<p>"You dear girl!" she cried. "Of all the romantic things I ever heard of! +I'm so upset I don't know what to do or say, except that I think you're +doing just exactly right. It's as Dr. Leaver says; there isn't a thing in +the way. Why shouldn't you go back together? Only I wish Ellen and Red +were here; they're certain to feel cheated."</p> + +<p>"We'll try to make it up to them," Leaver said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," declared James Macauley, joining them. "I like the idea +of getting these things over quietly, without any fuss over trunkfuls of +clothes. If a lady always looks like a picture, whatever she wears, why +should she need fairly to jump out of her frame because she's getting +married?"</p> + +<p>Upstairs, a little later, Martha, coming in upon Charlotte, as she bent +over a tiny trunk, put a solicitous question:</p> + +<p>"My dear, if there's anything in the world I can lend you, will you let +me do it? I have a few quite pretty things with me, and I'd love to give +them to you."</p> + +<p>Lifting a flushed, smiling face Charlotte answered: "That's dear of you, +but I think I have enough—of the things that really matter. I've only +this one travelling dress, but as we shall go straight to New York I can +soon have the frock or two I need. It's so fortunate I brought a trunk at +all. When I came away I was so uncertain just what would happen next, or +how long I might want to stop on the way back, that I put in all the +white things I had there."</p> + +<p>"And beautiful white things they are, too, if that is a sample," said +Martha, noting with feminine interest a dainty garment in Charlotte's +hands. "You're lucky to have them."</p> + +<p>"My mother left stores and stores of such things, and I've been making +them into modern ones ever since. They are my one luxury," and Charlotte +laid the delicate article of embroidered linen and lace in its place with +a loving little pat, as if she were touching the mother to whom it had +belonged. "Otherwise I'm pretty shabby. Yet, I can't seem to mind much."</p> + +<p>"You don't look shabby. You look much trimmer and prettier in that suit +and hat than I in mine, though mine were new this fall. If you knew how +I envy you that look you would be quite satisfied with your old clothes," +said Martha, generously. "And as for the husband you are getting—well—I +suppose you know you're in the greatest sort of good fortune. All the way +down here I've been watching him—Jim says I haven't done anything +else—and I certainly never saw a man who seemed so always to know how +and when to do the right thing. If ever there was a gentleman, born and +bred, Dr. Leaver is certainly that one. And he's a man, too—a splendid +one."</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you recognize that," said Charlotte, a joyous ring in her +voice.</p> + +<p>Ten o'clock, the hour set for the marriage, came on flying feet. Before +Charlotte could fairly realize it she was walking down the street of the +small Southern village to the little old church which Mrs. Rodney +Rutherford Chase had attended as a girl. The old rector who met them +there had been a life-long friend of the Chase family. Then, in a sort +of strange dream, Charlotte found herself standing by John Leaver's side, +listening to the familiar yet quite new and strange words of the marriage +service. She heard his voice, gravely repeating the solemn vows, her own, +following them with the vows which correspond, then the old rector's deep +tones announcing that they two were one in the sight of God and man.</p> + +<p>She felt her husband's kiss upon her lips, and, turning, lifted her +tear-wet, shining eyes to his. At that moment they two might have been +alone in the world for all their consciousness of any other presence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE COUNTRY SURGEON</h3> + + +<p>Redfield Pepper Burns and Mrs. Burns returned from their stay in Germany +just three months later than they had intended. The opportunities for +extended study and observation had proved so tempting to the surgeon who +had taken only a fortnight's vacation in several years that he had +decided to make the most of them. The pair had been kept fully informed +of the progress of events, had wept tears of gentle grief over the news +of Granny's sudden passing, and had smiled with satisfaction over that +which shortly followed it—the news of the marriage which had immediately +taken place.</p> + +<p>Charlotte had written to her friend a brief description, which—Ellen +reading it aloud to her husband—had called forth his sparkling-eyed +comment:</p> + +<p>"It's rather refreshing to find a woman who doesn't make clothes the most +important part of the ceremony, isn't it? No doubt at all but Jack's +found the right woman, eh?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt in the world," and Ellen's eyes silently went over the few +paragraphs again, reading between the lines, as a woman will, and as +Charlotte had known she would.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I thought I couldn't possibly sleep that night, when it had all been +arranged,"—the letter ran—"though I was so tired with all I had been +through. But in an hour I had gone straight off, and slept like a child, +my head on such a soft, soft pillow of confidence and rest. O Len,—to +lie on a pillow like that, after months of laying my unhappy head on +stones!</p> + +<p>"At ten next morning we went to the little stone church, all overgrown +with ivy, where Granny was a communicant so many years, and there we were +married, with Mrs. Catesby, Mr. Macauley and Martha for witnesses, and +Dr. Markham, the dear old rector, to give us his blessing. After that +John and I walked over to the place where we had laid dear Granny the day +before.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't sad, Len; how could it be? The flowers were still fresh +over her, and that blessed sunshine was so bright,—as it is in South +Carolina, I think, when all the rest of the world is dark. When we came +away I felt as I often have when I have put that little frail body to bed +and tucked her in and blown out her candle—as if she must surely sleep +well till morning. I am sure she will—sure!</p> + +<p>"Our whole party came North together as far as Harrisburg, then John and +I said good-bye to them and came over to New York, where I am writing to +you, now. I am buying a few simple clothes, just enough to begin to live +with in my new home. In a few days we go to Baltimore, where we shall +settle down in the house, which is just as it was left when John's mother +died, five years ago. He says I may change anything I wish, but from all +I know of his mother and himself I imagine that I shall not care to make +many changes in so fine an old place. He has his offices in a wing—I'm +so glad of that. She wanted him at home, and so shall I.</p> + +<p>"Len, you will want to know if I am happy. Do I need to tell you? All my +old readiness of speech fails me when I come to this. In spite of the way +talk bubbles from me, on ordinary subjects, you know I have never said +much of the big things of my life. I didn't tell you a word of all there +was between your guest of last summer and me. Neither can I talk about it +now.</p> + +<p>"Just this, to satisfy you, dear. Every time I look at his beautifully +strong, sweet, grave face, at his splendid quiet confidence of manner, +as he leaves me to go away to do some of the wonderful work he does, or +comes back to me after having done that work, I realize what it means to +be the wife of such a man. Oh, yes, I am happy, Len, so gloriously happy +I can't tell you another word about it!"</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When Burns and Ellen landed in New York in late May they were met by a +telegram. Burns read it hurriedly, re-read it with a laugh, and handed +it to his wife.</p> + +<p>"Seems peremptory," he commented. "Shall we let Jack dictate? It will +mean only a short delay, and though I'm anxious to get home I'd like +mighty well to see them, shouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>The despatch read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Important clinic on Thursday should like your assistance my wife urges +the necessity of seeing Mrs. Burns without further delay please take +first train for Baltimore.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leaver.</span></p></div> + +<p>"Yes, I want to see them," Ellen agreed. "I'm quite willing to delay if +you will send Bob a telegram, all to himself, explaining and telling him +to tell the rest."</p> + +<p>"That will please him enough to make up for our failure to arrive on +the promised day. We'll run down for twenty-four hours with them, at +least.... I confess I'm eager to see Jack do one of his big stunts again. +And I'll wager I can show him one trick that even he doesn't know—the +last thing I got at Vienna, under W——"</p> + +<p>He sent off the message to Bobby Burns without delay, and despatched +another to Leaver, announcing their arrival that evening. In two hours +more they were on their way, and at six o'clock they were met in the +Baltimore station by Leaver himself.</p> + +<p>"See the old chap grin!" said Burns in his wife's ear, when they descried +the tall figure in the distance, coming toward them with smiling face and +alert step. "Can that be the desperately down person who came to us last +June? He looks as if—in a perfectly quiet way—he owned the city of +Baltimore!"</p> + +<p>"How well, how splendidly well, he looks!" Ellen agreed.</p> + +<p>Then they were shaking hands with Dr. John Leaver and listening to his +hearty greeting:</p> + +<p>"This is great of you two—great. We certainly appreciate it. Come, I'll +have you at home before you know it. Charlotte is waiting with the +warmest welcome you will find on this side of the Atlantic!"</p> + +<p>He hurried them away, but not so fast that Red Pepper Burns did not find +time to chuckle: "The power of association is beginning to tell already, +Jack. That was the most impetuous speech I ever heard from your lips. I +don't call such language really restrained—not from you."</p> + +<p>Leaver turned, laughing, to Ellen. "One would think I had been the most +solemn fellow known to history," said he.</p> + +<p>In two minutes he had bestowed his guests in a small but luxuriously +appointed closed car, had given the word to his chauffeur, and had taken +his place facing them. Burns examined the landau's interior with +interest.</p> + +<p>"The evidence of a slight but unmistakable odour tells me that this +is the jewel-box in which Baltimore's gem of a surgeon keeps his +appointments," said he. "Well, the Green Imp's beginning to show traces +of her age, but her successor will be no aristocrat of this type. I'd +rather drive myself and freeze my face to a granite image than be +transported in cotton-wool, like this."</p> + +<p>Leaver and Ellen laughed at his expression.</p> + +<p>"Of course you would," Leaver agreed. "And equally of course every friend +and patient of yours would grieve to see you shut up behind glass windows +with another hand on the steering-wheel. It's unthinkable and out of the +question for you, but for me—it's rather practical."</p> + +<p>Burns nodded. "Saves time—and carries prestige. I understand. You city +fellows have to play to the galleries a bit, particularly when you've +reached the top-notch and people demand that you live up to it. It's all +right. But I should feel smothered. And as for letting any young man in +a livery manage my spark and throttle,—well, not for mine, as I have +already remarked."</p> + +<p>Leaver looked at him as one man looks at another when he loves him better +than a brother. Then he put a question to Red Pepper's wife: "Can any one +wonder that there seems something missing in America when he spends the +winter in Germany?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "I never mean to find out what America is like when +he is out of it," said she.</p> + +<p>Burns regarded them both. "And I suppose you think you and Mrs. John +Leaver are just such another pair?" he said then, to his friend.</p> + +<p>"Just such another," was the decided answer.</p> + +<p>The car came to a standstill before a stately stone house, its walls +heavy with English ivy. In another minute the entrance doors were open, +and the party were inside. A radiant figure in white was clasping Ellen +Burns in eager arms, while a blithe voice cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear, this is so good, so good of you! We couldn't be entirely +satisfied until we had seen you here!"</p> + +<p>"Seeing <i>you</i> here," declared Burns, shaking hands vigorously, when his +turn came, and regarding Charlotte with approving eyes, "reminds me of +one of Jack Leaver's favourite old maxims, which he used unsparingly +while he was chumming with me: 'A place for everything and everything in +its place.' The demonstration of that, raised to the nth power, is +certainly what I now see before me!"</p> + +<p>Charlotte's glowing eyes met her husband's fixed upon her. She gave him +back his smile before she answered Burns:</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Dr. Red Pepper. Your approval was all that was lacking."</p> + +<p>"Didn't I cable my approval with a reckless disregard of expense?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed you did. But you couldn't cable the italics that are in your +face—and it was the italics that we wanted!"</p> + +<p>Upstairs in the rooms of old-time elegance and comfort to which Charlotte +assigned them, Burns demanded to know how such quarters looked to his +wife.</p> + +<p>"You could put our whole house into that great living-room of theirs," he +asserted. "As for these two rooms, they would take in our whole upper +story. Don't you suppose stopping here will make you feel cramped at +home?"</p> + +<p>Ellen, arranging her hair before a low dressing-table of priceless old +mahogany, shook her head at him in the mirror.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," she denied.</p> + +<p>"You used to live in a home like this one."</p> + +<p>"Not nearly so fine. Dr. Leaver is a rich man by inheritance, entirely +apart from his practice. Between the two he must have a very large yearly +income. My family was not a rich one, only—"</p> + +<p>"Only old and distinguished. Leaver has both—family and money. Not to +mention power. Your friend Charlotte ought to be a happy woman."</p> + +<p>"She surely ought, and is. But not happier than the woman you see before +you."</p> + +<p>Burns came close, lifted a strand of silky dark hair and drew it through +his fingers. Then he stooped and put it to his lips.</p> + +<p>"You stand by the country doctor, do you?" he murmured.</p> + +<p>"Always and forever, dear."</p> + +<p>"And yet you are a city woman, born and bred."</p> + +<p>"What has that to do with it? I should rather drive in the Green Imp over +the country hills with you than ride in the most superb limousine in +Baltimore—with any one else."</p> + +<p>He gathered her close in his arms for a minute. "Begone, dull envy," +said he. "From this moment I'll rejoice with Jack over every worldly +possession and envy him nothing, not even the power to give his wife +everything the world counts riches."</p> + +<p>They went down to such a dinner as such homes are famous for. The +candle-light from the fine old family candelabra fell upon four faces +brilliant with the mature youthfulness which marks the years about the +early thirties, the richest years of all yet lived. The splendid colour +of the crimson roses in the centre of the table was not richer in its +bloom than that in Charlotte's cheeks, nor the sparkle of the lights more +attractive than that in Ellen's dark eyes. As for the two men—all the +possible achievement of forceful manhood seemed written in their faces, +so different in feature and colouring, so alike in the look of dominant +purpose and the power born of will and untiring labour.</p> + +<p>During dinner a telephone call summoned Leaver to a consultation. +Immediately at its close he went away, carrying Burns with him.</p> + +<p>"You can't take me to a consultation, Jack," Burns had objected, with, +however, a betraying light of eagerness in his eye. He had been four +months away from work—he was hungry for it as a starving man for food.</p> + +<p>"Can't I?" Leaver answered, coolly. "Come along and see. It's a chance +to give the patient the opinion of an eminent specialist just back from +Berlin."</p> + +<p>"I'm no specialist."</p> + +<p>"Aren't you? I think you are. Specialist in human nature, which, if the +reports of this case are true, is the particular sort of diagnosis called +for. Trust me, Red, and—put on your gloves!"</p> + +<p>Burns had grinned over this suggestion. He hated gloves and seldom +wore them, but out of consideration for his friend—and Baltimore—he +extracted a pair of irreproachable ones, fresh from Berlin, and donned +them, with only a derisive word for the uselessness of externals as +practised by city professionals.</p> + +<p>Left alone with Charlotte, in a pleasant corner of a stately library, by +an open window through which she had watched the departure of the two men +in the landau, Ellen turned to her.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you," she said, "how happy it makes me to see your +happiness. John Leaver is so exactly the man, out of all the world, who +is the husband for you. From all I know of you both, it seems to me +I never saw a pair more perfectly mated."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad it looks so from the outside," breathed Charlotte, softly. She +too had watched the departing pair; waving her hand as her husband, under +the electric light at the entrance, had turned to lift his hat and signal +farewell. She still stood by the window, through which the soft air of +the May night touched her warm cheek and stirred the lace about her white +shoulders. "From the inside—O Len,—I can't tell you how it looks! I +didn't know there was such glory in the world!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"What do you think this fellow has done?" cried Red Pepper Burns, +returning with his host at midnight. He towered in the doorway, looking +in at his wife and Charlotte. From over his shoulder Leaver looked in +also, smiling. "He's arranged for me to operate on one of his most +critical cases to-morrow morning at his clinic. The country surgeon! Did +you ever hear of such effrontery? I may be ridden out of town on a rail +by to-morrow noon!"</p> + +<p>"Hear the man! He looks like a country surgeon, doesn't he?" challenged +Leaver, advancing. "London-made clothes, Bond-street neckwear, scarfpin +from Rome, general air of confidence and calm. I assure you I was +nowhere, when the family of my patient saw the lately arrived specialist +from Berlin."</p> + +<p>"It's not on that patient I'm to do violence," Burns explained, at +Ellen's look of astonishment. "He's just mixing things up on purpose. +It's a charity case for mine—but none the less honour, on that account. +I have a chance to try out a certain new method, adapted from one I saw +used for the first time abroad. If it doesn't work I'll—drop several +pegs in my own estimation, and in self-confidence."</p> + +<p>"It will work," said Leaver, "in your hands. The country surgeon is going +to surprise one or two of my colleagues to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The morrow came. Charlotte and Ellen drove with the two men to the +hospital, and watched them disappear within its bare but kindly walls.</p> + +<p>"How they can do it!" observed Charlotte, as the car went on. "I'm +proud of them that they can, but the eagerness with which they approach +such work, the quiet and coolness, and the way they bear the suspense +afterward when the result is still doubtful,—oh, isn't it a wonderful +profession?"</p> + +<p>At noon they returned in the car to the hospital. It was some time before +Leaver and Burns emerged, but when they did it was easy for the two who +awaited them to infer that all had gone well.</p> + +<p>"It's a pity to bring this suggestive odour out to you untainted ones," +said Burns, as he took his place opposite Charlotte, "but it can't be +helped. And as we bring also the news that Jack Leaver has brought down +the hospital roof with applause this morning, you won't mind."</p> + +<p>"What did he do?" Charlotte asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>Burns briefly described the case—without describing it at all—after the +manner of the profession when enlightening the laity. He brought out +clearly, however, the fact that Leaver had attacked with great skill and +success several exceedingly difficult problems, and that his fellow +surgeons had been generous enough to concede to him all the honour which +was his due.</p> + +<p>"And now—what about your case?" Charlotte asked, realizing suddenly what +the morning's experience was to have been to Burns himself.</p> + +<p>"Died on the table," said Burns, with entire coolness. His face had +sobered at the question, but his expression was by no means crestfallen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Charlotte began, earnestly.</p> + +<p>But her husband interrupted her. "No condolences are due, dear. He gave a +dying man the most merciful sort of euthanasia, and at the same time +demonstrated a new method as daring as it was triumphant. With a case +taken a month earlier it would have saved a life. The demonstration is a +contribution to science. If he received no applause it was because we +don't applaud in the presence of death, but there was not a man there +who didn't realize that in certain lines the country surgeon could give +them a long handicap and still win."</p> + +<p>Burns looked out of the window without speaking. His sea-tanned face +showed a deeper shade under Leaver's praise. Leaver himself smiled at the +averted profile of his friend, and went on, while Ellen looked at him as +if he had given her something which money could not buy.</p> + +<p>"I wish," said John Leaver, laying a firm-knit hand on Burns's knee, +"you'd come to Baltimore, Red. Between us we'd do some things pretty well +worth doing. Without undue conceit I think I could promise you a backing +to start on that would give you a place in a twelvemonth that couldn't be +taken away from you in a decade. Why not? It's a beautiful city to live +in. Your wife is a Southerner, born and bred; it would be home to her +among our people. My wife and I care more for your friendship than for +that of any other people on earth. What is friendship for, if not to make +the most of?"</p> + +<p>Burns turned and looked at him, then at his wife, then back at Leaver. +There was a strange expression in his hazel eyes; they seemed suddenly on +fire beneath the heavy dark eyebrows. He took off his hat and ran his +hand through his coppery thick locks. Then:</p> + +<p>"Are you serious, Jack?" he questioned. "Or are you trying the biggest +kind of a bluff?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely serious. How should I be anything else? You taught me certain +values up at your home last summer—you and Mrs. Burns. One was, as I +have said, the worth of a big, true friendship. I've been thinking of +this thing a long time. It's not the result of your performance this +morning. If you had failed entirely in that particular attempt my faith +in you would not have been shaken a particle, nor my desire to have you +associated with me here. But there's no denying that what you did this +morning would easily make an entering wedge for you. Why not take +advantage of it? Will you think it over?"</p> + +<p>Burns looked again at his wife. Her eyes held an expression as beautiful +as it was inscrutable. He could not read it.</p> + +<p>He turned back to Leaver. "Yes, we'll think it over," he said briefly. +Then he looked out of the window again. "What's the name of this park?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>The conversation veered to follow his lead. It was not resumed during the +drive home, nor again that day, between the four. It cannot be denied +that the subject was discussed by John Leaver and Charlotte through +varying degrees of hopefulness and enthusiasm. As for Burns and Ellen—</p> + +<p>In their own quarters that night Burns threw a plump silk couch-pillow +upon the floor at Ellen's feet, and himself upon it, by her knee, as +she sat in a big chair by the open window. She was still wearing the +Parisian-made gown of the evening, with which she had delighted the eyes +of them all. It was the one such gown she had allowed herself to bring +home, treating herself to its beauty for its own sake, rather than +because she could find much use for it in her quiet home.</p> + +<p>Burns put up one hand and gently smoothed the silken fabric upon Ellen's +knee.</p> + +<p>"This is a beauty of a frock," said he. "I can't tell you what you look +like in it; I've been trying to find a simile all the evening. Yet it's +not the clothes that become you; you become the clothes."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. That's a dear compliment—from a husband."</p> + +<p>"It's sincere. You've worn such clothes a lot, in your life, before I +knew you. You are used to them—at home in them. If we came to Baltimore, +and I made good, you would have plenty of use for dresses like this. You +would queen it, here."</p> + +<p>She smiled, shaking her head. "Taking one's place in society in any +Southern city isn't quite such a foregone conclusion, dear," she said. +"Not for strangers from the North."</p> + +<p>"With the Leavers to vouch for us, and your own personality, I don't +imagine it would be a matter of tremendous difficulty. Even the country +surgeon could get along without smashing many usages, under your tuition. +Besides, you have the acquaintance of some of the—what do they call +them?—'best people,' was the term, I believe, Jack used to me. It's a +curious phrase, by the way, isn't it? Doesn't mean at all what it says!"</p> + +<p>"Not quite—always."</p> + +<p>He looked at her. "Would you like to come?" he asked, bluntly.</p> + +<p>"What about you?"</p> + +<p>"I would rather you answered first."</p> + +<p>"I decline to answer first. The offer is made to you, not me. You are the +head of the house, the breadwinner. It is for you to decide."</p> + +<p>"I can't decide without reference to you."</p> + +<p>"You needn't. When you tell me what you want I will tell you what I +want."</p> + +<p>He was silent for a little. Then suddenly he got to his feet, walked up +and down the room a few times, and came back to stand before her.</p> + +<p>"My little wife," he said, "if I thought you would be happier—"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely. If you wanted very much to come it would influence me, of +course. But doubting that—"</p> + +<p>"Why do you doubt it? Shouldn't I be lacking in ambition if I failed to +take advantage of such a chance? It is a chance, Ellen,—the chance of a +lifetime. Jack means precisely what he says, and he could give me such a +backing as would insure me a tremendous start."</p> + +<p>"Just the same, Red, you don't want to come!"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," he owned, bluntly. "But why don't I? Is something wrong +with me?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. You have made a large place for yourself at home; you do all +any man could do anywhere. And you are happy there. You wouldn't be happy +here, because you would have to alter your simple way of living. And if +you were not happy, neither should I be. Why should we change conditions +in which we are both entirely content, and in which you are accomplishing +just as much benefit to humanity as you could anywhere?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, but that's the question. Couldn't I accomplish more here?"</p> + +<p>"Is human life more valuable here than there?"</p> + +<p>"Not a whit."</p> + +<p>"Could you save more of it?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt it."</p> + +<p>"We should have to leave Sunny Farm." She looked up at him with a smile.</p> + +<p>"We should." He shook his head. "You would be sorry to do that?"</p> + +<p>"So sorry that I can't possibly think of it. Dear,—make your decision!"</p> + +<p>"I will. We will stay where we are."</p> + +<p>He gathered her close and kissed her tenderly.</p> + +<p>"A place for everything, and everything in its place," he quoted once +more. "The place for Jack and Charlotte is here—unquestionably. The +place for Ellen and Red is there. I believe it. Jack's offer didn't shake +my belief for a minute, as far as I am concerned. It did put into my mind +the question whether I ought not to make the change for your sake."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe," she said slowly, "that a man is often called upon to +leave the place where he can be most useful, on account of his wife's +tastes or preferences—providing nothing more serious is involved. And, +when her tastes and preferences are on his side of the question, there +can be no doubt at all. You may be at rest, Red, for I'm sure I'm +happiest to live your life with you, just as it is best for you to live +it. And I love my country surgeon so well I don't want him made over into +anything else. I can't believe he'd be so satisfactory in any other +shape!"</p> + +<p>Red Pepper Burns gently released himself from his wife's arms, walked +over to the window, and stood there looking out into the thick branches +of a magnolia tree, the ends of which came so close he could almost put +out a hand into the night and touch them. There was suddenly upon him a +deep realization of just how much her words meant. He felt unworthy of a +love like that, even though he knew that all there was of him to give was +wholly hers.</p> + +<p>She stood, motionless, looking after him, her eyes touched with a lovely +light, but she did not move. And, presently, when he had conquered the +curious stricture which had unexpectedly attacked his throat, he turned +and saw her there, an exquisite figure in the French gown which she could +seldom have occasion to wear where she had chosen to live out her life +with him. Both understood that the decision they had made was made for +a lifetime, as such decisions are.</p> + +<p>"I believe I could take it better," said he, somewhat unsteadily, "if you +weren't wearing that confounded dress. It makes me feel like what Jim +Macauley dubbed me once—a Turk. Who am I, that I should keep you hidden +away in my little old brick house?"</p> + +<p>She turned and caught up a long gauzy scarf of white silk with heavy +fringed ends. She drew it lightly about her shoulders, veiling the +delicate flesh from his sight. Then she flung one end of the scarf up +over her head and face, and came toward him, her dark eyes showing +mistily through the drapery, her lips smiling.</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure I don't like being guarded by my Turk, Red," she said. +"And—about the frock." She came closer still, standing before him with +downbent head, and speaking low, through the veiling, silken gauze. +"Please don't mind about that. I'm going to leave it behind with +Charlotte. I shall not care to wear it. When next May comes I hope I +shall be wearing only simple frocks that—little hands can't spoil!"</p> + +<p>With a low ejaculation he tore off the scarf, seizing her head in both +his hands and gently forcing her face upward that he might look into it. +For a minute his eyes questioned hers, then—</p> + +<p>"And you're happy about it?" he asked of her breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"I was never so happy in my life.... O Red—are you so glad as that?"</p> + +<p>"I think I've been waiting for that all my life," confessed Red Pepper +Burns.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2><a name="Other_Books_by_Grace_S._Richmond" id="Other_Books_by_Grace_S._Richmond"></a>Other Books by Grace S. Richmond</h2> + +<p>Red Pepper Burns</p> + +<p>Strawberry Acres</p> + +<p>Brotherly House</p> + +<p>A Court of Inquiry</p> + +<p>On Christmas Day in the Morning</p> + +<p>On Christmas Day in the Evening</p> + +<p>Round the Corner in Gay Street</p> + +<p>With Juliet in England</p> + +<p>The Indifference of Juliet</p> + +<p>The Second Violin</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Red Pepper, by Grace S. Richmond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. RED PEPPER *** + +***** This file should be named 16373-h.htm or 16373-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/7/16373/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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Richmond + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. RED PEPPER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Mrs. Red Pepper + + By Grace S. Richmond + +Author of "Red Pepper Burns," "The Indifference of Juliet," "With Juliet +in England," "Strawberry Acres," Etc. + + 1913 + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. Wholly Given Over to Sentiment + + II. The Way to Attain an End + + III. Burns Does His Duty + + IV. A Red Head + + V. More Than One Opinion + + VI. Broken Steel Wires + + VII. Points of View + + VIII. Under the Apple Tree + + IX. A Practical Artist + + X. A Runaway Road + + XI. After Dinner + + XII. A Challenge + + XIII. A Crisis + + XIV. Before the Lens + + XV. Flashlights + + XVI. In February + + XVII. From the Beginning + +XVIII. The Country Surgeon + + + + +MRS. RED PEPPER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHOLLY GIVEN OVER TO SENTIMENT + + +The Green Imp, long, low and powerful, carrying besides its two +passengers a motor trunk, a number of bulky parcels, and a full share +of mud, drew to one side of the road. The fifth April shower of the +afternoon was on, although it was barely three o'clock. + +Redfield Pepper Burns, physician and surgeon, descended from the car, a +brawny figure in an enveloping gray motoring coat. He wore no hat upon +his heavy crop of coppery red hair--somewhere under the seat his cap was +abandoned, as usual. His face was brown with tan--a strong, fine face, +with dark-lashed hazel eyes alight under thick, dark eyebrows. From head +to foot he was a rather striking personality. + +"This time," said he, firmly, "I'm going to leave the top up. It's +putting temptation in the way of something very weak to keep lowering the +top. We'll leave it up. There'll be one advantage." He looked round the +corner of the top into the face of his companion, as his hands adjusted +the straps. + +"When we get to the fifty-miles-from-the-office stone, which we're going +to do in about five minutes, I can take leave of my bride without having +to observe the landscape except from the front." + +"So you're going to take leave of her," observed his passenger. She did +not seem at all disturbed. As the car moved on she drew back her veil +from its position over her face, leaving her head covered only by a +close-fitting motoring bonnet of dark green, from within which her face, +vivid with the colouring born of many days driving with and without +veils, met without flinching the spatter of rain the fitful April wind +sent drifting in under the edge of the top. Her black eyelashes caught +the drops and held them. + +"Yes, I'm going to say good-bye to her at that stone," repeated Burns. +"She's been the joy of my life for two weeks, and I'll never forget her. +But she couldn't stand for the change of conditions we're going to find +the minute we strike the old place. It's only my wife who can face +those." + +"If the bride is to be left behind, I suppose the bridegroom will stay +with her? Together, they'll not be badly off." + +Burns laughed. "Ye gods! Is that what I've been--a bridegroom? I'm glad +I didn't realize it; it would have made me act queerer than I have. Well, +it's been a happy time--a gloriously happy time, but--" + +He paused and looked down at her for an instant, rather as if he +hesitated to say what was in his mind. He did not know that he had +already said it. + +But she knew it, and she smiled at him, understanding--and sympathizing. +"But you are glad you are on your way back to your work," said she. "So +am I." + +He drew a relieved breath. "Bless you," said he. "I'm glad you are--if +it's true. It's only that I'm so refreshed by this wonderful fortnight +that I--well--I want to go to work again--work with all my might. I feel +as if I could do the best work of my life. That doesn't mean that I don't +dread to see the first patient, for I do. Whoever he is, I hate the sight +of him! Can you understand?" + +She nodded. "It will be like the first plunge into cold water. But once +in--" + +"That's it. Of course, if he happened to be lying on my lawn, all mangled +up and calling for me to save his life, I'd welcome the sight of him, +poor chap. But he won't be interesting, like that. He'll be a victim of +chronic dyspepsia. Or worse--she'll be a woman who can't sleep without a +dope. I have to get used to that kind by degrees, after a vacation; I +don't warm up to 'em, on sight." + +"Yet they're very miserable, some of those patients who are quite able to +walk to your office, and very grateful to you if you relieve them, aren't +they?" + +Red Pepper chuckled. "I can foresee," he said, "that you're going to take +the side of the unhappy patient, from the start--worse luck for me! Yes, +they're grateful if I can relieve them, but the trouble is I can't +relieve them--not the particular class I have in mind. They won't do as I +order. And as long as I can't get them comfortably down in bed, where the +nurse and I have the upper hand, they'll continue to carry out half of my +directions--the half they approve, and neglect the other half--the really +important half, and then come round and tell me I haven't helped them +any--and why not? Oh, well--far be it from me to complain of the routine +work, much as I prefer the sort which calls for all the skill and +resource I happen to possess. And the dull part is going to take on a new +interest, now, when I can escape from the office into my wife's quarters, +between times, where no patient can follow me." + +She smiled, watching a big cloud, low on the horizon before them, break +into fragments and dissolve into blue sky and sunshine. "I hope," said +she, "to be able to make those quarters attractive. You remember I +haven't seen them yet--not even the bare rooms." + +"That's bothered me a good deal, in spite of the assurance you gave me, +when we discussed it by letter. If I hadn't been so horribly busy, and +had had the faintest notion of what to do with them--or if you had wanted +Martha and Winifred to put them in shape for you--" + +"But I didn't! It's going to be such fun to work it out, you and I +together." + +He shook his head. "Don't count on me, dear. I probably shan't +have time to do more than take you in to town and drop you in the +shopping district. You'll have to do it all. You've married a doctor, +Ellen--that's the whole story. And it's the knowledge of that fact +that makes me realize that I may as well leave my bride at the +fifty-mile-stone. It'll take my wife that fifty miles to prepare herself +for the thing that's going to strike her the minute we are home. And, by +the fates, I believe that's the stone, ahead there, at the curve of the +road!" + +He brought the Green Imp's pace down until it was moving very slowly +toward the mile-stone. Then he turned and looked steadily down into the +face beside him. "Shall you be sorry to get there?" he asked. + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"Because I don't want to be a bride. They are useless persons. And I +don't care much for bridegrooms, either. I prefer a busy husband. And +I shall enjoy getting those rooms in order, quite by myself. To tell the +truth I'm not at all sure I don't prefer to do them alone. I've had one +enlightening experience, shopping with you, you know." + +"So you have." He laughed at the remembrance. "Yet I thought I was pretty +meek, that day. Well, so you don't mind getting to the mile-stone?" + +"Not a bit." + +They were beside it now. Burns stopped the car. It was a country road, +although it was the main highway between two large cities, and on this +April afternoon it was deserted by motorists. Only in the distance could +be discerned anything in the nature of a vehicle, and that was headed the +other way. + +"I suppose I'm a sentimental chap," he observed. "But in one way I've +been rather dreading getting home, for your sake. It's come over me, +since we turned our faces this way, that not a thing has been done to +make my shabby old place fit for you--except to clean it thoroughly. +Cynthia's seen to that. Does it seem as if I hadn't cared to give you +a fit welcome home?" + +His eyes were a little troubled, as they searched hers. But they +grew light again as they read in her serene glance that she did not +misunderstand him. + +"Red," said she--and her hand slipped into his--"I like best to come into +your house, just as it is. Take me in--that's all I ask--and trust me to +make my own home there--and in your heart. That's all I want." + +"You're in my heart," said her husband, "so close and warm there's not +much room for anything else." + +"Then don't worry about the house. It will be a dear delight to fill the +empty rooms; I've a genius for that sort of thing. Wait and see. And +meanwhile"--she smiled up into his nearing face--"say good-bye to your +bride. She's quite ready to go--and give place to your wife." + +So Redfield Pepper Burns kissed his bride, with the ardour of farewell. +But the next minute, safe in the shelter of the deep-hooded top, he had +welcomed his wife with his heart of hearts upon his lips, and a few +low-spoken words in her ear which would make the fiftieth-from-the-office +mile-stone a place to remember for them both. + +Then he drove on, silently, for a while, as if the little roadside +ceremony had left behind it thoughts too deep for expression. And, quite +unconsciously, his hand upon the throttle was giving the Imp more and +more power, so that the car flew past the succeeding mile-stones at such +short intervals that before the pair knew it they were within sight of +the city on the farther side of which lay the suburban village which was +their home. + +"I might stop at the hospital and see how things are," said Burns as they +entered the city's outskirts. "But it would be precisely my luck to find +something to detain me, and I think I owe it to you to take you home +before I begin on anything else." + +"Stop, if you want to, Red," said Ellen. "I expected you would." + +"But I don't want to. I might have to send some one else to drive you out +to the house, and that would break me up. I want to see you walk in at +the door, and know that you belong there. Then, if you like, and not till +then, I'll be content to go on duty at the old job." + +So he took her home. As they approached the village the ninth April +shower of the afternoon came blustering up, accompanied by a burst of +wind and considerable thunder and lightning, so that when they caught +sight of the low-lying old brick house, well back from the street, which +was Red Pepper Burns's combined home and office, after the fashion of the +village doctor, it was through a wall of rain. + +But the house was not the only thing they saw. In the street before +the house stood a row of vehicles. One electric runabout, hooded and +luxurious; two "buggies," of the village type, drawn by single horses +standing dejectedly with drooping ears and tails; one farmer's wagon, +filled with boxes and barrels, its horses hitched to Burns's post by a +rope: this was the assemblage. + +Red Pepper drew one long, low whistle of dismay, then he burst into a +laugh. "Confound that blundering angel, Cynthia," he ejaculated. "She's +let it out that we're coming. And Amy Mathewson--my office nurse--not due +till to-morrow, to protect us! I was prepared, in a way, to pitch into +work, but, by George, I didn't expect to see that familiar sight to-day! +Hang it all!" + +"Never mind." Ellen was laughing, too. "Remember you've left the bride +behind. Your wife will soon be used to it." + +"We'll run in by the Chesters' driveway, and sneak in at the back door," +and Burns suited the action to the word by turning in at the gateway of +his next door neighbour. "I rather wonder Win or Martha didn't go over +and drive away my too-eager clientele." + +"Possibly they thought it would look more like home to you with an office +full of patients." + +"It certainly will, though I could dispense with them to-night without +much sorrow. But--where am I going to put you? You can get to my room, +but you won't want to stay there. The part of the house that will be +the living part for you is either empty or cluttered up with wedding +presents. By all that's crazy, Ellen, I'm just waking up to the fact +that there isn't any place to put you, when there are patients in the +house--which there ever-lastingly are--except the dining-room and +kitchen! Lord Harry! what am I going to do? And what will you think +of me? Dolt that I am!" + +He had heard her laugh before. A low and melodious laugh she had, and he +had often listened to it and joined in with it, and rejoiced at the +ability she possessed to laugh where many women would cry. But he had +never heard her laugh as she was laughing now. Her understanding of the +situation which had only just struck him was complete. She knew precisely +how busy he had been in the weeks preceding the wedding, and how +thankfully he had accepted her suggestion that she come to his home just +as it was, and plan for herself what disposal she would make of the empty +rooms in a house of which he had used only the wing. Until he had seen +that row of vehicles before the gate he had not comprehended the fact +that almost the entire furnished portion of the house was the public +property of his patients whenever they chose to come. And they were there +now! + +The car stopped behind the house, close by the French window opening upon +a small rear porch. The window led to the large, low-ceiled room which +was Burns's own, leading in turn to his offices, and having only these +two means of entrance. Burns looked down at his wife, her expressive face +rosy with her laughter. + +"I'm glad you see it that way," said he. "That sense of humour is going +to help you through a lot, tied up to R.P. Burns, M.D. Will you go into +my room, by this window? Or will you accept Cynthia's hospitality in the +dining-room? Or--maybe that's the best plan--will you just run over to +Martha's? I remember she begged us to come there, and now I see why. Want +to stay there a couple of weeks, till we can get your living-rooms +straightened out?" + +She shook her head. "I've come to your home, Red," said she. "I'm not +going to be sent away! Go in and see your patients, and don't bother +about me. Cynthia and I will discover a place for me." + +His face very red with chagrin, Burns took her in. The downpour of +rain had covered all sounds of the car's approach, so that neither the +Macauleys on the one side, the Chesters on the other, nor the housekeeper +herself, were aware of the arrival of the pair. + +"For mercy's sake, Doctor!" cried Cynthia, and hurried across the neat +and pleasant kitchen to meet them. "I wasn't expecting you yet for an +hour. Mrs. Macauley and Mrs. Chester wasn't either. They was over here +ten minutes ago, planning how to get rid o' the folks in there that's +insisting on setting and waiting for you to come." + +"Never mind them, Cynthia," said her new mistress, shaking hands. "The +Doctor will see them and I will stay with you. I've so much to plan +with you. What a pleasant kitchen! And how delicious something smells! +Cynthia, I believe I'm hungry!" + +"Well, now, you just come and set right down in the dining-room and I'll +give you something," cried the housekeeper, delighted. + +"That's right, Cynthia," approved Burns, much relieved. "Look after her +till I'm free." And he vanished. + +"I reckon that'll be a pretty steady job," Cynthia declared, "if I'm to +do it 'till he's free.' He won't be free, Mrs.--Burns, till the next time +you get him out of town." + +She led the way into the dining-room. + +"Mrs. Macauley wanted to have you come to dinner there, to-night, and +Mrs. Chester wanted you, too. But Mr. Macauley said this was the place +for you to have your first dinner in--your own home, and he made the +women folks give in. So the table's all set, and I can hurry up dinner +so's to have it as soon as the Doctor gets those folks fixed up--if there +ain't a lot more by that time. Since Miss Mathewson went I've been +answering the telephone, and it seems 'sif the town wouldn't let him have +his honeymoon out, they're so crazy to get him back. Now--will you set +down and let me give you a bit o' lunch? It's only five o'clock, and I've +planned dinner for half-past six." + +"It would be a pity to spoil this glorious appetite, Cynthia, though I'm +sorely tempted. I think I'll use the time getting freshened up from my +long drive--we've come a hundred and sixty miles to-day, through the mud. +Then I'll find Bob and be ready to have dinner with the Doctor." + +"I'll have to take you round by the porch to get to the Doctor's +room--you wouldn't want to go through the office, with such a raft of +folks." + +Ellen's bag in hand, Cynthia led the way. In at the long window she +hurried her, out of the rain which was dashing against it. + +"I expect you'll think it smells sort o' doctorish," she said, +apologetically. "Opening out of the office, so, it's kind o' hard to keep +it from getting that queer smell, 'specially when he's always running in +to do things to his hands. But, land! his windows are always open, night +and day, so it might be worse." + +"I think it's beautifully fresh and pleasant here. Oh, what a bunch of +daffodils on the dressing-table! Did you put them there?" + +"I did--but 'twas Mrs. Macauley sent 'em over. You'll find clean towels +in the bathroom. Oh, and--Mrs. Burns,"--Cynthia hesitated,--"the Doctor +forgot to say anything about it, but I've fixed up this little room off +his for Bobby. He used to have the little boy sleep right next him, +in a crib, but I knew--of course,"--her face crimsoned,--"you wouldn't +want--" She paused helplessly. + +But Ellen helped her with quick assent. "I'm so glad the little room is +so near. Bob won't be lonely, and I shall love to have him there. I can +hardly wait to see him." + +Cynthia went away, rejoicing that her arrangements were approved. She was +devotedly fond of little Bob, Burns's six-year-old protege, by him +rescued, a year before, from an impending orphan asylum, and now the +happy ward of a guardianship as kind as an adoption. She had been +somewhat anxious over the child's future status with her employer's wife, +but was now quite satisfied that he was not to be kept at arm's length. + +"Some would have put him off with me," she said to herself, as she +returned to her kitchen, "though I didn't really think it of her that +took so much notice of him before. She's a real lady, Mrs. Burns is--and +prettier than ever since she married the Doctor, as why shouldn't she be, +with him to look pretty for?" + +Left alone Ellen looked about her. Yes, this was the room in which he +had lived the sleeping portion of his bachelor's life, so long. It gave +her an odd sense of what a change it was for him, this having a woman +come into his life, share his privacy,--he had so little privacy in his +busy days and nights,--and occupy this room of his, this big, square, +old-fashioned room with its open windows, the one spot which had been his +unassailable place of retreat. She felt almost as if she ought to go and +find some other room at once, ought not to take even temporary possession +of this, or strew about it her feminine belongings. + +The room was somewhat sparsely furnished, containing but the necessary +furniture; no draperies at the open windows, few articles on the high old +mahogany bureau, an inadequate number of nearly threadbare rugs on the +waxed floor, and but three pictures on the walls. She studied these +pictures, one after another. One was a little framed photograph of +Burns's father and mother, taken sitting together on their vine-covered +porch. One was a colour drawing of a scene in Edinburgh, showing a view +of Princes Street and the Castle,--one which must have become familiar to +him from a residence of some length during the period of his studies +abroad. The third picture--it surprised and touched her not a little to +find it here--was a fine copy of a famous painting, showing the Christ +bending above the couch of a sick man and extending to him his healing +touch. The face was one of the best modern conceptions of the Divine +personality. She realized that the picture might have meant much to him. + +She could hear his voice, as she set about her dressing. He was in his +private office, talking with a patient whose deafness caused him to raise +his own tones considerably; the closed door between could not keep out +all the sound. She felt her invasion of his life more keenly than ever +as she realized afresh how close to him her own life was to be lived. +Marrying a village doctor, whose home contained also his place of +business, was a very different matter from marrying a city physician with +a downtown office and a home into which only the telephone ever brought +the voice of a patient. It was to be a new and strange experience for +them both. + +She sat before the dressing-table, having slipped into a little lilac and +white negligee. The half-curling masses of her black hair covered her +shoulders as she brushed them out--slowly, because she was thinking so +busily about it all, and had forgotten to make haste. Suddenly the door +leading into the office flew open--and closed as quickly. Steps behind +her, pausing, made her turn, to meet her husband's eyes. + +He came close. An unmistakably "doctorish" odour accompanied him--an +odour not disagreeable but associated with modern means for securing +perfect cleanliness. He wore his white jacket, fresh from Cynthia's +painstaking hands. His eyes were very bright, his lips were smiling. + +His arms came about her from behind, his head against hers gently forced +it back to face the mirror. In it the two pairs of eyes met again, hazel +and black. + +"To think that I should see _that_ reflected from my old glass!" +whispered Red Pepper Burns. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE WAY TO ATTAIN AN END + + +Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns stood in the doorway of her living-room and +studied it with a critical eye. Within the room, on either side, stood +her sister Martha, Mrs. James Macauley, and her friend Winifred, Mrs. +Arthur Chester. In precisely these same relative positions were they +also her neighbours as to their own homes. Their husbands were Red +Pepper's best friends, outside those of his own profession. It was +appropriate that they should have stood by her during the period of +fitting and furnishing that part of the old house which her husband had +termed her "quarters." + +"It's the loveliest room in this town," declared Winifred Chester, "and +I'm going to have all I can do not to be envious." + +"I doubt if very many people in this little town will think it the +loveliest," said Ellen's sister. "Its browns and blues will be too dull +for them, and Ellen's old Turkey carpet too different from their polished +floors and 'antique' rugs. By the way, Ellen, how old do you suppose that +carpet is, anyhow?" + +"It's been on Aunt Lucy's floors since before the Civil War. Isn't it +beautifully faded?--it furnishes the keynote of the whole room. Isn't it +fortunate that the room should be so long and low, instead of high and +square? Is it a restful room, girls? That's what I'm after." + +"Restful!" Mrs. Chester clasped her hands in a speaking gesture. "Red +will forget every care, the minute he steps into it. When are you going +to show it to him?" + +"To-night, when the fire is lighted and evening office-hours are over. If +he hadn't been so busy it would have been hard to keep him away, but he +hasn't had an hour to spare even for guessing what I've been doing." + +"I hope he'll have an hour to spare, to stay in it with you. How you both +will hate the sound of the office-bell and the telephones!" + +"I'm going to try hard not to, but I suppose I shall dread them, in spite +of myself," Ellen owned. + +"This great couch, facing the fire, with all these lovely blue silk +pillows, is certainly the most comfortable looking thing I ever saw," +sighed Winifred Chester, casting her plump little figure into the +davenport's roomy depths and clasping her hands under her head in an +attitude of repose. + +"If Red doesn't send out word that he's not at home and can't be found, +when a call finds him stretched out here, he's a stronger character than +I think him." + +"Now let's go up and look at the guest-rooms." Ellen led the way, an +engaging figure in a fresh white morning dress, her cheeks glowing with +colour like a girl's. + +"If you didn't know, would you ever dream she had been wife and widow, +and had lost her little son?" murmured Winifred in Martha's ear. + +Martha Macauley shook her head. "She seems to have gone back and begun +all over again. Yet there's a look--" + +Winifred nodded. "Of course there is--a look she wouldn't have had if she +hadn't gone through so much. It's given her such a rich sort of bloom." + +The guest-rooms were airy, attractive, chintz-hung rooms, one large, one +somewhat smaller, but both wearing a hospitable look of readiness. + +"I like the gray-and-rose room best," announced Winifred, after a +critical survey, as if she were inspecting both rooms for the first time +instead of the fortieth. She had made the gray-and-rose chintz hangings +herself, delighting in each exquisite yard of the fine imported material. + +"I prefer the green-leaf pattern, it looks so cool and fresh." Martha +eyed details admiringly. "This is your bachelor's room, you say, Ellen? +Oh, you've put a desk in it! The bachelor will want to stay forever. Who +do you suppose he will be?" + +"The first friend of Red's who comes. He says he's always wanted to ask +certain ones, and never had a place to put them, except at the hotel." + +"He'd better be careful whom he asks--now. They'll all fall in love with +you. By the way, do you know Red has a terribly jealous streak?" Winifred +glanced quickly at Ellen as she spoke. + +"No--what nonsense! How do you like my idea of a book-shelf by the bed, +and a drop-light?" + +"Pampering--pure pampering of your bachelors. You'll never be rid of +them. But he can be jealous, Ellen." + +"What makes you think so? I never saw a trace of it," cried Martha +Macauley. + +"It's there--you mark my words. He couldn't help it--with his hair and +eyes." + +Ellen laughed. "Hair and eyes! What about my black locks and eyes? Shall +I not make a trustful wife, because I happen to have them? Oh!"--she ran +to the window--"there comes the Imp! You'll excuse me if I run down? +Red's been away all night and all morning." + +She disappeared as the Green Imp's horn vociferated a signal of greeting +from far down the road. + +"They'll never get time to grow tired of each other," commented Martha, +as the two friends descended the old-time winding staircase. "Isn't this +old hall delightful, now? I never realized the possibilities of the +house, with this part closed so long." + +"One more peep at the living-room, and then we'll go. Isn't it just like +Ellen? Such a charming, quiet room, without the least bit of ostentation, +yet simply breathing beauty and refinement. She is the most wonderful +shopper I know. She made every dollar Red furnished go twice as far as I +could. I don't suppose he would let her spend a penny of her own on this +house." + +"He's too busy to know or care what she does--till he sees it. I'll +venture she has slipped in a penny or two. That magnificent piano +is hers, you know,--and two or three pieces of furniture. All he'll +realize is that it's delightful and that she's in it. It's all so funny, +anyhow,--this bringing home a bride and having her fall to work to +furnish her own nest." + +"She's enjoyed it. I'd like to be on the scene to-night, when she shows +it to him." + +"No chance of that. When Red does get her to himself for ten minutes he +quite plainly prefers to have the rest of us depart. Have you noticed?" + +"Yes, indeed. I only hope that state of things will last." And Winifred +smiled and sighed at once, as if she were skeptical concerning of the +permanency of married bliss. + +Office-hours were full ones that evening, and it was quite nine o'clock +before R.P. Burns, M.D. closed the door on the last of his patients. The +moment he was free he turned to Miss Mathewson, his office nurse, with a +deep breath of relief. + +"Let's put out the lights and call it off," he said. "Run home and get an +hour to yourself before bedtime, and never mind finishing the books. Do +you know,"--he was smiling down at her, where she sat, a trim white +figure at her desk, an assistant who had been his right hand for nine +years, and who perhaps knew his moods and tempers better than anybody in +the world, though he did not at all realize this,--"do you know, I find +it harder to settle down to work again than I thought I should? Curious, +isn't it?" + +"Not at all curious, Doctor Burns." Miss Mathewson spoke in her usual +quiet tone, smiling in return. "It is distracting, even to me, to know +that a person so lovely as your wife is under the same roof." + +This was much for this most reserved associate of his to say, and Burns +recognized it. He regarded her with interested astonishment. "So she's +got you, too!" he ejaculated. "I'm mighty glad of that, for it will tend +to make you sympathetic with my wish to have an hour to myself--and +her--now and then. I'm to see my home to-night, for the first +time,--if--" + +Steps sounded upon the office porch. Burns made a flying leap for the +door into his private office, intent on getting to his room and +exchanging his working garb for one suited to the evening he meant +to spend with Ellen. When he had swiftly but noiselessly closed the door, +Miss Mathewson answered the knock. + +A tall countryman loomed in the doorway. + +"Doctor in?" + +"He is in," said the office nurse, who would tell lies to nobody, "but he +is engaged. Office-hours are over. Please give me any message for him." + +"I'd like to see him," said the countryman, doggedly. + +"I don't wish to disturb him unless it is quite necessary," explained +Miss Mathewson. + +"I call it necessary," said the countryman, "when a fellow has a broken +leg. Got him out here in the wagon. Now will you call the Doctor?" + +"I surely will," and Miss Mathewson smiled sympathetically. + +She called her employer, who came out, frowning, still in his white coat. + +"Confound you, Jake," said he, "don't you know it's against the law to +break legs or mend them after office-hours?" + +Miss Mathewson, in the brief interval consumed by the men in bringing the +injured man in from the street, slipped across the hall. + +"It will be another hour, Mrs. Burns," said she, at the door of the +living-room. "But after that I shall not be here to answer the door or +the telephone, and the Doctor can ignore them, if he will." + +Ellen rose, smiling, and came across the room to her. The two +figures, one in the severe white of a uniform, the other in the filmy, +lace-bordered white of a delicate house gown, met in the doorway. + +"You dear, kind little person," said Red Pepper's wife, with her warm +hand on the nurse's arm, "how good it is of you to care! But I can wait. +Can't you stay in here with me, while the Doctor sees his patient?" + +"I must help him. It's a broken leg, and I must go this minute," said +Miss Mathewson. But she paused for an instant more, looking at Ellen. +The nurse was the taller, and looked the older of the two, but the +affectionate phrase "little person" had somehow touched a heart which was +lonelier even than Ellen guessed--and Ellen guessed much more than Red +Pepper had ever done. Red Pepper's wife leaned forward. + +"You and I must be good friends," said she, and Miss Mathewson responded +with a flush of pleasure. Then the nurse flew back to the office, while +Ellen, after listening for a little to the sounds of footsteps in the +office, turned back to the fire. + +"How does it happen," said she musingly to herself, as she stood looking +down into the depths of the glowing heart of it, "that one woman can be +so rich and one so poor--under the same roof? She sees more of him than +I,--lives her life closer to him, in a way,--and yet I am rich and she is +poor. How I wish I could make her happy--as happy as she can be without +the one thing that would have made her so. O Red!--and you never saw it!" + +The hour went by. The broken leg was set and bandaged, the injured man +was conveyed back to the wagon which had brought him; and Red Pepper +Burns took a last look at his patient, in the light of the lantern +carried by the countryman. + +"You've been game as any fighting man, Tom," said he, cheerily. "The +drive home'll be no midsummer-night's-dream, but I see that upper lip of +yours is stiff for it. Good-night--and good luck! We'll take care of the +luck." + +As he turned back up the path the front door of his house swung open. It +was a door he had never entered more than once, his offices being in the +wing, and the upright portion having been totally unused since he had +owned the place. With an exclamation he was up the steps in two leaps, +and standing still upon the threshold. + +"Come in a little farther, please, dear," said a voice from behind the +door, "so I can close it." + +Burns shut the door with a bang, and turned upon the figure in the +corner. But his extended arm kept his wife away from him. "Let me go and +refresh," he begged. "I can't bear to touch you after handling that +unwashed lumberjack. Just five minutes and I'll be back." + +He was as good as his word. In five minutes he was no longer a busy +professional man, but a gentleman of leisure, with hands cleaner than +those of any fastidious clubman, and clothes which carried no hint of +past usage in other places less chaste than his wife's private +living-rooms. + +"Now I'm ready for you," he announced, returning. "And I'll be hanged if +I'll see another interloper to-night. A man has some rights, if he is a +doctor. Morgan, up the street there, is the new man in town, and he has a +display of electric lights in front of his office which fairly yells +'come here!' Let 'em go there! I stay here." + +He took his wife in his arms and kissed her hungrily, then stood holding +her close, his cheek against her hair, in absolute contentment. He seemed +to see nothing of the new quarters, though he was now just outside the +living-room door, in the hall which ran between the two parts of the +house. Presently she drew him into the room. + +"Look about you," said she. "Have you no curiosity?" + +"Not much, while I have you. Still--by George! Well!" + +He stood staring about him, his eyes wide open enough now. From one +detail to another his quick, keen-eyed glance roved, lingering an instant +on certain points where artful touches of colour relieved the more +subdued general tone of the furnishings. The room suggested, above all +things, quiet and repose, yet there was a soft and mellow cheer about +it which made it anything but sombre. Its browns and blues and ivories +wrought out an exquisite harmony. The furniture was simple but solid, the +roomy high-backed davenport luxurious with its many pillows. The walls +showed a few good pictures--how good, it might not be that Red Pepper +fully understood. But he did understand, with every sense, that it was +such a room as a man might look upon and be proud to call his home. + +But he was silent so long that Ellen looked up at him, to make sure that +there was no displeasure in his face. Instead she found there deeper +feeling than she expected. He returned her look, and she discovered that +he was not finding it easy to tell her what he thought of it all. She led +him to the couch and drew him down beside her. He put his arm about her, +and with her head upon his shoulder the pair sat for some time in a +silence which Ellen would not end. But at length, looking into the fire, +his head resting against hers, Burns broke the stillness. + +"I suppose I'm an impressionable chap," he said, "but I wasn't prepared +for just this. I knew it would be a beautiful room, if you saw to it, but +I had no possible notion how beautiful it would be. There is just one +thing about it that breaks me up a bit. Perhaps you won't understand, but +I can't help wishing I could have done the work for you instead of you +for me. It isn't the work, either, it's the--love." + +"And you couldn't have spared enough of that to furnish a room with?" + +He laughed, drawing her even closer then he had held her before. "I'll +trust you to corner me, every time," he said. "Yes, I could have spared +love enough--no doubt of that. But it seems as if it were the man who +should put the house in order for the woman he brings home." + +"You have excellent taste," said she demurely, "but I never should +credit you with the discriminations and fastidiousnesses of a decorator. +And why should you want to take away from me the happiness of making my +own nest? Don't you know it's the home-maker who finds most joy in the +home? Yet--it's the home-comer I want to have find the joy. Do you think +you can rest in this room, Red?" + +He drew a deep, contented breath. "Every minute I am in it. And from +the time I first begin to think about it, coming toward it. Home! It's +Paradise! This great, deep, all-embracing blue thing we're sitting in--is +it made of down and velvet?" + +"Precisely that. Velvet to cover it, down in the pillows. I hope you'll +have many a splendid nap here." + +"You'll spoil me," he declared, "if you let me sleep here. I'm used to +catching forty winks in my old leather chair in the office, while I wait +for a summons." + +Her face grew very tender. "I know. James Macauley has told me more than +one tale of hours spent there, when you needed sounder sleep. It's a hard +life, and it's going to be my delight to try to make it easier." + +Red Pepper sat up. "It's not a hard life, dear,--it's one of many +compensations. And now that I have one permanent compensation I'm +never going to think I'm being badly used, no matter what goes wrong. +Come, let's stroll about. I want to look at every separate thing. This +piano--surely the sum I gave you didn't cover that? It looks like one of +the sort that are not bought two-for-a-quarter." + +"No, Red, that was mine. It came from my old home with Aunt Lucy--that +and the desk-bookcase, and two of the chairs. And Aunt Lucy gave me this +big rug, made from the old drawing-room carpet. I built the whole room on +the rug colourings. You don't mind, do you, dear?--my using these few +things that belonged to me in my girlhood, in South Carolina?" + +"In your girlhood? Not--in your Washington life?" + +"No, Red." + +She looked straight up into his eyes, reading in the sudden glowing of +them under their heavy brows the feeling he could not conceal that he +could bear to have about his house no remote suggestion of her former +marriage. + +"All right, dearest," he answered quickly. "I'm a brute, I know, +but--you're mine now. Will you play for me? I believe I'm fond of music." + +"Of course you are. But first, let's go upstairs. I'm almost as proud of +our guest-rooms as of this." + +"Guest-rooms?" repeated Burns, a few minutes later, when he had examined +everything in the living-room and pronounced all things excellent. "We're +to have guests, are we? But not right away?" + +"I thought you'd be eager to entertain those bachelor friends you +mentioned, so I lost no time in getting a second room ready for them." + +"Well, I don't know." Burns was mounting the stairs, his arm about his +wife's shoulders. "By the way, Ellen, I don't believe I ever went up +these stairs before. Comfortable, aren't they? I'm glad there's covering +on them. I never like to hear people racketing up and down bare stairs, +be they never so polished and fine. That comes of my instincts for quiet +on my patients' account, I suppose. About the guests--we don't need to +have any for a year or two, do we?" + +"Why, Red!" Ellen began to laugh. "I thought you were the most hospitable +man in the world." + +"All in good time," agreed her husband, comfortably. He looked in at the +door of the gray-and-rose room, as he spoke. "Well, well!" he ejaculated. +"Well, well!" + +And again he was silent, staring. When he spoke: + +"Would you mind going over there and sitting down in that willow chair +with the high back?" he requested. + +His wife acceded, and crossing the room smiled back at him from the +depths of the white willow chair, her dark head against its cushioning of +soft, mingled tints of pale gray and glowing rose. Red Pepper nodded at +her. + +"I thought so," said he. "This is no guest-room. This is your room." + +"Oh, no, dear. My place is downstairs, with you--unless--you don't want +me there." + +He crossed the room also and stood before her, his hands thrust into his +pockets. "This is your room," he repeated. "It's easy enough to recognize +it. It looks just like you. I've been uncomfortable about you downstairs, +whenever I had to leave you. You'll be safe here, with every window wide +open." + +She looked up at him, mutely smiling, but something in her eyes told him +that all was not yet said. Red Pepper leaned still lower and kissed her. + +"It will be easy enough to have an extension of the telephone brought up +here," he added--and found her arms about his neck. But she shook her +head. "Don't settle it so quickly," she urged. + +"You said there was another guest-room," he reminded her presently. "The +bachelor's room. Is it next door?" + +They went together to look at the bachelor's room. Burns surveyed it with +satisfaction. + +"The jolliest room for the purpose I ever saw," he confessed. "And I know +the bachelor who will sleep in it. He's downstairs now, in the small room +out of ours." + +"Bob? Why, Red--" + +"We'll have a door cut through. The telephones shall be in there, then +they won't disturb you. They won't bother Bob a minute. And when I come +in at 2 a.m. I can slip in here, shove the boy over against the wall, and +be asleep in two minutes." + +"Red! All my preparations for the bachelor! The desk,--the reading-light +by the bed--" + +"They suit me admirably. I never saw a better arrangement. The two rooms +together make a perfect suite--when the door is cut through." + +"And where will you put our guests? There's only one more room on this +floor, of any size." + +"Let's go and see." + +Catching up a brass candlestick from the bachelor's desk, Burns lit it +and proceeded to explore, Ellen following. There were dancing lights in +her eyes as she watched him. + +"Here's your fourth room," said he, throwing open a door at the back of +the hall. + +"This box? It can't be made a really comfortable room, even if I do my +best with it. Your bachelor will not stay long." + +"Best not make him too comfortable. Nobody wants him to stay long." And +Red Pepper closed the door again, with an air of having settled the +matter to his entire satisfaction. "Besides," he added, "if he's really a +desirable chap, and we want him around more than a day or two, he can +bunk in my old room downstairs. When he's not there I'll use it for an +annex to my offices. Somebody's always needing to be put to bed for an +hour or two. Amy Mathewson will revel in that extra space. Her long suit +is making people comfortable, and smoothing the upper sheet under their +chins." + +"Redfield Pepper, please consider this carefully," said his wife, as they +returned to the gray-and-rose room. "Remember how long you have had that +downstairs room,--you are attached to it, perhaps, more than you think. +You have been a bachelor yourself a good while--" + +"And am supposed to be old and set in my ways," interpolated her +listener. He stood before her with folded arms, a judicial expression on +his brow. Beneath his coppery hair his black eyebrows drew together a +little above a pair of hazel eyes which sparkled with a whimsical light +which somewhat impaired the gravity of the expression. + +"You are wonted to your ways--naturally," Ellen pursued. "It will not be +so convenient for you, having your rooms up here. I am quite contented +there, with you, and not in the least afraid with Cynthia sleeping down +there too--and the little bachelor. Think twice, Red, before you decide +on this arrangement." + +He glanced at the wall between the two rooms. "Where would be a good +place to have the door cut through? What's behind that curtain? A +clothes-press?" + +He advanced to the curtain and swept it aside. It hung in a doorway, and +was of a heavy gray material, with an applied border of the gray-and-rose +chintz. As he moved it light burst through from the other side of the +wall, and Burns found himself looking into the "bachelor's room" next +door. + +He turned, with a shout of laughter. "You witch!" he cried, and returning +to his wife laid a hand on either richly colouring cheek, gently forcing +her face upward, so that he could look directly into it. "You meant it, +all the while!" + +"Don't be too sure of that. If this room looks like me, the one +downstairs certainly looks like you. I don't want to take you out +of your proper environment." + +"My environment!" he repeated, and laughed. "What is it, now, do you +think? Not bachelor apartments, still?" + +But she persisted, gently. "Keep the downstairs room, dear, just as it +is. Don't make it a public room, except for necessity. Sometimes you'll +be glad to take refuge there, just as you're used to doing. Leave those +three pictures on your walls, and look at them often, as you've always +done. And be sure of this, Red: I shall never be hurt when you show me +that you want to fight something out alone, there. It must be your own +and private place, just as if I hadn't come." + +Sober now, he stood looking straight down into her eyes, which gave him +back his look as straightly. After a minute he spoke with feeling: + +"Thank you, dearest. And bless you for understanding so well. At the same +time I'm confident you understand one thing more: That by leaving a man +his liberty you surely hold him tightest!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BURNS DOES HIS DUTY + + +"Excuse me for coming in on you at breakfast," Martha Macauley, Ellen's +sister and next-door neighbour, apologized, one morning in late May. "But +I wanted to catch Red before he got away, and I saw, for a wonder, that +there was no vehicle before the door." + +"Come in, come in," urged Burns, while Ellen smiled a greeting at her +sister, a round-faced, fair-haired, energetic young woman, as different +as possible from Ellen's own type. "Have a chair." He rose to get it for +her, napkin in hand. "Will you sit down and try one of Cynthia's +magnificent muffins?" + +"No, thank you. And I'll plunge into my errand, for I know at any minute +you may jump up and run away. You may, anyway, when you hear what I want! +Promise me, Red, that you won't go until you've heard me out." + +"What a reputation I have for speed at escape!" But Burns glanced at his +watch as he spoke. "Fire away, Martha. Five minutes you shall have--and +I'm afraid no more. I'm due at the hospital in half an hour." + +"Well, I want to give a reception for you." Martha took the plunge. "I +know you hate them, but Ellen doesn't,--at least, she knows such things +are necessary, no matter how much you may wish they weren't. I don't mean +a formal reception, of course. I know how you both feel about trying to +ape city society customs, in a little suburban village like this. But I +do think, since you had such a quiet wedding, you ought to give people a +chance to come in and greet you, as a newly married pair." + +Burns's eyes met his wife's across the table. There was a comical look of +dismay in his face. "I thought," said he, "you and I agreed to cut out +all that sort of thing. As for being a newly married pair--we aren't. +We've been married since the beginning of time. I can't conceive of +existence apart from Mrs. Redfield Pepper Burns, nor recall any period +of my life when she wasn't a part of it." + +"You've been married just seven weeks and three days, however," retorted +his sister-in-law, with a touch of impatience, though she smiled, "and +not a quarter of the people in town have ever met Ellen. You'll find that +it's not the same, now that you're married. They won't flock to your +office, just out of admiration for you, unless you show them some +attention." + +Burns chuckled. "Won't they? By George, I wish they wouldn't! Then I +could find time to spend an uninterrupted hour with my wife, at least +once a day." + +"Do be reasonable, Red. Ellen, will you make him see it's a very simple +thing I'm asking of him? Just to stand by you and shake hands for a +couple of hours. Then he can go out and stand on his head on the lawn, +if he wants to." + +"To relieve the tension?" her victim suggested. "That's an excellent +idea--real compensation. But as the blood will be all at the top, anyway, +after two hours' effort at being agreeable, saying the same idiotic +things over and over, and grinning steadily all the time, I think I'd +prefer soaking my head under a pump." + +"Do what pleases you, if you'll only let me have my way." + +Burns looked at Ellen again. "What do you say, dear? Must these things +be? Do you want to be 'received'?" + +"Martha has set her heart on it," said she, gently, "and it's very dear +of her to want to take the trouble. She promises really to make it very +informal." + +"Informal! I wish I knew what that word meant. Don't I have to wear my +spike-tail?" + +"I'm afraid you do--since Martha wants it in the evening. The men in a +place like this are not available for afternoon affairs." + +"If I must dress, then I don't see what there is informal about it," +argued her husband, with another glance at his watch. "My idea of +informality is not a white necktie and pumps. But I suppose I'll have +to submit." + +He came around the table, and Ellen rose to receive his parting kiss. +With his arm about her shoulder, and his chin--that particularly resolute +chin--touching her hair, he looked at Martha. "Go on with your abominable +society stunt," said he. "I'll agree to be there--if I can." + +His eyes sparkled with mischief, as Martha jumped up, crying anxiously: + +"Oh, that's just it, Red! You _must_ be there! We can't have any excuses +of operations or desperately sick patients. We never yet had you at so +much as a family dinner that you didn't get up and go away, or else +weren't even there at all. Even your wedding had to be postponed three +hours. That won't do at this kind of an affair. Ellen can't be a bridal +pair, all by herself!" + +"Can't she?" His arm tightened about his wife's shoulders. "Well, I'll +tell you what I'll do. If I have to leave suddenly I'll take her with me. +That'll make it all right and comfortable. If you and Jim will retire +too, the company can have a glorious time talking us over." + +He stooped, whispered something in Ellen's ear, laughing as he did so, +then kissed her, nodded at Martha, and departed. From the other side of +the closed door came back to them a gay, whistled strain from a popular +Irish song. + +"He's just as hopeless as ever," Martha complained. "I thought you would +have begun to have some effect on him, by this time. The trouble is, he's +been a bachelor so long and has got into such careless notions of having +his own way about everything, you're going to have a bad time getting him +just to behave like an ordinary human being." + +"What an outlook!" Ellen laughed, coming over to her sister, and stopping +on the way to help little Bob insert a refractory napkin in its silver +ring. "Perhaps I'd better not waste much time trying to make him over. He +really suits me pretty well, as he is,--and it doesn't strike me he's so +different from the average man, when it comes to receptions. Is Jim +enthusiastic over this one?" + +"Oh, Jim isn't making any fuss about it," evaded Martha. "He'll be good +and amiable, when the time comes. Of course, any man likes better just +having a group of men smoking round the fire, or sitting down to a stag +dinner, but Jim understands the necessity of doing some things just +because they're expected. I really think that having a perfectly informal +affair of this sort is letting them off easily. They might have had to +stand a series of 'At Homes.'" + +"Not in this little place. Everybody would have come to the first one, +and there would have been nobody left for the rest. As it is, you will +have a houseful, won't you? It's lovely of you to do it, Martha dear, and +Red and I will be good, and stand in line as long as you want us." + +"And you won't let him get away?" + +"He won't try,--though if an urgent call comes, it's not I who can keep +him. But don't worry about that. It doesn't always happen, I suppose." + +"Pretty nearly always. But I'll hope for the best." + +Mrs. Macauley went away with her head full of plans for the success of +the affair she was so sure ought to take place. It was difficult for her +to understand how Ellen, who had known so much of the best social life in +a city where there is no end to the round of formal entertaining, could +be now as indifferent as Martha understood she really was to all +experience of the sort. It was association with Redfield Pepper Burns +which had done it, Martha supposed. But was he to do all the influencing, +and Ellen to do none? It looked like it--to Martha. + +Left alone with Bob, Ellen made him ready for the little village +kindergarten which he had lately begun to attend. Before he went he put +up both arms, and she bent to him. + +"I'm going to be a pretty good boy to-day, Aunt Ellen," said he. "I +promised Uncle Red I would. But I don't like to skip in the circle with +girls. Why need I?" + +"Would you rather skip with boys, dear?" + +"Lots rather. But the girls keep asking me. Why do they, when I don't ask +them?" + +Ellen smiled down into the questioning little face, its dark eyes looking +seriously up into hers through long and curly lashes. Bob was undoubtedly +a handsome little lad, and the reason why the girls--discerning small +creatures, true to their femininity--should be persistent in inviting him +to be their partner was obvious enough. + +"Because that's part of the skipping game, Bobby. I'd ask the girls +sometimes--and, do you know, I think it would be fine to ask some of +the little girls whom the other boys don't ask. Do you know any?" + +Bob considered. "I guess I do. But why do I have to ask them?" + +"Because they're not having as much fun as the others. You wouldn't like +never to be asked by anybody, would you?" + +"I don't care 'bout any girls ever asking me," Bob insisted stoutly. "I +like boy games better--'circus' and 'grandfather's barn.' Only they let +the girls play those too," he added, disgustedly. + +He started away. But he came back again to say, soberly, "I'll ask Jennie +Hobson, if you want me to, Aunt Ellen. She's some like a boy, anyway. Her +hair's cut tight to her head--and her eyes are funny. They don't look at +you the same." + +"Do ask her, Bob. And tell me how she liked it." And Ellen looked +affectionately after the small, straight little figure trudging away +down the street. + +Martha's plans for her reception went on merrily. On the day set she came +hurrying over before breakfast, to administer to her brother-in-law a +final admonition concerning the coming evening. + +"I hope this isn't going to be the busiest day of your life?" she urged +Burns. + +"It's bound to be,--getting things clear for to-night," he assured her, +good-humouredly. + +"Promise me you won't let anything short of a case of life or death keep +you away?" + +"It's as serious as that, is it? All right, I'll be on hand, unless the +heavens fall." + +He was good as his word, and at the appointed hour his hostess, keeping +an agitated watch on her neighbour's house, saw him arrive, in plenty of +time to dress. She drew a relieved breath. + +"I didn't expect it," she said to James Macauley, her husband. + +"Oh, Red's game. He won't run away from this, much as he hates it. Like +the rest of us married men, he knows when dodging positively won't do," +and Macauley sighed as he settled his tie before the reception-room +mirror, obtaining a view of himself with some difficulty, on account of +the towering masses of flowers and foliage which obscured the glass. + +When Burns and Ellen came across the lawn, Martha flew to meet them. + +"You splendid people! Who wouldn't want to have a reception for such a +pair?" + +"We flatter ourselves we do look pretty fine," Burns admitted, eying his +wife with satisfaction. "That gauzy gray thing Ellen has on strikes me as +the bulliest yet. If I could just get her to wear a pink rose in her hair +I'd be satisfied." + +"A rose in her hair! Aren't you satisfied with that exquisite coral +necklace? That gives the touch of colour she needs. The rose would overdo +it--and wouldn't match, besides." Martha spoke with scorn. + +"Yes, a rose would be maudlin, Red; can't you see it?" James Macauley +gave his opinion with a wink at his friend. "With the necklace your wife +is a dream. With a rose added she'd be a--waking up! Trust 'em, that's my +advice. When they get to talking about a 'touch of' anything, that's the +time to leave 'em alone. A touch of colour is not a daub." + +"Who's lecturing on art?" queried Arthur Chester, from the doorway. + +His wife, Winifred, entering before him, cried out at sight of the pale +gray gauze gown. + +"O Ellen! I thought I looked pretty well, till I caught sight of you. Now +I feel crude!" + +"Absurd," said Ellen, laughing. "You are charming in that blue." + +"There they go again," groaned Macauley to Burns. "Winifred feels crude, +when she looks at Ellen. Why? I don't feel crude when I look at you or +Art Chester. Neither of you has so late a cut on your dress-coat as I, +I flatter myself. I feel anything but crude. And I don't want a rose in +my hair, either." + +"You're a self-satisfied prig," retorted Burns. "Hullo! Somebody's +coming. Tell me what to do, Martha. Do I run to meet them and rush them +up to Ellen, or do I display a studied indifference? I never 'received' +at a reception in my life." + +"Get in line there," instructed Macauley. "Martha and I'll greet them +first and pass them on to you. Don't look as if you were noting symptoms +and don't absent-mindedly feel their pulses. It's not done, outside of +consulting rooms." + +"I'll try to remember." R.P. Burns, M.D. resignedly took his place, +murmuring in Ellen's ear, as the first comers appeared at the door, +"Promise you'll make this up to me, when it's over. I shall have to blow +off steam, somehow. Will you help?" + +She nodded, laughing. He chuckled, as an idea popped into his head; then +drew his face into lines of propriety, and stood, a big, dignified +figure--for Red Pepper could be dignified when the necessity was upon +him--beside the other graceful figure at his side, suggesting an +unfailing support of her grace by his strength to all who looked at them +that night. He had declared himself ignorant of all conventions, but +neither jocose James Macauley nor fastidious Arthur Chester, observing +him, could find any fault with their friend in this new role. As the +stream of their townspeople passed by, each with a carefully prepared +word of greeting, Burns was ready with a quick-wittedly amiable +rejoinder. And whenever it became his duty to present to his wife those +who did not know her, he made of the act a little ceremony which seemed +to set her apart as his own in a way which roused no little envy of her, +if he had but known it, in the breasts of certain of the feminine portion +of the company. + +"You're doing nobly. Keep it up an hour longer and you shall be let off," +said Macauley to Burns, at a moment when both were free. + +"Oh, I'm having the time of my life," Burns assured him grimly, mopping +a warm brow and thrusting his chin forward with that peculiar masculine +movement which suggests momentary relief from an encompassing collar. +"Why should anybody want to be released from such a soul-refreshing +diversion as this? I've lost all track of time or sense,--I just go on +grinning and assenting to everything anybody says to me. I couldn't +discuss the simplest subject with any intelligence whatever--I've none +left." + +"You don't need any. Decent manners and the grin will do. Had anything to +eat yet?" + +"What's got to be eaten?" Burns demanded, unhappily. + +"Punch, and ices--and little cakes, I believe. Cheer up, man, you don't +have to eat 'em, if you don't want to." + +"Thanks for that. I'll remember it of you when greater favours have been +forgotten. Martha has her eye on me--I must go. I'll get even with Martha +for this, some time." And the guest of honour, stuffing his handkerchief +out of sight and thrusting his coppery, thick locks back from his +martyred brow, obeyed the summons. + +The next time Macauley caught sight of him, he was assiduously supplying +a row of elderly ladies with ices and little cakes, and smiling at them +most engagingly. They were looking up at him with that grateful +expression which many elderly ladies unconsciously assume when a handsome +and robust young man devotes himself to them. Burns found this task least +trying of all his duties during that long evening, for one of the row +reminded him of his own mother, to whom he was a devoted son, and for her +sake he would give all aging women of his best. Something about this +little group of unattended guests, all living more or less lonely lives, +as he well knew them in their homes, touched his warm heart, and he +lingered with them to the neglect of younger and fairer faces, until his +host, again at his elbow, in a strenuous whisper admonished him: + +"For heaven's sake, Red, don't waste any more of that rare sweetness on +the desert air. Go and lavish your Beau Brummel gallantry on the wives +of our leading citizens. Those new Winterbournes have sackfuls of +money--and a chronic invalid or two always in the family, I'm told. A +little attention there--" + +"Clear out," Burns retorted shortly, and deliberately sat down beside the +little, white-haired old lady who reminded him of his mother. As he had +been standing before, this small act was significant, and Macauley, with +a comprehending chuckle, moved away again. + +"Might have known that wouldn't work," he assured himself. He strolled +over to Ellen, and when, after some time, he succeeded in getting her +for a moment to himself, he put an interested question. + +"What do you think of your husband as a society man? A howling success, +eh? He's been sitting for one quarter of an hour by the side of old Mrs. +Gillis. And a whole roomful of devoted patients, past and future, looking +daggers at him because he ignores them. How's that for business policy, +eh? Can't you bring him to his senses?" + +"Are you sure they're looking daggers? I passed Mrs. Gillis and Red just +now, and thought they made a delightful pair. As for business policy, +Jim,--a man who would be good to an old lady would be good to a young +one. Isn't that the natural inference,--if you must think about business +at all at such an affair. I prefer not to think about it at all." + +"You may not be thinking about it, but you're capturing friends, right +and left. I've been watching you, and knew by the expression on the faces +of those you were talking to that you were gathering them in and nailing +them fast. How does a woman like you do it?--that's what I'd like to +know!" + +"Go and do your duty like a man, Jimmy. Flattering the members of your +own family is not a part of it." Dismissing him with a smile which made +him more than ever eager for her company, she turned away, to devote +herself, as her husband was doing, to the least attractive of the guests. + +The evening wore away at last, and at a reasonably early hour the hosts +were free. The last fellow citizen had barely delivered his parting +speech and taken himself off when Red Pepper Burns turned a handspring +in the middle of the deserted room, and came up grinning like a fiend. + +"Good-bye--good-bye--'tis a word I love to speak," he warbled, and +seizing his wife kissed her ardently on either cheek. + +"Hear--hear!" applauded James Macauley, returning from the hall in time +to see this expression of joy. "May we all follow your excellent +example?" + +"You may not." Red Pepper frowned fiercely at Mr. Macauley, approaching +with mischievous intent. "Keep off!" + +"She's my sister-in-law," defended Macauley, continuing to draw near, and +smiling broadly. + +"All the more reason for you to treat her with respect." Burns's arm +barred the way. + +Macauley stopped short with an unbelieving chuckle. Arthur Chester, +Winifred, his wife, and Martha Macauley, coming in from the dining-room +together, gazed with interest at the scene before them. Ellen, herself +smiling, looked at her husband rather as if she saw something in him she +had never seen before. For it was impossible not to perceive that he was +not joking as he prevented Macauley from reaching his wife. + +"Great snakes! he's in earnest!" howled Macauley, stopping short. "He +won't let me kiss his wife, when I'm the husband of her sister. Go 'way, +man, and cool that red head of yours. Anybody'd think I was going to +elope with her!" + +"Think what you like," Burns retorted, coolly, "so long as you keep your +distance with your foolery. You or any other man." + +"Red, you're not serious!" This was Martha. "Can't you trust Ellen to +preserve her own--" + +"Dead line? Yes--in my absence. When I'm on the spot I prefer to play +picket-duty myself. I may be eccentric. But that's one of my notions, +and I've an idea it's one of hers, too." + +"Better get her a veil, you Turk." + +Macauley walked away with a very red face, at which Burns unexpectedly +burst into a laugh, and his good humour came back with a rush. + +"Look here, you people. Forget my heroics and come over to our house. +I'll give you something to take the taste of those idiotic little cakes +out of your hungry mouths. No refusals! I'm your best friend, Jim +Macauley, and you know it, so come along and don't act like a small boy +who's had his candy taken away from him. You've plenty of candy of your +own, you know." + +He was his gay self again, and bore them away with him on the wave of his +boyish spirits. Across the lawn and into the house they went, the six, +and were conducted into the living-room and bidden settle down around the +fireplace. + +"Start a fire, Jim, and get a bed of cannel going with a roar. You'll +find the stuff in that willow basket. Open all the windows, Ches. Then +all make yourselves comfortable and await my operations. I promise you +a treat--from my point of view." + +And he rushed away. + +"It's my private opinion," growled Macauley, beginning sulkily to lay +the fire, "that that fellow is off his head. He always did seem a trifle +cracked, and to-night he's certainly dippy. What's he going to do with a +fire, at 11 P.M., on a May evening, I'd like to know?" + +"Whatever it is, it will be refreshing." Winifred Chester, reckless of +her delicate blue evening gown, curled herself up in a corner of the big +davenport and laid her head luxuriously down among the pillows. "Oh, I'm +so tired," she sighed. "Seems to me I never heard so many stupid things +said, in one evening, in my life." + +Arthur Chester, having thrown every window wide--though he discreetly +drew the curtains over those which faced the street--sat down in a great +winged chair of comfortable cushioning, and stretched his legs in front +of him as far as they would go, his arms clasped behind his head. He also +drew a deep sigh of content. + +"I don't recall," said he, wearily, "that I have sat down once during the +entire evening." + +"How ridiculous!" cried Martha Macauley, bristling. "If you didn't, it +was your own fault. I took away hardly any chairs, and I arranged several +splendid corners just on purpose for those who wished to sit." + +"As there were a couple of hundred people, and not over a couple of dozen +chairs--" began Chester, dryly. + +But Martha interrupted him. "I never saw such a set. Just as if you +hadn't been going to affairs like this one all your lives,--and Ellen, +especially, must have been at hundreds of them in Washington,--and now +you're all disgusted with having to bear up under just one little +informal--" + +"Cheer up, my children," called Burns, reentering. He was garbed in +white, which his guests saw after a moment to be a freshly laundered +surgical gown, covering him from head to foot, the sleeves reaching only +to his elbows, beneath which his bare arms gleamed sturdily. He bore a +wire broiler in one hand, and a platter of something in the other, and +his face wore an expression of content. + +"Beefsteak, by all that's crazy!" shouted James Macauley, eying the +generous expanse of raw meat upon the platter with undisguised delight. +He forgot his sulkiness in an instant, and slapped his friend upon the +back with a resounding blow. "Bully for Red!" he cried. + +"Well, well! Of all the wild ideas!" murmured Arthur Chester. But he sat +up in his chair, and his expression grew definitely more cheerful. + +Winifred laughed out with anticipation. "Oh, how good that will taste!" +she exclaimed, hugging herself in her own pretty arms. "It is just what +we want, after wearing ourselves out being agreeable. Who but Red would +ever think of such a thing, at this time of night?" + +"I believe it will taste good," and Martha Macauley laid her head back at +last against the encompassing comfort of the chair she sat in, and for +the first time relaxed from the duties of hostess and the succeeding +defence of her hospitality. + +"Don't you want my help, Red?" his wife asked him, at his elbow. + +He turned and looked at the gray gauze gown. "I should say not," said he. +"Lie back, all of you, and take your ease, which you have richly earned, +while I play _chef_. Nothing will suit me better. I'm boiling over with +restrained emotion, and this will work it off. Lie back, while I imagine +that it's one of the male guests who bored me whom I'm grilling now. I'll +do him to a turn!" + +He proceeded with his operations, working the quick fire of cannel which +Macauley had started into a glowing bed of hot coals. He improvised from +the andirons a rack for his broiler, and set the steak to cooking. While +he heated plates, sliced bread, and brought knives, forks, and napkins, +he kept an experienced eye upon his broiler, and saw that it was +continually turned and shifted, in order to get the best results. And +presently he was laying his finished product upon the hot platter, +seasoning it, applying a rich dressing of butter, and, at last, preparing +with a flourish of the knife to carve it. + +It was at this to-be-expected moment that the office-bell rang. Miss +Mathewson summoned her employer, and Burns stayed only to serve his +guests, before he left them hungrily consuming his offering and bewailing +his departure. + +"Only," Martha Macauley said, "we ought to be thankful that for once he +got through an evening without being called out." + +Ellen had placed her husband's portion where it would keep hot for him, +and the others had nearly finished consuming their own, when Burns came +in. He made for the fire, amid the greetings and praises of his guests, +and served his own plate with the portion remaining on the platter, +covering it liberally with the rich gravy. Then he cut and buttered two +thick slices of bread and laid them on the plate. + +"Sit down, sit down, man!" urged Macauley, as his host rose to his feet. +"We're waiting to see you enjoy this magnificent result of your cookery. +It's the best steak I've had in a blue moon." + +"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take mine in the office," Burns +explained. "Can't leave my patient just yet." And he went away again, +carrying his plate, napkin over his arm. + +Five minutes later Macauley, putting down his empty plate, got up and +strolled out into the hall. A moment afterward he was heard abruptly +closing the office door, saying, "Oh, I beg pardon!" Then he returned to +the company. He was whistling softly as he came, his hands in his pockets +and his eyebrows lifted. + +"He _is_ dippy," he said, solemnly. "No man in his senses would act like +that." + +"You eavesdropper, what did you see?" Winifred Chester looked at him +expectantly. + +"I saw the worst-looking specimen of tramp humanity who has come under my +observation for a year, with a bandage over one eye. He is sitting in +that big chair with a plate and napkin in his lap, and his ugly mouth is +full of beefsteak." + +"And isn't Red having any?" cried Martha, with a glance at the empty +platter. + +"Not a smell. He's standing up by the chimney-piece, looking the picture +of contentment--the idiot. But he modified his benevolent expression +long enough to give me a glare, when he saw me looking in. That's the +second glare I've had from him to-night, and I'm going home. I can't +stand incurring his displeasure a third time in one day. Come, Martha, +let's get back to our happy home--what there is left of it after the +fray. We'll send over a plate of little cakes for the master of the +house. A couple of dozen of them may fill up that yawning cavity of his. +Of all the foolishness!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A RED HEAD + + +"Marriage," said James Macauley, looking thoughtfully into his coffee +cup, as he sat opposite his wife, Martha, at the breakfast-table, "is +supposed to change a man radically. The influence of a good and lovely +woman can hardly be overestimated. But the question is, can the temper +of a red-headed explosive ever be rendered uninflammable?" + +"What are you talking about?" Martha inquired, with interest. "Ellen and +Red? Red _is_ changed. I never saw him so dear and tractable." + +"Dear and tractable, is he? Have you happened to encounter him in the +last twenty-four hours?" + +"No. What's the matter? He and Ellen can't possibly have had +any--misunderstanding? And if they had, they wouldn't tell you about it." + +"Well, they may not have had a misunderstanding, but if Ellen succeeds in +understanding him through the present crisis she'll prove herself a +remarkable woman. As near as I can make it out, Red is mad, fighting mad, +clear through, with somebody or something, and he can no more disguise +it than he ever could. I don't suppose it's with anybody at home, of +course, but it makes him anything but an angel, there or anywhere else." + +"Where did you see him? Hush--Mary's coming!" + +Macauley waited obediently till the maid had left the room again. Then he +proceeded. He had not begun upon the present subject until the children +had gone away, leaving the father and mother alone together. + +"I ran into his office last night, after those throat-tablets he gives +me, and heard him at the telephone in the private office. Couldn't help +hearing him. He was giving the everlasting quietus to somebody, and I +thought he'd burn out the transmitter." + +"Jim! Red doesn't swear any more. He surely hasn't taken it up again?" + +"He didn't do any technical swearing, perhaps, but he might as well. He +can put more giant-powder into the English language without actually +breaking any commandments than anybody I ever heard. When he came out he +had that look of his--you know it of old--so that if I'd been a timid +chap I'd have backed out. He gave me my throat-tablets without so much as +answering my explanation of how I came to be out of them so soon. Then I +got away, I assure you. He had no use for me." + +"He's probably all right this morning. Ellen could quiet him down." + +"She didn't get the chance. The light in his old room burned all +night,--and you know he's not sleeping there now." + +"Well, I'm sorry for her." Martha rose, her brow clouded. "But I'd never +dare to ask her what the trouble was, and she'll never tell, so there it +is." + +"It certainly is--right there. Oh, well, he'll get over it, if you give +him time. Queer, what a combination of big heart and red head he is." + +At the moment of this discussion the red head was still in the +ascendency. R.P. Burns, M.D., had come out of his old quarters downstairs +that morning with lips set grimly together, heavy gloom upon his brow. He +met his wife at the breakfast-table with an effort at a smile in response +to her bright look, and kissed her as tenderly as usual, but it was an +automatic tenderness, as she was quick to recognize. He replied +monosyllabically to her observations concerning matters usually of +interest to him, but he evidently had no words to spare, and after a +little she gave over all effort to draw him out. Instead, she and Bob +held an animated discussion on certain kindergarten matters, while Red +Pepper swallowed his breakfast in silence, gulped down two cups of strong +coffee, and left the table with only a murmured word of apology. + +"Red,--" His wife's voice followed him. + +He turned, without speaking. + +"Do you mind if I drive into town with you this morning?" + +He nodded, and turned again, striding on into his office and closing the +door with a bang. She understood that his nod meant acquiescence with her +request, rather than affirmation as to his objecting to her company. She +kept close watch over the movements of the Green Imp, suspecting that in +his present mood Burns might forget to call her, and when the car came +down the driveway she was waiting on the office steps. + +It would have been an ill-humoured man indeed, whose eyes could have +rested upon her standing there and not have noted the charm of her +graceful figure, her face looking out at him from under a modishly +attractive hat. Ellen's smile, from under the shadowing brim, was as +whole-heartedly sweet as if she were meeting the look of worshipful +comradeship which usually fell upon her when she joined her husband on +any expedition whatever. Instead, she encountered something like a glower +from the hazel eyes, which did, however, as at breakfast, soften for an +instant at the moment of meeting hers. + +"Jump in! I'm in a hurry," was his quite needless command, for she was +ready to take her place the instant the car drew to a standstill, and the +delay she made him was hardly appreciable. + +In silence they drove to town, and at a pace which took them past +everything with which they came up, from lumbering farm-wagon to +motor-cars far more powerful and speedy than the Imp. Ellen found herself +well blown about by the wind they made, though there was none stirring, +and wished she had been dressed for driving instead of for shopping. But +the trip, if breezy, was brief, though it did not at once land her at her +destination. + +Drawing up before a somewhat imposing residence, on the outskirts of the +city, Burns announced: "Can't take you in till I've made this call," and +stopped his engine with a finality which seemed to indicate that he +should be in no haste to start it again. + +"It doesn't matter in the least. I shall enjoy sitting here," his wife +responded, still outwardly unruffled by his manner. She looked in vain +for his customary glance of leave-taking, and watched him stride away up +the walk to the house with a sense of wonder that even his back could +somehow look so aggressive. + +She had not more than settled herself when a handsome roadster appeared +rushing rapidly down the road from the direction of the city and came to +a stop, facing her, before the house. She recognized in the well-groomed +figure which stepped out, case in hand, one of the city surgeons with +whom her husband was often closely associated in his hospital work, Dr. +Van Horn. He was a decade older than Red, possessed a strikingly +impressive personality, and looked, to the last detail, like a man +accustomed to be deferred to. + +Descending, he caught sight of Ellen, and came across to the Imp, hat in +hand, and motoring-glove withdrawn. + +"Ah, Mrs. Burns,--accompanying your husband on this matchless morning? He +is a fortunate man. You don't mind the waiting? My wife thinks there is +nothing so unendurable,--she has no patience with the length of my +calls." + +"I've not had much experience, as yet," Ellen replied, looking into the +handsome, middle-aged face before her, and thinking that the smile under +the close-clipped, iron-gray moustache was one which could be cynical +more easily than it could be sympathetic. "But, so far, I find the +waiting, in such weather, very endurable. I often bring a book, and then +it never matters, you know." + +"Of course not. You are familiar with Balzac's 'Country Doctor'? There's +a tribute to men like your husband, who devote their lives to the humble +folk." He glanced toward the house. "I mustn't keep my colleague waiting, +even for the pleasure of a chat with you. He's not--you'll pardon me--so +good a waiter as yourself!" + +He went away, smiling. Ellen looked after him with a little frown of +displeasure. From the first moment of meeting him, some months ago, she +had not liked Dr. James Van Horn. He was the city's most fashionable +surgeon, she knew, and had a large practice among folk the reverse of +"humble." She had seen in his eyes that he liked to look at her, and knew +that in the moment he had stood beside her he had lost no detail of her +face. He had also, after some subtle fashion, managed to express his +admiration by his own look, though with his smoothly spoken words he had +not hesitated to say a thing about her husband which was at once somehow +a compliment and a stab. + +"I can't imagine Dr. Van Horn taking much pains with 'humble folk,'" +Ellen said to herself. "Yet he's evidently consulting with Red at this +house, which doesn't seem exactly a 'humble' abode. I wonder if they get +on well together. They're certainly not much alike." + +The wait proved to be a long one. Ellen had studied her surroundings with +thoroughness in every direction before the house-door opened at last, and +the two men came down the walk together. They were talking earnestly as +they came, and at a point some yards away they ceased to advance, and +stood still, evidently in tense discussion over the case just left. They +spoke in the low tones customary with men of their profession, and their +words did not reach Ellen's ears. But it was not difficult to recognize, +as she watched their faces, that they were differing, and differing +radically, on the matter in hand. + +They had turned to face each other, and neither looked her way, so +it was possible for Ellen to study the two without fear of intrusion. +They made an interesting study, certainly. Dr. Van Horn's face was +impassive as to the play of his features, except that he smiled, from +time to time,--a smile which bore out Ellen's previous feeling concerning +its possibilities for cynicism rather than sympathy. His eyes, however, +steely blue and cold in their expression, told more than his face of +antagonism to the man with whom he spoke. But his command of manner, to +the outward observer, who could not hear his words, was perfect. + +As for R.P. Burns, M.D., there was no disguising the fact that he was +intensely angry. That he strove, and strove hard, to control his manner, +if not his anger, was perfectly evident to his wife, but that he was +succeeding ill at the task was painfully apparent. His colour was +high--it nearly matched his hair; his eyes burned like consuming fires +under their dark brows; his lips spoke fast and fiercely. He kept his +voice down--Ellen was thankful for that--and his gestures, though +forceful, were controlled; but she feared at every moment that he would +break out into open show of temper, and it seemed to her that this she +could not bear. + +She had never before seen Red Pepper really angry. She had been told, +again and again since her first meeting with him, by her sister and her +sister's husband, and by the Chesters, that Burns was capable of getting +into a red rage in which nobody could influence or calm him, and in which +he could or would not control himself. They invariably added that these +hot exhibitions of high temper were frequently over as suddenly as they +had appeared, and usually did nobody any harm whatever. But they hinted +that there had been times in the past when Red had said or done that +which could not be forgiven by his victims, and that he had more than +once alienated people of standing whose good-will he could not afford to +lose. + +"He keeps a woodpile back of the house," James Macauley had told her +once, laughingly, in the last days before she had married Burns, "where +he works off a good deal of high pressure. If you catch a glimpse of +him there, at unholy hours, you may know that there's murder in his +heart--for the moment. Art Chester vows he's caught him there at +midnight, and I don't doubt it in the least. But--a woodpile isn't always +handy when a man is mad clear through, and when it isn't, and you happen +to be the one who's displeased His Pepperiness, look out! I give you fair +warning, smiles and kisses won't always work with him, much as he may +like 'em when he's sane!" + +"I'm not afraid, thank you, Jim," Ellen had answered, lightly. "Better a +red-hot temper than a white-cold one." + +She thought of the words now, as she saw her husband suddenly turn away +from Dr. Van Horn, and march down the walk, ahead of him. The action +was pretty close to rudeness, for it left the elder man in the rear. +Evidently, in spite of his irritation, Burns instantly realized this, for +he turned again, saying quickly: "I beg your pardon, Doctor, but I've got +a lot of work waiting." + +"Don't apologize, Doctor," returned the other, with perfect courtesy. "We +all know that you are the busiest man among us." + +His face, as he spoke, was as pale as Burns's was high-coloured, and +Ellen recognized that here were the two sorts of wrath in apposition, the +"red" sort and the "white." And looking at Dr. Van Horn's face, it seemed +to her that she still preferred the red. But as his eyes met hers he +smiled the same suave smile which she had seen before. + +"Not tired of waiting yet, Mrs. Burns?" he said, as he passed her. "You +must be a restful companion for a man harassed by many cares." + +She smiled and nodded her thanks, with a blithe word of parting,--so +completely can her sex disguise their feelings. She was conscious at the +moment, without in the least being able to guess at the cause of the +friction between the two men, of an intense antipathy to Dr. James Van +Horn. And at the same moment she longed to be able to make her husband +look as cool and unconcerned as the other man was looking, as he drove +away with a backward nod--which Red Pepper did not return! + +It was not the time to speak,--she knew that well enough. Besides, though +she was not the subject of his resentment, she did not care to incur any +more of the results of it than could be helped. She let Burns drop her at +a corner near the shopping district without asking him to take her to the +precise place she meant to visit first, and left him without making any +request that he return for her,--a courtesy he was usually eager to +insist upon, even though it took him out of his way. + +At night, when he returned, she met him with the hope that he would be +able to spend the evening with her,--a thing which had not happened for +a week. Her arms were about his neck as she put the question, and he +looked down into her face with again a slight softening of his austere +expression. She had seen at the first glance that he was not only still +unhappy, he was suffering profound fatigue. + +"No, I've got to go back to that infernal case." It was the first time he +had disclosed even a hint as to what was the matter. + +"The one where I stopped with you this morning?" + +"Yes. Each time I go I vow I'll not go again. To-night, if I find things +as they were two hours ago, I'll discharge myself, and that will end it." + +"Red, you're just as tired and worn as you can be. Come in to the big +couch, and let me make you comfortable, until dinner. You'll eat the +better for it--and you need it." + +He yielded, reluctantly,--he who was always so willing to submit to her +ministrations. But he threw himself upon the couch with a long sigh, and +let her arrange the pillows under his head. She sat down beside him. + +"Can't you tell me something about it, dear?" she suggested. "Nothing I +ought not to know, of course, but the thing which makes you so miserable. +It can't be because the case is going wrong,--that wouldn't affect you +just as this is doing." + +"You've seen it, I suppose. I thought I'd kept in, before you." Burns +shut his eyes, his brows frowning. + +She could have smiled, but did not. "You have--only of course I have seen +that something was wearing you--keeping you on a tension. You've not been +quite yourself for several days." + +"I am myself. I'm the real fellow--only you haven't known him before. The +other is just--the devil disguised in a goodly garment, one that doesn't +belong to him." + +"Oh, no!" + +"No question of it. I'm so swearing mad this minute I could kill +somebody,--in other words, that foul fiend of a James Van +Horn--smooth-tongued hypocrite that he is!" + +"Has he injured you?" + +"Injured me? Knifed me in the back, every chance he got. Always has--but +he never had such a chance as he has now. And plays the part of an angel +of light in that house--fools them all. I'm the ill-tempered incompetent, +he's the forbearing wise man. The case is mine, but he's played the game +till they all have more confidence in him than they have in me. And he's +got all the cards in his hand!" + +He flung himself off the couch, and began to pace the room. Speech, once +unloosed, flowed freely enough now,--he could not keep it back. + +"The patient is a man of prominence--the matter of his recovery is a +great necessity. If he were able to bear it he ought to be operated upon; +but there isn't one chance in a hundred he'd survive an operation at +present. There's at least one chance in ten he'll get well without one. +I'm usually keen enough to operate, but for once I don't dare risk it. +Van Horn advises operation--unreservedly. And the deuce of it is that +with every hour that goes by he lets the family understand that he +considers the patient's chances for relief by operation are lessening. +He's fixing it so that however things come out he's safe, and however +things come out I'm in the hole." + +"Not if the patient gets well." + +"No, but I tell you the chance for that is mighty slim--only one in ten, +at best. So he holds the cards, except for that one chance of mine. And +if the patient dies in the end it's because I didn't operate when he +advised it--or so he'll let them see he thinks. Not in so many words, but +in the cleverest innuendo of face and manner;--_that's_ what makes me so +mad! If he'd fight in the open! But not he." + +"Would he have liked to operate himself?" + +Burns laughed--an ugly laugh, such as she had never before heard from his +lips. "Couldn't have been hired to, not even in the beginning, when he +first advocated it. And I couldn't have let him, knowing as well as I +know anything in life that the patient would never have left the table +alive. Don't you see I've had to fight for my patient's very life,--or +rather for his slim chance to live,--knowing all the while that I was +probably digging my own grave. Easy enough to let Van Horn operate, in +the beginning, and kill the patient and prove himself right,--if he would +have done it. Easy enough to pull out of the case and let them have +somebody who would operate on Van Horn's advice." + +"Is the patient going down?" + +"No, he's holding his own fairly well, but the disease isn't one that +would take him off overnight. It'll be a matter of two or three days yet, +either way. How I'm going to get through them, with things going as they +are;--meeting that Judas there at the bedside, three times a day, and +trying to keep my infernal temper from making me disgrace myself--" + +"Red, dear,--" + +She rose and came to him, putting her hands on his shoulders and looking +straight up into his face. + +"That's where Dr. Van Horn is stronger than you, and in no other way. He +can control himself." + +"Not inside! Nor outside--if you know him. He's exactly as mad as I am, +only--" + +"He doesn't show it. And so he has the advantage." + +"Do you think I don't know that? But I'm right and he's wrong--" + +"So you are the one who should keep cool. You've heard the saying of some +wise man--_'If you are right you have no need to lose your temper--if +you are wrong you can't afford to.'_" + +Red Pepper laid hold of the hands upon his shoulders, and looked down +into his wife's eyes with fires burning fiercely in his own. + +"You can give me all the wise advice you want to, but the fact +remains.--I have reason to be angry, and I am angry, and I can't help it, +and won't help it! Great heavens, I'm human!" + +"Yes, dear, you're human, and so am I. You have great provocation, and +I think I'm almost as angry, in my small way, with Dr. Van Horn, as +you are, now that I know. But--I want you somehow to keep control of +yourself. You are a gentleman, and he is not, but he is acting like a +gentleman--hush--on the outside, I mean--and--you are not!" + +"What!" + +"Dear, _are_ you?" + +"What do you know about it?" + +"From the little I saw outside the house this morning." + +He grasped her arms so tightly that he hurt her. "Lord! If you mean that +I ought to grin at him, as he does at me, the snake in the grass--" + +"I don't mean that, of course. But I do think you shouldn't allow +yourself to look as if you wanted to knock him down." + +"There's nothing in life that would give me greater satisfaction!" + +He relaxed his grasp on her arms, and she let them drop from his +shoulders. She turned aside, with a little droop of the head, as if she +felt it useless to argue with one so stubbornly set on his own +destruction. + +He looked after her. "A big brute, am I not? Didn't know me before, did +you? Thought I was all fine, warm heart and blarneying words. Well, I'm +not. When a thing like this gets hold of me I'm--well, I won't shock your +pretty ears by putting it into words." + +He walked out of the room, leaving her standing looking after him with a +strange expression on her face. Before she had moved, however, the door +burst open again, and he was striding across the floor to her, to seize +her in his arms. + +"I _am_ a brute, and I know it, but I'm not so far gone as not to realize +I'm wreaking my temper on the one I love best in the world. Forget it, +darling, and don't worry about me. I've been through this sort of thing +times enough before. Best not try to reform me--let me have my fling. I'm +no Job nor Moses,--I wasn't built that way." + +She lifted her head, and the action was full of spirit. "I don't want you +a Job or a Moses, but a man! It's not manly to act as you are acting +now." + +He threw up his head. "Not manly! That's a new one. According to your +code is there no just anger in the world?" + +"Just anger, but not sane rage. You have reason to be angry but there's +no reason in the world why you should let it consume you. Red, dear, why +not--_bank the fires_?" + +He stared down into her upturned face. He had thought he knew her, +heart and soul, but he found himself thoroughly astonished by this new +attitude. He was so accustomed to a charming compliance in her, he could +hardly realize that he was being brought to book in a manner at once so +felicitous yet so firm. She gave him back his scrutiny without flinching, +and somehow, though she put him in the wrong, he had never loved her +better. Here was a comrade who could understand and influence him! + +"Bank the fires, eh?" he growled. "Not put them out? I should suppose you +would have wanted them drowned out in a flood of tears of repentance for +letting them burn." + +"No! You are you, and the fires are warming--when they are kept under +control. You're fighting the harder for your patient's life because the +fight's a hard one. But when you let the Devil fan the flame--" + +He burst into a great, unexpected laugh and caught her to his breast +again. "That's what I'm doing, is it? That ever I should have lived to +hear you use a phrase like that! But it's a true one, I admit it. I've +let his Satanic Majesty have his own way with me, and bade him welcome, +too. I may again, when I get away from you. But--well--I know you're +right. I--I'll try to bank the fires, little wife. Only don't expect too +much." + +"Red," said she,--and it was not at all the sort of rejoinder he might +have expected after his concession,--"why is there no woodpile now behind +the house?" + +"Woodpile?" He was clearly puzzled. "Why, there's plenty of wood in the +cellar, you know, if you want fires. You can't be suffering for them, +this weather?" + +"No, but I wish there were a woodpile there. Did you think you wouldn't +need one any more after you were married? You should have laid in a +double supply." + +"But, what for? Oh!--" Light dawned upon him. "Somebody's told you how I +used to whack at it." + +"Yes, and I saw you once myself, only I didn't know what put the energy +into your blows. It was a splendid safety-valve. Red,--send for a load +of wood to-day, please!" + +"In July! You hard-hearted little wretch! Do you want me reduced to a +pulp?" + +She nodded. "Better that than burning like a bonfire. And better than +running the Imp sixty miles an hour. That doesn't help you,--it merely +helps your arch enemy fan the flames." + +He laughed again, and the sound of his own laughter did him good, +according to the laws of Nature. "Bless you, you've put him to rout for +the moment at least, and that's more than any other human soul has ever +done for mine, before." + +He kissed her, tenderly, and understanding what he did. In his heart he +adored her for the sweetness and sense which had kept her from taking +these days of trial as a personal affront and finding offence in them. + +They went out to dinner, and Burns found himself somehow able to forget +sufficiently to enjoy the appetizing dishes which were served to him, and +to keep his brow clear and his mind upon the table talk. When he went +away, afterward, back to the scene of his irritation and anxiety, he bore +with him a peculiar sense of having his good genius with him, to help him +tend those devastating fires of temperament which when they burned too +fiercely could only hinder him in the fight he waged. + +It was almost daybreak when he returned. Ellen was not asleep, although +she did not expect him to come upstairs, if only for fear of disturbing +her at that hour. But presently the cautious opening of her door caused +her to raise her head and lift her arms. Her husband came to her, and sat +down close beside her. + +"I've discharged myself from the case," he said. He spoke quietly, but +his voice vibrated with feeling. "It was the only thing to do. No man +could keep on with a case where the family were secretly following the +consultant's directions, instead of those of the physician in charge. +But,--for your sake, little wife, I've done something I never would have +believed I'd do." + +She sat up, her eyes fixed on the dim outlines of his face. "Tell me!" +she urged. + +"To begin with, I had it out with them, and let them know I understood +the situation perfectly--and had understood it all along. That I couldn't +stay with people who had lost faith in me. That if I were out of it they +could have the full benefit of Van Horn's orders, and the nurses would be +relieved of a mighty difficult situation. I suppose you don't know--few +people do--that it's a bad breach of professional ethics for a consultant +to conduct himself so that he throws doubt on the ability of the man in +charge? In this case it was a piece of outrageous--" He caught himself +up. "I can't get going on that, or--those fires won't stay banked!" + +She had his hand in both hers, and she lifted it to her lips. He drew a +smothered breath or two, and went on. + +"They were glad enough to see me out of it. Van Horn was--also glad! +You see,--within the last few hours the patient had lost ground--Van's +prognosis was being verified. But, when it came to taking leave of the +patient, there was the dickens to pay. His pulse jumped and his +temperature went up, and there was trouble for fair. He begged me not to +leave him. From the start his faith has been pinned tight to me. The +family hadn't reckoned with that. They found themselves obliged to reckon +with it. They saw I must be kept, or the game would be up in short +order." + +"Oh, then you _had_ to stay!" + +"Yes, I had to stay--but--I couldn't! Van Horn was in charge, and the +family wanted him in charge." + +"But the patient would die if you didn't stay. You couldn't let +professional etiquette--" + +"Couldn't you, though? You've got to observe the rules of the game, +Ellen, or you'll be in a worse mess than if you disregard them. After I +had resigned the case, unless Van Horn took himself out of it I could +have no recognized place in the house. He could have invited me, in the +emergency, to share responsibility equally with himself--but would he do +that? Never! There was just one thing I could do,--let the patient think +I was still in charge, and continue to see him, while Van Horn ran things +and so satisfied the family." + +"Oh, Red, they couldn't ask you to do that?" + +"That was what they did ask. I saw 'red' then, for a minute, I can tell +you. You can't understand just what a humiliation that would be,--it's +more than you could expect of any man--" + +"But with the patient needing you--" + +"I know,--but it's an anomalous position, just the same--an unbearable +one. Not one man in a thousand would consider it for an instant. But it's +the one I've accepted--for you!" + +He drew her into his arms, and had his reward. He had not known she would +be so deeply touched, and his heart grew very warm. + +"Bless you!" he murmured. "Do you care so much about seeing those fires +banked? They would never burn _you_!" + +"Care? Oh, how I care! But, Red, you haven't accepted an 'anomalous +position.' It's a clearly defined one,--the position of the man who is +big enough to take second place, because it is his duty. And I'm so proud +of you--so proud! And prouder yet because you've controlled that fiery +temper." + +"Don't praise me yet,--it may break out again. The test is coming in the +next forty-eight hours." + +"You will stand it,--I know you will." + +"You would put backbone into a feather-bed," said Red Pepper, with +conviction, and they laughed and clung together, in the early dawn. + + * * * * * + +Two days later Burns came home again as the first light of the morning +was breaking over the summer sky. It had been the third consecutive night +which he had spent at the bedside of the patient who would not let him +go,--the patient who, every time his weary eyes lifted, during the long +stretches of the night, wanted to rest them upon a halo of coppery red +hair against the low-burning light. The sick man had learned what it +meant to feel now and then, in a moment of torture, the pressure of a +kind, big hand upon his, and to hear the sound of a quiet, reassuring +voice--_"Steady--steady--better in a minute!"_ + +As he entered his office his eyes were heavy with his vigils, but his +heart was very light. He looked at a certain old leather chair, into +which he had often sunk when he came in at untimely hours, too weary +to take another step toward bed. But now he passed it by and noiselessly +crossed the hall into the living-room, where stood the roomy and +luxurious couch which Ellen had provided with special thought of hours +like these. + +He softly opened the windows, to let in the morning breeze and the +bird-songs of the early risers outside, then threw himself upon the +couch, and almost instantly was sound asleep. + +Two hours later, before the household was astir, Ellen came down. She was +in flowing, lacy garments, her hair in freshly braided plaits hanging +over her shoulders, her eyes clear and bright with the invigoration of +the night's rest. As if she had known he would be there, she came +straight to her husband's side, and stood looking down at him with +her heart in her eyes. + +He looked almost like a big boy, lying there with one arm under his head, +the heavy lashes marking the line of the closed eyes, the face unbent +from the tenser moulding of waking hours, the whole strong body relaxed +into an attitude of careless ease. Even as she looked, though she had +made scarcely a breath of noise, his eyes unclosed. He was the lightest +of sleepers, even when worn out with work. He lay staring up at her for a +minute while she smiled down at him, then he held out his arms. + +"He's passed the danger point," he exulted, and he took hold of the two +long plaits and wound them about her head. Then he sat up and began +deliberately to unbraid her hair, while she submitted laughing. + +"At two this morning he had a bad turn," said he, his fingers having +their way with the dusky locks. "The nurse gave him Van Horn's drugs,--he +grew worse. I rose up and took charge." He laughed at the thought. "We +had things doing there that would have made Van's hair curl. Everybody's +hair curled but mine. Mine stood up straight. I waved my arms like a +semaphore. I said _'Do this!'_ and they did it. I sent every one of Van's +emergency orders to thunder and tried my own. They were radical--but they +worked. The patient pulled out,--he'll live now,--I'll warrant him. +They got Van there just as the thing was over. He and I looked each other +in the eye--and I won. _Ah--h!--it was worth it!_" + +He drew her hair all over her face, like a veil; then he gently parted it +and kissed her happy lips. + +"Oh, but I'm the hungry boy," said he. "Can't we have breakfast--_now_?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MORE THAN ONE OPINION + + +"I want an opinion," said Burns, one night at dinner, "that shall +coincide with mine. Where do you suppose I'm going to find it?" + +He had been more or less abstracted during the entire dinner. He now +offered, in a matter-of-fact tone, this explanation of his abstraction +much as he might have observed that he would like a partridge, if it had +happened to be in season. + +"What's a ''pinion,' Uncle Red?" inquired his small ward, Bob. Bob's +six-year-old brain seemed to be always at work in the attempt to solve +problems. + +"It's what somebody else thinks about a thing when it agrees with what +you think. When it doesn't agree it's a prejudice," replied Burns. He +forestalled further questioning from Bob by refilling his plate with the +things the boy liked best, and by continuing, himself: + +"Grayson's idea about a certain case of mine is prejudice--pure +prejudice. Van Horn's is bluster. Field's is non-committal. Buller would +like to back me up--good old Buller--but is honestly convinced that I'm +making an awful mess of it. I want an opinion--a distinguished opinion." + +"Why don't you send for it?" his wife asked. + +Burns frowned. "That's the trouble. The more distinguished the opinion +I get the more my patient will have to pay for it, and he can't afford +to pay a tin dollar. At the same time--By George! There's Leaver! I +heard the other day that Leaver was at a sanitorium not a hundred miles +away,--there for a rest. I'll wager he's there with a patient for a few +days--at a good big price a day. Leaver never rests. He's made of steel +wires. I believe I'll have him up on the long-distance and see if I can't +get him to run over." + +"Is it Dr. John Leaver of Baltimore you speak of?" + +"It surely is. Do you happen to know him?" + +"Slightly, and by reputation--a great reputation." + +"Great? I should say so. Jack's been sawing wood without resting for ten +years. We were great chums in college, though he was two classes ahead +of me. I was with him again for a winter in Germany, when we were both +studying there. If I can get him over here for a day, I'll have an +opinion worth respecting, whether it happens to agree with mine or not. +And if it doesn't, I'll not call it prejudice." + +He left the table to put in a long-distance call. Between the salad +and the dessert he was summoned to talk with his friend. Presently he +returned, chuckling. + +"It must be fully ten minutes since I thought of Leaver, and now I have +him promised for to-morrow. I'll meet him in the city, give him the +history of the case at luncheon at the Everett, take him to the hospital +afterward, bring him out here to discuss things, and give him one of your +dinners. Then for a fine evening at our fireside. He's agreed to stay +overnight. I didn't expect that. He's usually in too much of a hurry to +linger long anywhere." + +"He has never seemed in a hurry, when I have seen him," Ellen observed. +"He has such a quiet manner, and such a cool, calm way of looking at one, +I always thought he must have a wonderful command of himself." + +"I always envied him that," admitted Red Pepper, stirring his coffee with +a thoughtful air. "I used to wish it were contagious, that splendid calm. +He never loses his head, as I do. Takes plenty of time to consider +everything, and plenty to get ready in. But when he does come to the +point of operating,--he's a wonder. Talk about rapidity and brilliancy! +And he never turns a hair. I've often wanted to count his pulse at a +crisis, when he'd found something unexpected--one of those times that +sends mine racing like a dynamo. He's as cool as a fish--outwardly, at +any rate. Well, it will be jolly to see him. I could hardly get his voice +to sound natural, over the 'phone. It seemed weak and thin. Poor service, +I suppose,--though he had no difficulty in hearing me, apparently." + +"Shall I put him in the small guest-room or the large, comfortable one? +Which will appeal to him most, space or a reading-light over his bed?" + +"Put him in the big room and give him all the comforts of home. I doubt +if he gets many of the really homelike sort, living alone with servants, +in the old family mansion, since his mother died. I've often wondered why +he hasn't married." + +"As you've only just married yourself I should think you would be quite +able to supply a reason," suggested Ellen, with a sparkle of her dark +eyes under their heavy lashes. + +"He's had plenty of opportunities. Many fair ladies have made it easy for +him to propose to them. But he's not the sort that kindles into flame at +the sight of a match in the distance. Yet he's by no means a cold-blooded +proposition. His heart is as warm as anybody's, under that reserve of +his. That's why I know he'll see my patient for the love of science and +humanity, and charge him nothing." + +Ellen found herself particularly interested, next day, in making +preparations for the reception of her husband's friend, the first +bachelor who should spend a night in the house. It was a fortnight since +Red Pepper had insisted upon having the telephones extended to the +upstairs rooms, and during that period two more rooms had been furnished +and put in readiness for the guests whom it was a part of Mrs. Burns's +hospitable creed to expect. The larger of these was a charming apartment, +in blue and white, and possessed a small fireplace, in front of which +stood a low couch, luxurious with many pillows. + +"It's rather a feminine looking room for so manly a man as Dr. Leaver," +Ellen reflected, as she looked in at it, an hour before his arrival, "but +perhaps he's not above enjoying little softnesses of comfort. I believe +I'll have a small fire for him, June though it is. It's a cold June, and +it looks like rain. It _is_ raining." She crossed to the window and +looked out. "Why, it's pouring! What a pity! We shall have to stay +indoors." + +As she stood contemplating the downpour, it quite suddenly increased, and +in the course of a minute or two became a deluge. In the midst of it she +discovered a white-clad figure running across the lawn, and recognized +Miss Mathewson, evidently caught in the shower as she was returning to +Burns's office. + +"She must be soaked through and through," thought Ellen, and ran +downstairs to meet her, herself clad in dinner dress of the pale lilac +which suited her so well, and for which her husband had conceived a +special fondness. + +"Oh, don't come near me, please, Mrs. Burns," expostulated Miss +Mathewson, as she stood, dripping, on the porch outside the office, while +Ellen, in the open door, motioned her within. "I'll just stay here until +the worst is over, and then run home and change." + +"Indeed you'll come in. Nothing can hurt this floor, and it's turned ever +so cold, as I can feel. It may rain for an hour. I'll give you everything +you need, and be delighted." + +There was no resisting Red Pepper's wife; she was accustomed to have her +way. Miss Mathewson, reluctant but shivering, came inside, and when her +clothing had ceased to drip moisture, followed Ellen upstairs. Presently, +dry-clad, she was taken into Ellen's own room and confronted with an +invitation which was rather a command. + +"You're to stay and have dinner with us. I've laid out a frock which I'm +confident will fit you. Please don't say no. It's a special providence, +for I've been wishing all the afternoon I had asked somebody to make a +fourth at our table, to meet Dr. Leaver. And now I shall have the +pleasure of dressing you for the occasion, since you can't possibly go +home through this, and wouldn't have time to dress and come back, if you +could." + +"But, Mrs. Burns,--" Amy Mathewson began, flushing after a fashion she +had which made her for the moment almost pretty and certainly attractive, +"there's no real reason why you need me, and I--" + +"I do need you. Three is such a stupid number. You will enjoy Dr. Leaver +and he will enjoy you. Come, my dear girl, don't spend any more time +remonstrating, but do your hair and put on this simple frock, which I'm +confident will just suit you. You're a bit taller, I know, but the dress +is long for me, and will be quite the right length for you. Sit down here +at my dressing-table, and let me help you dry that beautiful hair. I've +often longed to see it all unconfined, and now I'm going to have the +chance." + +As she spoke she slipped on a loose protecting garment above her lilac +daintiness, and waved an inviting hand to her guest, smiling so coaxingly +that Miss Mathewson yielded without another word of protest. When the +hairpins came out, and the mass of fair hair fell upon the shoulders, +Ellen exclaimed with hearty admiration: + +"I knew it was wonderful hair, but I didn't dream there was such a +wealth. My dear, why do you wear it in such a tight fashion, as if you +wanted everybody to think there wasn't much of it? Do let me try dressing +it for you in a way I know, which it seems to me would just suit your +face. Have you always worn it coiled on top of your head, and shall you +feel very strange and uncomfortable if I arrange it lower?" + +"Do it as you like, Mrs. Burns, since you will be so kind. But don't +expect me not to feel strange, wearing your clothes and staying to +dinner. Do you realize how far from society I've lived, all these years +that I've been nursing for Dr. Burns?" + +"I know you are a lady, and that is quite enough. And our simple dinner +isn't 'society,' it's home. Now, please keep quite still, and don't +distract my mind, while I lay these smooth strands in place. I want every +one to lie in just this shining order." + +Ellen worked at her self-appointed task with all the interest of the born +artist, who has an ever-present dream of things as they ought to look. +When the last confining pin was in place she viewed the fair head before +her from every point, then clapped her hands delightedly, and presented +Miss Mathewson with a hand-mirror. + +"You must get the side view, then you'll recognize how these new lines +bring out that distinguished profile that's been obscured all this time. +Do you see? Do you know yourself, my dear? Won't you always wear it this +way, to please me?" + +"But I never could do it myself, in the world," pleaded Amy Mathewson, +her cheeks again flooding with colour at the strange sight of herself. + +"It's perfectly simple, and I'll teach you with pleasure,--only not now, +for we must hurry. I'll slip the frock over your head without disturbing +a hair, and then we'll go down, for I want a bit of a blaze on the hearth +in the living-room, to offset this dull-gray sky." + +On went the frock in question, a "simple" one, undoubtedly, but of +the sort of simplicity which tells its own story to the initiated. +Whether its new wearer recognized or not its perfection of detail, she +could but see that it suited her to a nicety, both in hue--a soft apricot +shade--and in its absence of elaboration. Its effect was to soften every +line of the face above it, and to set off its wearer's delicate colouring +as the white uniforms could never do. + +"Don't you quite dare to look at her?" questioned the self-appointed +lady's maid, merrily, as she led her charge to stand in front of a long +mirror, set in a door. + +"Hardly." Miss Mathewson raised eyes grown suddenly shy to view her own +image in the glass, gave her back a picture such as she had never dreamed +could be made by herself, under any conditions whatever. Over her +shoulder her employer's wife smiled at her. + +"She looks very charming, to me, however she looks to you. But I won't +force her to stare long at such a stranger. It might make it difficult +for her to forget the stranger afterward, which is what I want her to +do." + +Ellen ran away to make herself ready once more, and returning put her arm +about her guest's waist, in the friendly way of her own which came still +more naturally now that the uniform was gone. Together the two descended +the stairs to the living-room, there to await the arrival of Burns and +his friend. + +This took place about three quarters of an hour after it was to be +expected, as Red Pepper's arrivals usually did, whether accompanied or +not by invited guests. The two came in laughing together over some +reminiscence, and Ellen recognized the tall, distinguished figure she +well remembered, with the clean-cut features, the fine eyes rather deep +set under heavy brows, the firm yet sensitive mouth. Yet, after a moment, +as Dr. John Leaver stood talking with her, she observed a careworn look, +a dimming of the fresh, clear colour she had noted on former meetings; +altogether in his whole aspect she found more than a suggestion of undue +fatigue, and when the smile ceased to light his face, even of sadness +quite unwonted. + +While he was in his room before dinner, she held a hasty consultation +with her husband, as he dressed with the speed of which he was master +through long practice. + +"Dr. Leaver can't be quite well, Red,--to look like that?" + +"I should say not. I haven't asked him a question and he hasn't said a +word, but it shows all over him. He's not my old friend Jack Leaver, at +all, and it upsets me. I'm hoping he'll unload, and tell me what's wrong, +though I can guess fairly well for myself. I could see, all through our +consultation, that he held himself in hand with an effort. The old +keenness was there, but not the old command. He's worn out, for one +thing,--though there may be more than that. But, see here,--do you mean +to tell me that's Amy Mathewson you've got downstairs? Never! It might be +her younger sister--six years younger--but not my staid nurse. Not even +you could bring about such a miracle." + +"Isn't it wonderful? Yet--it isn't, at all. She's always worn her hair +strained back from her face and put up into that tight coil on the top of +her head. Dressing it properly has made two thirds of the difference and +the apricot frock makes the other third. Isn't it delightful?" + +"No doubt of that. She's a mighty good girl, and if she can make shift to +be a good-looking one as well, there may be a bit of fun left in life for +her yet. She's by no means old, and you've made her young,--bless your +generous heart! I don't know how you ever managed to get her consent, +though. She thinks that uniform is her shell, and can't be doffed. But I +don't think she's likely to get much fun out of Leaver to-night. He's +just about fit for bed, or I'm no diagnostician." + +"Then let's put him there," said Ellen, promptly. + +"Oh, I don't mean that literally. One of your dinners ought to set him +up, and Amy Mathewson won't make any exacting demands on his brilliancy." + +"Won't she? You can't tell what pretty clothes may do for her. She will +surprise you some time, in spite of the fact that you know her so well." + +"Wise woman. She will, if you have a hand in the game. You can be trusted +to bring out every one's best. Bother this tie--it acts like original +sin." + +"I won't offer to tie it for you. I can't imagine Redfield Pepper Burns +allowing his wife to tie his cravat for him." + +"Can't you? That is to say, won't you?" He came close. + +She shook her head, and moved away, smiling. "It would destroy a certain +ideal. Stop laughing! One of your most powerful charms for me is your +independence." + +He groaned and continued to struggle with the bow of black silk which +eluded his efforts to fasten it securely. "I thought all women delighted +in getting their husband's neckwear adjusted according to their own +notions. Another dream shattered!--Well, here goes for the last time. If +I can't get it right now I'll go in and implore Jack to do it for me. It +will open his eyes as to how far hopes may be slain by realities. There! +That's a pretty good result, at last. I'll go across now, and see if he +wants any of my assistance." + +Ten minutes later both men appeared in the living-room. In his evening +attire Dr. Leaver looked a tall and sombre figure, and the contrast +between him and his friend, as Red Pepper stood beside him on the +hearth-rug, the picture of ruddy health, was startling. + +"You must be pretty heavy, Red," Leaver said considering his host. "Not a +particle of superfluous fat, but good, solid structure, I should say. One +wouldn't want to try to pass you against your will, in a narrow alley, on +a dark night." + +"It strikes me you could glide by me in the shadow and never attract my +attention," Burns replied, his keen eyes on his friend's face. "The +difference between us is that every inch of you represents concentrated +energy, while my plant spreads all over the landscape without producing +half as much power." + +Leaver smiled. There was both strength and sweetness in his smile, but +there was depression in it also. "That sounds like you," he said. "I +suppose many men envy other men the possession of some supposed source of +efficiency. Just now I find myself envying you your home--and its +occupants. What a delightful room." + +He turned to his hostess and her friend. While they talked together Burns +regarded Amy Mathewson, his long-time associate, with renewed wonder, and +presently found himself addressing her from an entirely new point of +view. This fair girl with the graceful head and the glowing blue eyes +could not possibly be the sedate young woman who was accustomed to hand +him instruments and sutures, ligate arteries, and attend to various minor +matters from the other side of his operating-table. He wondered why he +had never before noticed how much real individuality she possessed, nor +how really attractive she was of face and person. He decided afresh that +his wife was the most wonderful woman in the world, to be able to see at +a glance that which had escaped his attention for so long, and he +congratulated Miss Mathewson, in his mind, on the possibilities he for +the first time saw ahead of her. Clearly after all she was a woman, not a +machine! + +The party went out to dinner, and Burns looked to see his friend enjoy, +as he thought he must, the cleverly planned and deliciously cooked meal +which came, perfectly served, upon the table. It was such a dinner as he +himself delighted in, unostentatious but satisfying, with certain +touches, here and there, calculated to tempt the most capricious +palate,--such as he shrewdly judged Leaver, in his presumably lowered +state of vitality, to possess. + +But to his surprise and dismay the guest barely touched most of the +dishes, and ate so sparingly of others that Burns felt himself, with his +hearty, normal appetite, a gormandizer. Nobody made any comment whatever +upon Dr. Leaver's lack of appetite, but all three noted, with growing +concern, that there were moments when he seemed to keep up with an +effort. Instinctively the others made short work of the later courses, +and felt a decided relief when it became possible to leave the table and +return to the living-room. + +By a bit of clever management Ellen was able to put the guest's tall form +into a corner of the big davenport, among the blue pillows, where he +could receive more support than was possible in any other place. After a +little he seemed less fatigued, and charmed them all with his pleasant +discourse. Burns himself was soon summoned to the office. He would not +allow Miss Mathewson to take up her duties there, though she followed him +to offer eagerly to run home and change her attire. + +"Not a bit of it," Burns assured her, in the hall. He regarded her with +mischief in his eyes. "Cinderella isn't due at home till the clock +strikes twelve," he whispered. "Besides,--the Prince isn't in his usual +form to-night. He may need her services as nurse at any minute, judging +by his appearance." + +That sent her back into the room, as he knew it would. It was, for her, +a wonderfully interesting hour which followed, for Dr. Leaver and Mrs. +Burns fell to discussing life in a certain great city, as both knew it +from quite different standpoints, and she herself had only to listen and +observe. She thought the pair upon the davenport made a striking picture, +the woman in her rich and still youthful beauty, her smile a thing to +wonder at, her voice low music to the ear; the man, though no older than +Burns, worn and grave, yet with a strangely winning personality, and eyes +which seemed to see far beneath the surface. In all Amy Mathewson's +experience with the men of Burns's profession, she had never met just +such a one as John Leaver. The sense of his personal worth and dignity +was strong upon her as she watched him; his evident fatigue and weakness +appealed to her sympathies; and she forgot herself more completely than +she had imagined she could when first summoned to the unaccustomed part +she was this evening playing. + +But, quite suddenly, the scene changed. In the act of speaking Dr. Leaver +suddenly stopped, put one hand to his side, and lay back against the high +end of the davenport, breathing short, his face turning pallid, ashen. +Ellen rose to her feet in dismay, but Amy Mathewson sprang toward him, +drew him with strong arms gently down to a position more nearly +recumbent, and with fingers on his pulse said in a low voice, "Call the +Doctor, please." + +Ellen ran, and in a minute had Burns there, striding in, in his white +office jacket, his face tense with sudden anxiety. Leaver was panting for +breath as Burns felt his pulse and nodded at Amy, who hurried quietly +away. She was back very quickly, handing Burns a tiny instrument ready +for use. In a moment more the supporting drug was on its way to lend aid, +and Burns was bending over his friend again, laying a gentle hand upon +the damp forehead, and saying with quiet assurance: + +"All right, old boy. We'll have you comfortable in no time. You were too +tired to play society man to-night, and we oughtn't to have allowed it." + +It was not very long before Leaver was breathing more easily, and a trace +of colour had come back to his face. He moved his head and tried to speak +naturally: + +"I am--rather--ashamed of myself--" + +"You've no business to be. When a fellow is played out Nature takes her +innings--and she takes all that's coming to her. You're going up to bed +in a few minutes, and you're going to stay there till the rest has had a +chance to get in some work. Miss Mathewson will stay with you for a bit. +She's a famous nurse." + +Leaver's head moved in surprised protest, and Miss Mathewson spoke: + +"He doesn't know, Dr. Burns, that that is my profession." + +Burns laughed. "Oh, I see. That was a bit startling, for a fact. But she +is, Leaver, the most accomplished of her guild, and my right-hand man. +She can make you more comfortable in an hour than I can in a week." + +Upstairs, while she released Amy from the apricot frock, that something +more in keeping with the duties of a nurse might be donned, Ellen +questioned anxiously: + +"The Doctor must think him really ill, to speak of keeping him in bed. Do +you know what is the matter?" + +"His heart action is weak. I don't know the cause, of course. He seems +worn out; that showed plainly all the evening. I'm going to run home, +Mrs. Burns; my wet things must be quite dry, now. There'll be time, I'm +sure. The Doctor won't bring him upstairs for a little yet." + +She hurried away, and was back within the half hour. Although she no +longer looked the part of the fine lady, the old role seemed hardly hers. +The new fashion of her hair had changed her appearance very completely, +and the youthful look it had restored to her remained, to Ellen's no +little pleasure. Her cheeks were still flushed with the evening's +excitement, and her eyes were charmingly bright and happy. + +When everything was in readiness, Burns, in spite of all remonstrance +from his friend, lifted him in his powerful arms and carried him +upstairs. The exertion made him breathe a little heavily for a moment, +but that was all. Leaver was not a light burden, in spite of his +thinness, for his frame was that of a man who should carry many pounds +more than he now bore. + +"You strong man, how I envy you," Leaver said, sadly, as Burns laid him +upon the bed. + +"Your envy of me can't be a circumstance to that I've felt, many a time, +when I've watched you. But you've been working like a slave too long. +Rest is all you need, man." + +But Leaver slowly shook his head. He did not reply to this confident +statement, and Burns knew better than to try to argue it out with him +just then. Instead, with a warm grip of the hand, he turned his new case +over to the care of his nurse, and went away, his heart heavy at sight of +a strong man prone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BROKEN STEEL WIRES + + +"But I can't stay here," John Leaver protested, a few days afterward. He +was still in bed, much against his will, but not, as he was forced to +admit, against his judgment, when he allowed it consideration. "I can't +impose on Mrs. Burns's and your kindness like this. I shall soon be fit +for travel, and then--" + +"Would you mind listening to me?" R.P. Burns, M.D., sat comfortably back +in a large willow chair, by the bedside, and crossed one leg over the +other in a fashion indicative of an intention to settle down to it and +have it out. "Just let me state the case to you, and try to look at it +from the outside. Of course that's a difficult thing to do, when it +happens to be your own case, but you have a judicial mind, and you can +do the trick, if anybody can." + +Leaver was silent. He lay staring out of the open window beside which his +bed had been drawn, his thin cheek showing gaunt hollows, his eyes heavy +with unrest. All the scents and sounds of June were pouring in at the +three windows of the room; a tangle of rose vines looked in at him from +this nearest one. Just before Amy Mathewson had left him, a few minutes +ago, for her afternoon rest, she had brought him one wonderful bloom, +the queen, it seemed, of all the roses of that June. It lay upon the +window-sill, now, within reach of his hand. + +Burns began to speak. His tone was matter-of-fact, yet it held +inflections of tenderness. His friend's case appealed to him powerfully; +his sympathy with Leaver's state of mind, as he was confident he +understood it, was intense. "If it were I!" he had said to himself--and +to Ellen--and had groaned in spirit at the thought. If it had been his +own case, it seemed to him he could not have endured it. + +"You were at that sanitorium," Burns began. "Sanitoriums are useful +institutions, some of them get splendid results. But they have their +disadvantages. It's pretty difficult to eliminate the atmosphere of +illness. And, for a man whose training and instincts lead him to see +behind every face he meets in such a place, it's not an ideal spot at +all. What you need is a home, and that's what we're offering you, for as +long as you need it." + +"And I appreciate it more than any words can express," Leaver said +gratefully. He turned his head now, and looked at his host. "Just to know +that I have such friends does me good. And I know that you mean all you +say. If I were a subject for a cure I might almost be tempted to take you +at your word." + +"You are a subject for a cure." + +Leaver shook his head, turning it away again. "Only to a certain point," +he said, quietly. "Of course I know that rest and quiet will put my heart +right, because there's no organic lesion. Probably I shall build up and +get the better of my depression of mind--to a certain extent. But, +there's one thing I'm facing I haven't owned to you. You may as well know +it. I shall never be able to operate again.... Perhaps you can guess what +that means to me," he added. His voice was even, but his breathing was +slightly quickened. + +Burns was silent for a time, his own heart heavy with sympathy for +Leaver. Guess what a conviction like that must mean to a man of Leaver's +early eminence in the world of distinguished operative surgery? He surely +could. It had been his almost certain knowledge that this was his +friend's real trouble which had made him say to himself with a groan, "If +it were I!" So he did not answer hastily to persist in assurance that all +would yet be well. He knew Leaver understood that sort of professional +hypnosis too thoroughly to be affected by it. + +Burns got up and took a turn or two up and down the room, thinking things +out. His face was graver than patients usually saw it; there was in it, +however, a look of determination which grew, moment by moment, as he +walked. Presently he came back to the bedside and sat down again. + +"Suppose you tell me all about it, Jack," said he. "You haven't done me +that honour, yet, you know. Will it be too hard on you? Just to make a +clean breast of every thought and every experience which has led you to +this point? I know I'm rather forcing myself upon you as your physician. +If you prefer, I'll withdraw from the case, in favour of any better man +you may choose, and send for him to-day." + +Leaver's head turned back again. "I know no better man," he said, and +their eyes met. + +"There are plenty of better men," Burns went on, "but I confess I want +this case, and am ready to take advantage of having it in my house, for +the present, at least. Well, then,--if you can trust me, why not do as +I suggest?" + +Leaver shivered a little, in the warm June light, and put one hand for a +moment over his eyes. + +"You don't know what you ask, Red," he said, slowly. + +"Don't I? Perhaps not. Yet--I have a notion that I do. It would be a +trifle easier to face the rack and thumbscrew, eh? Well, let's get it +over. Possibly telling will ease you a bit, after all. It works that way +sometimes." + +By and by, persisting, gently questioning, helping by his quick +understanding of a situation almost before Leaver had unwillingly +pictured it, he had the whole story. It was almost precisely the story +he had guessed,--an old story, repeated by many such sufferers from +overwork and heavy responsibility, but new to each in its entirety of +torture, even to this man, who, still in his youthful prime, had himself +heard many such a tale from the unhappy lips of his patients, yet to whom +his own case seemed unique in its suffering and hopelessness. + +The recital culminated in an incident so painful to the subject of it +that he could recount it only in the barest outlines. His listener, +however, by the power of his experience and his sympathy, could fill in +every detail. A day had come, some six weeks before, when Leaver, though +thoroughly worn out by severe and long continued strain, had attempted +to operate. The case was an important one, the issue doubtful. Friends of +the patient had insisted that no one else should take the eminent young +surgeon's place, and, although he had had more than one inner warning, in +recent operations, that his nerve was not what it had been, his pride had +bid him see the thing through. He had given himself an energizing +hypodermic,--he had never done that before,--and had gone into it. There +had come a terrible moment.... Leaver's lips grew white as he tried to +tell it. + +He felt his friend's warm, firm hand upon his own as he faltered. +"Steady, old fellow," said Burns's quiet voice. "We've got this nearly +over. You'll be better afterward." + +After a little Leaver went on. + +He had come upon an unexpected complication--one undreamed of by himself +or the consulting surgeons. "You know--" said Leaver. Burns nodded, +emphatically. "You bet I know," said he, and his hand came again upon +Leaver's, and stayed there. Leaver went on again, slowly. + +Instant decision had been necessary, instant action. It was such a moment +as he had faced hundreds of times before, and his quick wit, his +surgeon's power of resource, his iron nerve, had always come to the +support of his skill, and together these attributes had won the day for +him. Fear, at such crises, had never possessed him, however much, +afterward, reviewing the experience, he had wondered that it had not. But +this time, fear--fear--a throttling, life-destroying fear had sprung upon +him and gripped him by the throat. Standing there, entirely himself, +except for that horrible consciousness that he could not proceed, he had +had to beckon to the most experienced of the surgeons present who +surrounded him as onlookers, and say to him: "Get ready--and take this +case. I can't go on." + +There had been no apparent physical collapse on his part, no fainting nor +attack of vertigo, nothing to help him out in the eyes of that wondering, +startled company of observers. He had been able to direct his assistants +how to hold the operation in suspension until the astonished, unwilling +colleague could make ready to step into the breach, cursing under his +breath that such an undesired honour should have been thrust upon him. +Then Leaver had walked out of the room, quite without assistance, only +replying wanly to those who questioned, "There's nothing to say. I +couldn't go on with it. Yes, I am perfectly well." + +It had not got into the papers. They had been kind enough to see to +that, those pitying professional colleagues who had witnessed his +dispossession. The patient had lived. If he had died the thing must have +come out. But he had lived. The situation could not have been as +desperate a one as it had seemed. The other man had handled it,--and he +was by no means a man eminent in his profession. There had been no +excuse, then, for such a seizure,--no excuse. It meant--the end. + +Well, it was certainly the end of recounting it, for when he had reached +this point Leaver's power to endure the thought of it all failed him, and +he lay back upon his pillows, his brow damp and his breath short. + +Burns silently ministered to him, pain in his eyes, his lips drawn tight +together. His sympathy for his friend was intense. + +It seemed to him incredible that this shaken spirit before him could be +John Leaver--Leaver, whom, as he had told his wife, he had often envied +his perfect self-command, his supposed steadiness of pulse, his whole +strong, cool personality, unaffected by issues such as always keyed Burns +himself up to a tremendous tension, making him pale with the strain. +"Leaver's made of steel wires," had been his description of his friend to +Ellen. Well, the steel wires were stretched and broken, now, no doubt of +that. The question was whether they could ever be mended and restrung. + +When Leaver was comfortable again,--comfortable as far as an evenly +beating heart and a return of blood to the parts which needed it could +make him,--Burns spoke to him once more. + +"We won't talk about this any more to-day, Jack," he said. "You've had +enough for now, and I have what I needed,--the facts to work upon. Just +let me say this much. I'm not discouraged by anything I've heard to-day. +I'll not try any bluffs or jollyings with you, because I know they +wouldn't work, but I do say this, honestly: I'm not discouraged. And I'm +interested--interested to the bottom of my heart. I'm going to put the +best there is in me into this problem. I never tackled anything in my +life that appealed to me more powerfully. If that's any comfort just now, +I offer it. If you were my brother I couldn't be more anxious to pull you +out of this ditch. Now, trust me, and try to go to sleep." + +Leaver did not look up at the kind, almost boyishly tender face above +him, but he pressed the hand which grasped his own, and Burns saw a tear +creep out from under the closed lids of the eyes under which the black +shadows lay so deeply. The well man took himself away from the sick one +as quickly as he could after that,--he couldn't bear the sight of that +tear! It was more eloquent of Leaver's weakness than all his difficult +words. + +When he met Miss Mathewson, an hour afterward, in the hall, on her way +back to her patient, he delayed her. + +"I want you to do more than nurse this case, Amy," he said, fixing her +with a certain steady look of his with which he always gave commands. +"I want you to put all your powers, as a woman, into it. Forget that you +are nursing Dr. Leaver, try to think of him as a friend. You can make one +of him, if you try, for you have in you qualities which will appeal to +him--if you will let him see them. You have hardly let even me see +them,"--he smiled as he said it,--"but my eyes have been opened at last. +I'm inclined to believe that you can do more for our patient than even my +wife or I,--if you will. Suppose,"--he spoke with a touch of the +dangerously persuasive manner he could assume when he willed, and which +most people found it hard to resist,--"you just let yourself go, and +try--deliberately try--to make Dr. Leaver like you!" + +She coloured furiously under the suggestion. "Dr. Burns! Do you realize +what you're saying?" + +"Quite thoroughly. I'm asking you not to hesitate to make of yourself a +woman of interest and charm for him, for the sake of taking him out of +himself. Isn't that a perfectly legitimate part for a nurse to play when +that happens to be the medicine needed? You have those powers,--how +better could you use them? Suppose you are able, through your effect of +sweetness and light, to minister to a mind diseased;--isn't that quite as +worthy an occupation as counting out drops of aconite, or applying +mustard plasters?" + +Amy Mathewson shook her head. "Do you realize, Dr. Burns, that a man +like--your guest--is so far beyond me in mind and--tastes--in every way, +that I could never--interest him in the way you speak of--even if I were +willing to try?" + +She spoke with difficulty. As Burns studied her downbent face, the +profile his wife had brought out by her skill at hair-dressing showing +like a fine cameo against the dark background of the wall, he was +thinking that unless Leaver were blind he must find her rather satisfying +to the eye, at least. He answered her with confidence. + +"He's a man of education, it's true. But what are you? Come,--haven't I +found all sorts of evidences, about my office, that you are a woman of +education? It doesn't matter whether you got that education in a college +or from the books I know you have read,--you have it. I'll trust your +ability to discuss six out of a dozen subjects Leaver may bring up--or, +if you can't discuss them all, you can do what is better--let him +instruct you. Don't tell me you can't handle those cards every +fascinating woman understands so well. If there's anything a man likes to +do it's to teach an interested woman the things she cleverly professes +she wants to know--and the best of it is that no matter how often you +play that game on us we're always caught by it. Leaver will be caught by +it, just as if he hadn't had it tried on him a thousand times. And while +he's playing it with you, he'll forget himself, which is the first step +on the road I want him to travel." + +She looked up. "Do you mean that I am to keep on attending him after he +is able to leave his room? Is he going to stay with you after that? He +told me only to-day that he intends to go as soon as he is able to +travel." + +"We shall keep him as long as we can possibly persuade him to stay. +Meanwhile, my plan is to have you settle down and stay with us, as a +member of the family. We'll have someone else attend to the office. You +can go with me, as usual, when I operate, but I shall put you on no case +but Dr. Leaver's, and the greater part of your time will be his." + +"But what will he think? Doesn't he know that I'm your office nurse?" + +"How should he know it--unless you have taken pains to tell him?" + +She shook her head. "He only knows that I am your assistant at +operations. The other point hasn't come up." + +"Good. Then he will accept whatever situation he finds, and never think +of questioning it. The way is clear enough. And it's the only way I know +of to insure his having what he needs--the close companionship of a +sympathetic--yet not too sympathetic--woman--with a face like yours," +he added, slyly. + +The quick colour answered this, as he knew it would. "Dr. Burns! You know +I'm not even good looking! Please don't say such things." + +"I only said 'a face like yours.' That may imply a face as plain as you +think Amy Mathewson's is--and as my wife and I know it is not. It's time +you waked up, girl, to your own attractions. You ought to have faith in +them when I'm asking the use of them for this patient of mine. I'd give +about all I own to put him on his feet again." + +"I hope you can--indeed I do. And of course--anything I can do--" + +He nodded. "I'll leave that to you. Consult--not your head alone, +but--your heart!" + +And he let her go, smiling at her evident confusion of mind. But when +left alone he sighed again. + +"He needs a woman like my Ellen,--_that_ would be a drug of a higher +potency. But--he can't have that--he can't have that! I must do the +next best thing." + +And he went on his way, studying it out. + +That evening he took his wife into his confidence. He did not tell her +the whole story,--it was not his to tell. But he made her acquainted with +the fact that Leaver had had a severe nervous shock and that the thing to +be overcome was his own distrust of himself, the thing to be recovered +was his entire self-command. + +"I have insisted on his staying as long as he can be content," Burns +explained. "I had your consent to that, I know?" + +"Of course, Red. You knew that." + +"In my enthusiasm I went a step further, without realizing that I had not +consulted you. I asked Amy Mathewson to stay with us too, as a member of +the family. I asked her cooperation as a woman, as well as a nurse, and +to have that it seemed to me necessary to have her here, even after he is +up and able to look after his own wants. How will you feel about that?" + +He looked straight into her eyes. They were sitting upon a small side +porch, in the late June evening. He had come in from a visit to a nearby +patient, and, finding her upon the porch, had thrown himself upon the +cushion at her feet, his head against her knee. Now, he turned and looked +up at her, and she could see his expression clearly in the moonlight. + +"I don't believe I quite understand yet," she said. "What is it that you +want Amy to do for him, 'as a woman'? Read to him, and walk with him, and +be a sort of comrade?" + +"Precisely that--and a bit more." + +"Can you prescribe that sort of thing, and make sure that it will work +out? He may not care for it." + +"I want him to have a woman's companionship; it's what he needs, I firmly +believe. It must be a certain sort of woman--the kind who will be good +for his nerves, gently stimulating, not exacting. One of the brilliant +society women he knows wouldn't do at all. The ideal kind would be--your +own kind. But he can't have that." He spoke so decidedly that she smiled, +though he did not see it. "It seems to me that Amy, if she puts her heart +into it, can give him just what he needs. Remember he's a sick man, and +will continue to be a sick man for some time after he's walking about our +streets and climbing our hills." + +"Yes, I'm afraid he will be. And you think he will accept Amy's +companionship, after he is walking about, as a part of his medicine? +Shall you insist on her being with him, or is she to wait to be invited +to read to him and walk with him?" + +His brows knit in a frown. "You think I'm prescribing something I can't +administer? But I think that he will grow so used to having her with +him, while he actually needs her as a nurse, that, when he gets about and +finds her still here, he will quite naturally fall into the way of +seeking her company." + +"Perhaps he will. At any rate, she is very welcome to stay, as long as +you want her for the experiment." + +"You are an angel! I realize that I shouldn't have made such an +arrangement without asking your permission. To tell the truth, I'm so +used to--" + +He stopped short, with a little ejaculation of dismay. + +"I understand, dear," she said quickly. "You are so used to being master +of the house that you forgot the new conditions. It's all right--you are +still master--particularly in everything that has to do with your +profession. And if you can find a cure for poor Dr. Leaver's broken +spirit I shall be as happy as you." + +"It's going to make you a lot of trouble,--two guests in the house, for +an indefinite period. You see, I'm just waking up to what I'm asking of +you. It's precisely like my impetuosity to create a situation I can't +retreat from, and then wonder at my own nerve. Will it bother you very +much?" + +"It's what we're here for, isn't it?" She smiled at him as he turned and +put both arms around her, kneeling beside her in the shadow of the vines. +"It's certainly what you are here for, and I am your partner, or I'm not +much of a wife." + +"Bless you, you darling; you surely are. And such a partner! If Leaver +had one like you--he wouldn't be where he is. But he can't have you," +he repeated, and held her closer. "I couldn't see you reading to him and +walking with him, and being a friend to him,--I couldn't see it, that's +all, no matter how much good you might do him. Queer--I didn't know that +was in me--that feeling. Macauley calls me a Turk. I guess that's what I +am. It's a primitive sort of instinct, scoffed at in these days when half +the married women are playing with fire in the shape of other women's +husbands. But I hate that sort of thing--have always hated it. I'm a +Turk, all right. Do you mind?" + +"No, I don't think I mind," she answered softly. "But I want your perfect +trust, Red." + +"You have it, oh, you have it, love. No possible question of that. And +I don't mean that I'm not willing to have Leaver get what he can of +your dearness, as he's bound to feel it, in our home. But this comrade +business, which I feel he's so much in need of,--that's what he can't +have from you. And if he stayed on, and there was no other woman about, +why, quite naturally--" + +He stopped. Then, as she was silent, "You won't misunderstand me, little +wife?" he begged. "I've seen so much of the other thing, you know. Can I +be--enough for you?" + +"Quite enough, Red." + +After a minute he went back to the thing which absorbed him. "I can see +you haven't much confidence in my plan for Amy's helping him?" + +She hesitated. "You spoke just now of playing with fire. You don't +feel that in throwing two people so closely together you are risking +something?" + +He considered it. "My idea is that Amy will administer her comradeship as +she would her medicines. She is the most conscientious girl alive; she +won't give him a drop too much." + +"Not a drop too much for his good, perhaps. But what about hers, dear? +When he is himself Dr. Leaver can be a wonderfully interesting and +compelling man, you know. It would be a pity for her to grow to care for +him, if--I don't suppose it is at all possible to expect him to care +seriously for her,--do you?" + +"Well, I shouldn't have said so a month ago. But I'm just beginning to +realize a new side to Amy Mathewson. I don't suppose I ever saw her--to +look at her--out of her uniform, before that night when you dressed her +up. By George, along with the clothes she seemed to put on a new skin!" + +"Uniforms are disguising things," Ellen admitted, "and Amy is a lady, +born and bred, in her uniform and out of it. But it's not much use +speculating on what will happen, when the arrangements are already made. +We must just do our best for Dr. Leaver, and hope that no harm will come +to either of them." + +"None will--under your roof," her husband asserted confidently. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +POINTS OF VIEW + + +"A lady downstairs to see you, Mrs. Burns." Cynthia presented a card. + +It was early morning. Ellen had just seen her husband off in the Green +Imp, and was busy at various housewifely tasks. She took the card in +some surprise, for morning calls were not much in vogue in this small +town. But when she read the name--"Miss Ruston"--she gave a little cry of +delight, and ran downstairs as one goes to welcome a long absent friend. + +A graceful figure, radiant with health and good looks, dressed in the +trimmest and simplest of travelling attire, yet with a gay and saucy air +about her somewhere, quite difficult to locate, rose as Ellen came in. +Dark eyes flashed, lips smiled happily, and a pair of arms opened wide. +Ellen found herself caught and held in a warm embrace, which she returned +with a corresponding ardour. + +"Why, Charlotte, dear!" she cried. "Where did you come from? And why +didn't you let me know?" + +"Straight from home, Len, darling. And I didn't let you know because I +didn't know myself till I was here. Oh, do let me look at you! How dear, +how dear you are! I had almost forgotten anybody could be so lovely." + +"That sounds like you, you enthusiastic person. How glad I am to see +you--it seems so long. I hope you have come to make me a visit, now you +are here." + +"Just a wee one, for a day, while I make plans at express speed, and fly +back again to grandmother. I left her in Baltimore." + +"Really? Did you bring her 'way up from Charleston? Then she must be +pretty well?" + +"Very well, if, like a piece of old china, I keep her quiet on the top +shelf. Baltimore is the bottom shelf, for her, even though she's with +the Priedieus, who will take the kindest care of her. Hence my haste. +Oh, I can't wait a minute till I tell you my plans. Let me splash my +dusty face and I'll plunge in. I want your advice, your interest, and +your--cooperation!" + +"You shall have them all, my dearest girl. Come upstairs," and Ellen led +the way, Miss Ruston following with a small travelling bag of which she +would not give her hostess possession. + +"What a dear house!" The guest was throwing rapid glances all about her +as she mounted the stairs. "I should have known that living-room was +yours if I hadn't had your Aunt Lucy's famous old desk to give me a clue. +O, Len, the very back of you is enchanting!" + +Ellen turned to laugh at Charlotte Ruston's characteristic fervour of +expression. "I remember you are always admiring people's backs," she +observed. + +"Yes, they're often so much more interesting than their faces. But +yours--merely gives promise of what the face fulfills! Forgive me, +Len,--you know when I haven't seen you for ages I have to tell you +what I think of you. In here? Oh, what an adorable room!" + +It was Ellen's own. She was thinking rapidly. Dr. John Leaver occupied +one of her two guest-rooms, Amy Mathewson the other. She should have to +turn Bob out of the bachelor's room, and send him down to stay with +Cynthia. But Miss Ruston put an end to her planning at once by adding: + +"I can't even sleep under your roof, Len, for I've engaged my berth on +the sleeper to-night. I'm always in such anxiety about Granny when I get +her away from her quiet corner. Now let me make myself clean with all +haste, that I may not lose a minute of this happy day with you." + +She was as good as her word, and in five minutes was looking as fresh as +the fortunate possessor of much rich and youthful bloom can be at a touch +of soap and water. She gave her hostess a second embrace, laying a cheek +like a June rose against Ellen's more delicately tinted cheek, and +murmuring: + +"I never can tell you how I have missed you since that all-conquering +husband of yours brought you off up North. By the way, is that his +photograph?" + +She was looking over Ellen's shoulder at a picture in an ivory-and-silver +frame upon the dressing-table. She answered her own question. + +"Of course it is. I'd know by the look of him that he must be Red Pepper +Burns." She went over and examined the pictured face closely. "I could +make a better picture of him than that,--I know it without seeing him in +the flesh. What a splendid pair of eyes! Do they look right down into +your inmost thoughts--or do they see only as far as your liver? Fine +head, good mouth, straight nose, chin like a stone wall! Goodness! do you +never meet up with that chin?" + +She looked around at Ellen with mischief in her bright brown eyes. + +"Of course I do! Would you have a man chinless?" + +"Luckily, you have a determined little round chin of your own," Miss +Ruston observed. "And you're happy with him? Yes, I can see it in your +face. Well, now, shall we talk about me? Because I have so little time, +you know, and so much has to be settled before night." + +"Tell me all about it at once, dear." And Ellen established her guest in +a high-backed, cushioned wicker chair by the window, and sat down close +by. The two looked at each other, smiling. + +"Well, Len, I never could lead up to a thing; I have to tell it in one +burst, and trust to Providence to sustain the hearer. What would you +say--to--my coming to this place for a year, renting a cottage, putting +in a skylight, and--practising my profession of photography in your +midst?" + +"Charlotte Ruston!" + +"My middle name is Chase," observed Miss Ruston, laying her head back +against the chair, and smiling out at Mrs. Burns through half-closed +lids. "Charlotte Chase Ruston forms a quite imposing signature to imprint +upon the distinguished portraits she is to make. Portraits of the +aristocracy who can afford to pay ever so many dollars a dozen for +likenesses of themselves in exquisite, informal poses, with wonderful +shadows just where they will hide the most defects, and splendid high +lights where they will bring out all the charm the subjects didn't know +they possessed." + +"Charlotte! Have you been studying in secret? I know you do delightful +amateur work, but--a studio! Do you dare?" + +"I've worked a year in the developing room of the Misses Kendall, and +have been allowed to make trial studies of subjects, when they were busy. +I have their friendship, also that of Brant--Eugene Brant--who does the +cleverest professionally amateur studio work in the world, according to +my humble opinion. And the Kendalls do the finest garden and outdoor +studies, as you know. Could I have better training? Mr. Brant thinks +me fit to start a city studio--a modest one--but the Misses Kendall +advise a year in a small town, just working for experience and +perfection. Then when I do begin in a bigger place I'll be ready to do +work of real distinction. Come, tell me, isn't it a beautiful plan?" + +"Any plan, which brings you to live near me, is a beautiful plan. And +you've really chosen this little town? How did you come to do it?" + +"Tales of the beauty of the region, and the reflection that, since one +small town in it was probably as good as another, there was no reason why +I shouldn't be near one of my dearest friends, and have, frankly, the +help of her patronage. Shall you mind giving it to me?" + +"I'll bring you a dozen subjects the first day. I suppose you haven't +looked about at all as yet for the place?" + +"I shall not need to, if you won't object to having me close by, even so +near as across the road. As I stood on your doorstep I saw my future +studio spring, full-fledged, into view, with a '_To rent_' notice already +up. Could I have a plainer sign that my good fairy is attending my +footsteps?" + +Miss Ruston leaned forward to the window as she spoke, drew aside the +thin curtain which swayed there in the summer breeze, and pointed across +the street. "Isn't there a little old cottage, back in there somewhere, +in a tangle of old-fashioned flowers? It doesn't show from here, I see, +but from below I caught just a glimpse of its unimposing dimensions. The +sign is on the gate, in the hedge. It's simply perfect that the place +should have a hedge!" + +"Evidently you didn't inspect it very closely, Charlotte dear. It's a +most forlorn little old place, and much run down. Two old ladies have +lived there all their lives, and have died there within the year. They +would never sell, although, as you see, the neighbourhood all about is +built up with modern houses--all except our own. This house is quite +old, I believe, too." + +"Two old ladies lived and died there, did they?" mused Charlotte Ruston. +"Their gentle ghosts won't trouble us, and Granny will delight in that +garden. What a background for an outdoor studio! Do let's go over and +explore the place, will you?" + +As they crossed the street the newcomer was using her eyes with eager +observation. "It's a fine old street," she said, "with all these +beautiful trees. What a pity it is mostly so modern in the matter of +architecture! I wonder if the people in those houses will think me +out of my head, to begin with, because I choose this quaint little +dwelling-place. I shall choose it, Len, if I can get it, I warn you." + +With some difficulty they opened the gate in the hedge, and proceeded up +the path of moss-grown stones to the house, set so far back from the +street that it was nearly concealed by the growth of untrimmed shrubbery, +old rose-bushes heavy with pink and white roses, lilac trees, and +barberry-bushes. + +"Of all the dear, queer, little front porches!" Miss Ruston cried, +setting her exploring foot on a porch floor which promptly sagged beneath +her weight. She threw a quizzical glance at her companion. "Even though +the roof falls in on my head, and the walls sway as I pass by, I must +have this house--if it is dry! Of course I can't bring Granny to a damp +house. Putting in my skylight and shingling the rest of the roof will +take care of dampness from above, but I must look after the floors and +foundations. Who owns it, and how can we get in?" + +An hour later the key had been obtained from the astonished owner, an +inhabitant of one of the modern houses near by and a nephew of the former +occupants, and the place had been thoroughly gone over. It was examined +by a future tenant who made light of all the real drawbacks to the +place--as the owner secretly considered them--but who demanded absolutely +water-tight conditions as the price of her rent. As she was willing to +pay what seemed to the landlord an extraordinary rent--though he +carefully concealed his feelings on this point--he somewhat grudgingly +agreed to put in the skylight and shingle the roof. + +"But when it comes to paint and paper and plumbing, the house isn't worth +it, and I can't agree to do it," he declared positively. "Not for any one +year rental." + +"I don't want paint, paper, or plumbing," she replied, and he set her +down as eccentric indeed. "But I do want that fireplace unsealed, and if +you will put that and the chimney in order, so I can have fires there, I +won't ask for any modern conveniences. When can you have it ready for me? +By the middle of July?" + +He did not think this possible, but his new tenant convinced him that it +was, and went away smiling, her hands full of June roses, and her spirits +high. It was with her vivid personality at its best that she presently +took her place at the luncheon table, meeting there, however, at first, +only Miss Mathewson. + +"My patient has fallen asleep after his walk," Amy explained to Mrs. +Burns, as she came in. "I thought he had better not be wakened." + +"You were quite right, I am sure," Ellen agreed. Then she made the two +young women known to each other, and the three sat down. R.P. Burns, +M.D., rushing in the midst of the meal, found them laughing merrily +together over a tale the guest had been telling. + +As Burns came forward Miss Ruston rose to meet him. The two regarded each +other with undisguised interest as they shook hands. + +"Yes, I can make a much better photograph of you than the one on your +wife's dressing-table," said she, judicially, and laughed at his +astonished expression. + +"Can you, indeed?" he inquired. "Have you a snapshot camera concealed +anywhere about you? If so, I'll consider going back to town for my +luncheon." + +"You are safe for to-day," Ellen assured him, and he sat down. + +He was told the tale of the morning, the subject introduced by his wife, +and amplified by their guest. He expressed his interest. + +"You have a good courage, Miss Ruston," said he. "And we'll agree to +stand by you. Any time, in the middle of the night, that we hear the +crash and fall of decayed old timbers, we'll come to the rescue and pull +you out. We don't have much excitement here. The wreck will have the +advantage of advertising you thoroughly. Then you can build a tight +little bungalow on the spot and settle down to real business." + +Miss Ruston shook her shapely head. "No tight little bungalows for me," +she averred. "Those vine-clad old walls will make wonderful backgrounds +for my outdoor subjects--they and the garden. Then, indoors--the +fireplace, the queer old doors--" + +Red Pepper looked at his wife. "Has the village a passion for +quaintness?" he asked her. "Will our leading citizens want to be +photographed in their old hoopskirts, with roses behind their ears?" + +"Oh, you don't understand!" cried Miss Ruston. "Ellen--will you excuse me +while I run up and bring down an example or two of my work?" + +She was back in a minute, several prints in her hand. She came around +behind Burns's chair and laid one before him, another before Amy +Mathewson. Ellen, who had already seen the prints, watched her husband's +face as he examined the photograph. + +"You don't intend me to understand," said he, after a minute's steady +scrutiny, "that this is a photograph of actual children?" + +Miss Ruston nodded. Her face glowed with enthusiasm over her work. +"Indeed it is. Flesh and blood children--Rupert and Rodney Trumbull. +And it's really the night before Christmas, too. They were not acting the +part--it was the real thing." + +Burns continued to study the picture--of two small boys in their +night-clothes, standing before a chimney-piece, looking up at their +stockings, at that last wondering, enchanted moment before they should +lay hands upon the mysteries before them. The glow of the firelight was +upon them, the shadows behind held the small sturdy figures in an +exquisitely soft embrace. It was such a photograph as combines the +workings of the most delicate art with the unconscious posing of absolute +realism. + +Burns looked from the picture to his wife's face. "We must have one of +Bobby like that," said he. + +Ellen agreed, her eyes meeting her friend's over his head. The guest laid +another print before him. "Since you like fireplace effects," she +explained. Then she gave the Christmas-eve picture to Miss Mathewson, +smiling as Amy, returning the print she had been studying, said softly, +"It is wonderful work, Miss Ruston. I shall want one of my mother like +this." + +"You shall have it," Miss Ruston promised. + +Burns exclaimed with pleasure over the presentment of a little old lady, +knitting before a fire, a faint smile on her face, as if she were +thinking of lovely things as she worked. As in the other picture the +shadows were soft and hazy, only the surfaces touched by the fireglow +showing with distinctness, the whole effect almost illusive, yet giving +more of the human touch than any clear and distinct details could +possibly have done. + +"That is Granny," said Miss Ruston, a gentle note in her eager voice. "My +little piece of priceless porcelain which I guard with all the defences +at my command. Tell me, Dr. Burns, I shall not be bringing her into any +danger if I put her in the little old house, when it is made right?" + +"If you are thinking of bringing _this_ old lady here," said he, +emphatically, his eyes on the picture again, "you must let me look the +place over thoroughly for you first." + +"But I've engaged it!" cried his wife's friend, in dismay. + +"That doesn't matter. You will call it all off again, if I don't find +the place can be made fit," said he. "Old ladies like this shall not +be risked in doubtful places, no matter how quaint and artistic the +background, not while I am on hand to prevent." + +Miss Ruston looked at Mrs. Burns. "_Is_ this what he is like?" said she, +in dismay. "I didn't reckon with him!" + +"You will have to reckon with me now," said Red Pepper Burns, with +coolness. + +"But the owner says it can be made perfectly tight. And I have to go back +to-night!" + +"The owner of a sieve would say it could be made perfectly tight--if +it was wanted for a dishpan. And you are at liberty to go back +to-night--much as we shall dislike to lose you. I will take time +to go over, right now, and make sure of this thing for you." + +He rose as he spoke. + +"Well, of all the positive gentlemen! Will you stay to look at one more? +It may soften that austere mood." + +Miss Ruston gave him a third print. It was of a very beautiful woman +standing beside a window, the attitude apparently unstudied, the lighting +unusual and picturesque, the whole effect challenging all conventional +laws of photography. + +"It's very nice--very nice," said Burns, indifferently. "But it's not in +it with the old lady by the fire. I'll run across and make sure of her +quarters, if you please." + +"That will be wonderfully good of you," and the guest looked after her +host, dubiously, as he went out. + +"Does one have to do everything he says, in these parts?" she inquired, +glancing from Mrs. Burns to Miss Mathewson, both of whom were smiling. +Her own expression was an odd mixture of interest and rebellion. + +Miss Mathewson spoke first. "I have been his surgical assistant for more +than nine years," said she. "When I have ventured to depart from the line +he laid out for me I have--been very sorry, afterward." + +"Did you ever venture to depart very far?" + +"Do I look so meek?" + +"You don't look meek at all, but you do look--conscientious." Miss Ruston +gave her a daring look. + +Amy spoke with more spirit than the others had expected. "If I were not +conscientious I couldn't work for Dr. Burns." + +"He doesn't look conscientious, to me," declared Miss Ruston. "He looks +adventurous, audacious, unexpected." + +"Perhaps he is. But he doesn't expect his assistant nurse to be +adventurous, audacious, or unexpected!" + +"Good for you!" Miss Ruston was laughing, and looking with newly roused +interest at this young woman, whom she had perhaps taken to be of a +more commonplace type than her words now indicated. "As for my friend, +Mrs. Burns--he is her husband, and she must have known what he was like, +since I, in one short hour, have already discovered two or three of his +characteristics! Well, here's hoping he's on my side, when he comes back. +If he's not--" + +But when he came back he was on her side, reluctantly convinced by a +painstaking examination of the possibilities in the old cottage, and by a +man-to-man talk with its owner as to his good faith in promising to carry +out the lessee's requirements. + +"Though what in the name of time possesses a stunning girl like that to +come here and shut herself up in Aunt Selina's old rookery, I can't make +out," the landlord, Burns's neighbour, had confessed. + +"Possibly she won't shut herself up," Burns had suggested, though he +himself had been unable to discover the mysterious attraction of the +little old house. The garden promised better, he thought. He could +understand her being caught by the forsaken though powerful charm of +that. Doubtless it would furnish backgrounds for her outdoor photography, +which would put to blush any painted screens such as the village +photographers were accustomed to use. + +He returned to give Miss Ruston his sanction of her project, and to +receive her half-mocking, wholly grateful acknowledgment. + +"And I hope, Dr. Burns," said she, as he took leave of her, his watch in +his left hand as he shook hands with his right, "that you will let me +make that photograph of you, at the very beginning of my stay here." + +"With a clump of hollyhocks behind me, or a 'queer old door'?" he +inquired. + +"With nothing behind you except darkness and mystery," said she. + +"I thought those were the things one looked toward, not out of?" + +"Your patients looking toward 'the black unknown,' and seeing your face, +must find their future lighted with hope!" + +He turned and looked at his wife, a sparkle in his eye. "She's from +the big town," said he. "Here in the country we don't know how to give +fine, fascinating blarney like that, eh? Good-bye, Miss Ruston, and good +luck. Bring the little grandmother carefully wrapped in jeweller's +cotton--nothing is too good for her!" + +When luncheon was over Mrs. Burns and her guest went off for a long +drive, Miss Ruston being anxious to explore the region of which she had +heard as offering a field for her camera. The drive, taken in the +Macauley car, by Martha's invitation, and in the company of Martha +herself, Winifred Chester, and several children, prevented much +confidential talk between the two friends, and it was not until a few +minutes before train time, at five o'clock, that the two were for a brief +space again alone together. + +"I'm so sorry you are not to be here at dinner," Ellen said, as Miss +Ruston repacked her small travelling bag, while the car waited outside to +take her to the station. "I should have liked you to meet our guest, Dr. +Leaver. He is an old friend of my husband's, who has been ill and is here +convalescing. He over-tired himself in taking a walk this morning, and +has been resting in his room all the afternoon." + +Charlotte Ruston, adjusting a smart little veil before Ellen's mirror, +her back to her friend, asked, after a moment's pause: + +"Dr. Leaver? Not Dr. John Leaver, of Baltimore?" + +"Yes, indeed. Do you know him?" + +"I have met him. Is he ill? I hadn't heard of that." + +"He has worked very hard, and is worn out," explained Ellen, choosing her +terms carefully. Her husband had warned her against allowing any definite +news concerning Leaver to get back to his home city. "He is improving, +and we are keeping him here because it is a place where he can be out of +the world, for a time, and not be called upon to go back before he +should. So please don't mention to your Baltimore friends that he is +here. I am ever so sorry, if you know him, that he wasn't down to-day. It +might have done him good to see the face of an acquaintance." + +"It might be too stimulating for him," suggested Miss Ruston. She seemed +difficult to satisfy in the matter of the veil's adjustment. Though she +had had it fastened, she now took it off and began again to arrange it. + +"Can't I help you?" Ellen offered, coming close. + +"Thank you, I can manage it. I had it too tight. I suppose your guest +will be gone before I come back?" + +"I don't know. He needs a long rest, and we shall keep him just as long +as he can be contented. Not that he is contented to be idle, but it is +what he needs. He is going to need diversion, too, and perhaps you can +help supply it, when you come back. Do you know him well enough to know +what an interesting man he is?" + +"I have heard people talk about him who do," said Miss Ruston. "But I +hope he will be quite recovered and away before I come back--for his +own sake. There, I believe this veil's on, at last. What a terrible +colour it gives one to drive in the sun all afternoon! I must put on +plenty of cold cream to-night, or I shall be a fright to-morrow." + +"Why, you _are_ burned! I hadn't noticed it before. And the top was up, +all the time, too. But it's very becoming, Charlotte, since it seems to +have confined itself to your cheeks. One's nose is usually the worst +sufferer." + +"That will probably show later. I must be off. Thank you, +dear--dearest--for all you have done for me to-day. It's been such +a happy day, I can't tell you how I feel about it." + +Charlotte Chase Ruston laid her burning, rose-hued cheek against her +friend's--cool and quite unburned by the drive--embraced her, and hurried +down the stairs. She seemed in haste to be off, but it was like her to be +eager to do whatever was to be done. Ellen looked after her as the +Macauley car bore her away. + +"Dear Charlotte!" she said to herself. "It's like having a warm, +invigorating wind sweep over one to have her company, even for a day. How +I shall enjoy her, when she comes! Of all the young women I know she +seems to me the most alive. I wish Dr. Leaver had been down to-day. He +would surely have liked to see her; I never knew a man who didn't. If he +has ever met her, he must remember her. But perhaps he will want to run +away, if he knows any one who knows him has found him out. Perhaps it +will be better not to tell him--just yet." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNDER THE APPLE TREE + + +"A walk, Miss Mathewson? Yes, I'll take a walk--or a pill--or whatever is +due. Did you ever have a more obedient patient?" + +John Leaver rose slowly from the steamer-chair in a corner of the porch +where he had been lying, staring idly at the vines which sheltered him +from the village street, or out at the strip of lawn upon which the early +evening light was falling. His tall figure straightened itself; evidently +it cost him an effort to force his shoulders into their naturally erect +carriage. But as he walked down the path by Miss Mathewson's side there +was not much look of the invalid about him. His face, though still rather +thin, showed a healthy colour, the result of constant exposure to the sun +and air. His days were spent wholly out of doors. + +"Which way, this time?" Amy asked, as they reached the street. + +"Away from things rather than toward them, please. I shall be very glad +when I can tramp off into the open country." + +Amy glanced across the street. "Don't you want to approach a visit to the +country by exploring the old garden, over there? I hear that it has all +sorts of treasures of old-fashioned flowers in it. Do you care for old +gardens?" + +"Very much, though it is a long time since I've been in one." + +"Have you heard that the old house over here is to have a new tenant?" + +"No, I haven't heard." + +Leaver opened the gate in the hedge for his companion, looking as if the +least interesting thing in the world to him were the matter of tenants +for the little old cottage before him. But his tone was, as always, +courteously interested. + +"I was so sorry, the other day, that it happened you didn't meet Mrs. +Burns's friend, such an interesting young woman. She is coming here to +open a photographic studio in this old house--as an experiment." + +"A professional photographer?" + +"I believe not--as yet. She would still call herself an amateur, but from +the pictures she showed us she would seem an expert. I never saw anything +like them. Dr. Burns--he had never met her--was very much taken with +them, especially with one of the little old lady, her grandmother, whom +she is to bring here." + +They strolled along the moss-grown path, past the house, aside into the +garden, its tangle of flowers and shrubbery rich with neglected bloom and +sweet with all manner of scents--sweet-william, larkspur, clove-pink. +Leaver, stooping, picked a spicy-smelling, fringe-bordered pink, and +sniffed its sun-warmed fragrance. + +"It takes me back to my boyhood," he said, "when I used to think a visit +at my grandfather's old country place the greatest thing that could +happen to me. There was a big bed of these flowers under my window. When +the sun was hot upon them they rivalled the spices of Araby." + +Miss Mathewson stood looking back at the house. From the garden, which +lay at the side and behind it, it showed all of its forlornness and few +of its possibilities. + +"What will she make of living there, even for the year she means to +stay?" she wondered, aloud. "Now, if it were I, it wouldn't seem strange; +I am used to living in a little old house. But such a girl as Miss +Ruston--I can hardly imagine her here. She thinks the house and the old +garden will make fine backgrounds for her work. I suppose they will." + +"Miss Ruston?" Dr. Leaver repeated. "Was that the name?" + +"Miss Charlotte Ruston, of South Carolina, I believe. I never heard the +name before, have you?" + +"It is an unusual one. I have known only one person of that name." Leaver +walked slowly over to a decayed and tumbling bench beneath an apple-tree, +whose boughs had been so long untrimmed that they spread almost to the +earth. He sat down upon it, rather heavily, and lifted the clove-pink +to his nostrils again. His dark brows contracted slightly. He looked at +the house. "It will have to have a good deal done to it before it is fit +for any one," he observed. "You said there was an old lady to come, too?" + +"A most beautiful little old lady, whom Miss Ruston seemed to be very +anxious over, lest she suffer any harm. Dr. Burns, when he heard of it, +insisted on coming over here to make sure the house could be made +perfectly dry and comfortable for her." + +"He was right. Little old ladies must be taken care of, and young women +are apt to think any place that is picturesque is safe." + +Miss Mathewson, seeing him apparently more interested in the subject than +he was apt to be in the topics she brought up to amuse him, except as he +assumed interest for her sake, went on with this one, and told him all +she knew about Miss Ruston's plans, ending with a description of the +photographs she had shown. + +"But I should like to see one of herself," she added. "She has such +a--brilliant face. I can't think of any other word to describe it! +When she looks at you she looks as if she--cared so much to see what +you were like!" She laughed at her own attempt to make her description +clear. "Not as if she were curious, you know, but as if she were +interested--attracted. Can you imagine the expression?" + +Leaver leaned his head back against the apple-tree trunk, and closed his +eyes. The spice-pink, still held at his nostrils, shielded his lips. He +looked rather white, his nurse noticed, but she had become accustomed to +seeing these moments come upon him--they passed away again, and Dr. Burns +had said that no notice need be taken of them unless they were long in +passing. In spite of his pallor, he spoke naturally enough. + +"Yes, I have seen such a face. But many women--Southern women, +especially--have that look of being absorbed in what one is saying; it is +a pretty trick of theirs. Won't you sit down, too, on this old bench? It +is so warm yet, we may as well rest a little and walk when it is dusk and +cooler." + +She sat down beside him, a pleasant picture to look at in her white lawn +in which, at Ellen's suggestion, she now made of herself, in the +afternoons, a figure less severe than in her uniform. She had even added +a touch of turquoise to the chaste whiteness of the dress, a colour which +brought out the beauty of her deep blue eyes and fair cheeks and even +lent warmth to the pale hues of her hair. + +"If you want to sit here, Dr. Leaver, I might run across and bring the +book we are reading. Would you like to hear a chapter?" + +"Thank you, not to-night. It's a great book, and stirs the blood with its +attempt to tell the story of a war whose real story can never be told by +any one, no matter what skill the historian brings to the telling. But +I'm not in the mood for it to-night. I wonder if, instead, you won't tell +me a bit about yourself. You've never said a word about the work you do +with my friend, Dr. Burns. Do you like it?" + +She hesitated. Was this a safe subject, she wondered, for a surgeon who, +she understood, had broken down from overwork? But the question had been +asked. + +"Very much," she answered, quietly. "One could hardly help liking work +under Dr. Burns." + +"Why? Do you think him a fine operator?" + +"Very fine. He is considered the best in the city, now, I believe, even +though his office is out here in the village. Of course it is not a great +city, but his reputation extends out into the towns around." + +"He is an enthusiast in his profession, I know. And you are one in yours, +I see." + +"Do you see it, Dr. Leaver? I thought I spoke quite moderately." + +"So moderately that I recognized the restraint. You assist Dr. Burns +whenever he operates?" + +"Yes--if I am free." + +"He can't have been doing much lately, then." + +She glanced at him. He was still leaning back against the apple-tree +trunk, but his eyes were open and regarding her rather closely. They were +eyes whose powers of discernment, as Burns had said, one could not hope +easily to elude. + +"He is so interested in your recovery, Dr. Leaver, that he is willing, +anxious, to spare me. There are other capable assistants, plenty of +them." + +"But none trained to his hand, as you are trained." + +In spite of herself, the quick colour rose in a wave and bathed her face +in its tell-tale glow. He smiled. + +"I see. It's worth everything to an operator to have a right-hand man--or +woman--like that. One doesn't often find a woman capable of taking the +part, but, when one is, she is like a second brain to the operator. Well, +I'll soon release you. I don't need to be coddled now, though it's very +pleasant. I shall remember these walks and talks and hours with books. If +one must be disabled, it's much to be looked after by one who seems a +friend." + +"But--Dr Leaver!--" She spoke in some alarm. "You mustn't talk of +dismissing me like this--unless you are dissatisfied with me. I know Dr. +Burns is taking great satisfaction in having me give my time to you. If +I am helping you at all--" + +"You are. But--I must help myself.... Never mind." He closed his eyes +again. "Tell me about yourself--as Dr. Burns's assistant. Do you enjoy +making things ready for him?" + +She saw that he would have it, so she answered. "Yes, I suppose I take +pride in having everything as he will want it. I know quite well what he +wants, by this time." + +"Yes. And he can depend on you. When the time comes for the start, you +have yourself well in hand? No quick pulse--short breath?" + +"Why, it would not be possible, I suppose, to be so self-controlled as +that. Even Dr. Burns is not. He has told me, more than once, that his +heart is pounding like an engine when he goes into an operation, or when +he faces an unexpected emergency, in the course of it." + +"Ah!... But it doesn't affect his work--or yours--this racing of the +engine?" + +"One forgets it, I think, when one is once at work. Dr. Leaver, look at +that squirrel! Out on the roof of the house--at the back. Do you see him +peering over at us? Inquisitive little creature!" + +"Like myself. Yes, I see his small majesty. Well, tell me, please, why +you like the work so much? You wouldn't give it up?" + +She drew a quick breath. "Oh, no!" + +"And the reason why you like it--am I too curious? Do you mind telling +me?" + +"Why, not at all. I can--hardly tell you, though, what it is that makes +me like it. Of course, I'm happy to have a hand, even though it's only an +assistant's hand, in saving life. But--the life isn't always saved. I +suppose, the real secret of it is one likes to be doing the thing one can +do best." + +"That's it!" He drew a heavy breath. "The thing one can do best. +And when that thing is the setting poor, disabled human machinery +straight--making it run smoothly again! One can hardly imagine turning +one's hand to--book-binding, making things in brass, dressing dolls, +to take up one's time, occupy one's mind, keep one's hands busy, after +having known the practice of a profession like that!" + +He got up from the bench and strode a few paces with a quick, impatient +step, such as she had never seen him take. Then, wheeling suddenly, he +came back to the bench and dropped upon it, breathing short. She had +instantly to his support a small bottle of strong salts which she always +carried, but for a moment she feared that this might not be stimulant +enough to a heart still inclined to be erratic upon small provocation. +She laid anxious fingers upon his pulse, but found it already steadying. + +"This will be over in a minute," she said quietly. "Soon, you will have +got above such bothersome minutes. I shouldn't have let you talk about a +thing which means so much to you." + +"No, I can't even talk about it," he said. "I'm as much of an infernal +hypochondriac as that. I beg your pardon--" and he set his lips. + +They sat in silence for a little. Then, suddenly a voice hailed them--a +cheerful, familiar voice. + +"'Under the spreading chestnut-tree?' Or is it an apple? May I join the +party?" + +Redfield Pepper Burns appeared, looking like a schoolboy lately released +from imprisonment. But his face sobered somewhat as his eye fell upon his +friend. It was not that John Leaver had not looked up with a smile, as +Burns approached, nor was it that he now showed physical distress of any +significant sort. A certain hard expression of the deep-set eye told the +story to one who could read signs. + +"There's a caller for you at the house, Miss Mathewson," said Burns. + +As she went away he dropped down upon the grass near Leaver. "It's at +least five degrees cooler under this tree," said he, "than in any outdoor +spot I've found yet." + +"Work must have been trying to-day." + +"Rather. But so much worse for my patients that I haven't thought much +about it for myself. At two places I had the satisfaction of personally +seeing to the moving of the invalid from a little six-by-nine inferno of +a bedroom to a big and airy sitting-room. It gave me the keenest pleasure +to see it hurt the tidy housewife, who didn't want her best room mussed +up." He chuckled. "In one case I made her take down the stuffy lace +window-curtains and open things up in great shape. She came near having +a convulsion on the spot. Curious how a certain type of mind regards any +little innovation like that. That woman would have let her unlucky +husband smother to death in that oven before it would have occurred to +her to move him out of it." + +"I rather wonder at your continuing to practise in a village like this, +with that sort of people, when you have so much city work, and could do a +large business with a city office." + +Burns stretched out an arm, thrusting his hand deep into the long grass. +"That sort--narrow-minded people--aren't all found in the country, +though--not by a long shot. I've sometimes thought I'd take an office in +town, but, when it comes to making the move, I can't bring myself to it. +You see, I happen to like it out here, and I like the village work. This +way I get both sorts. I don't know why one's ambition should be all for +city work. The people out here need me just as much as those where the +streets are paved. There's a heap more fresh air and sunshine and liberty +here than in town. And, as for being busy, there are only twenty-four +hours in the day, anywhere." + +"And you fill the most of those full. So you do. Yet, I should think +your love for surgery would lead you to take up an exclusive surgical +practice. You could make a name. You have a good-sized reputation +already, with your ability you could make it a great one." + +Burns looked at Leaver. The two men regarded each other with a sudden +fresh interest, a sudden wonder as to the operation of each other's +minds. The man on the bench, broken down by just such a life as he +recommended to his friend, looked at the man on the grass, unworn and +vigorous, and questioned whether, with all his virtues, Burns were really +possessed of the proper ambition. The man on the grass, aware of large +interests in his busy life, looked at the man on the bench, whose +interests were at present wholly concerned with recovering his health, +and wondered what insanity it was which bound his fellow mortal's brain +that he could not see things in their right values. There was a long +minute's silence. Then Burns, lying at full length upon his side in the +warm grass, his head propped upon his elbow, began, in a thoughtful tone: + +"Ever since a period early in our acquaintance my wife and I have had +a vision before us. It was one that, curiously enough, we both had +separately first, and then discovered, by accident, that it was mutual. +The time has come when we are to carry it out. My wife has bought an old +place, in the real country, three miles out on a road that turns off from +the main road to the city. She is going to fit it up for a hospital for +crippled children, curables, mostly, though her heart may lead her into +keeping a few of the other sort, if there is no other home for them to go +to. I'm to have the distinguished honour of being surgeon to the place." + +He made this final announcement in the tone in which he might have made +it if it had been that of an appointment to the greatest position the +country could have given him. + +"Well," said Leaver, after a moment, his weary eyes still studying +Burns's face, "that is a fine thing for you two to do. I can see that +such an interest might well hold a man away from an ordinary city +practice. There is no children's hospital near here, then?" + +"None at all. Children's wards, of course, but nothing like what ought to +be. Of course we can't take care of the surplus. It will be only special +cases, here and there, that we shall try to handle. But I'm meeting with +those every day--cases where the country air and the country fare are +almost as much a part of the cure as the surgical interference. My word! +but it will be a satisfaction to bundle the poor little chaps off to our +farm!" + +His eyes were very bright. He lay smiling to himself for a minute, then +he sat up. + +"In a month," said he, "we shall be ready for business. I have four +little patients waiting now for the place. On three of them I'm going to +operate at once. On the fourth--_you_ are." + +Again the two pairs of eyes met--hazel eyes confident and determined, +brown eyes startled, stabbed with sudden pain. Burns held up his hand. + +"Don't say a word," he commanded. "I'm merely making an assertion. I'm +willing to back it up by argument, if you like, though I'd rather not. +In fact, I'd much rather not. I prefer simply to make the assertion, and +let it sink in." + +But Leaver would speak. "You forget," he said, bitterly, "that I've put +all that behind me. I told you I should never operate again. I meant it." + +"Yes, you meant it," said Burns comfortably. "A man means it when he +swears he'll never do again something that has become second nature to +him to do. He'll do it--he's made that way. You will do this thing, and +do it with all your old grip and skill. But I'm not going to discuss it +with you. Some day, if you are good, I'll describe the case to you. It's +one you can handle better than I, and it's going to be up to you." + +He got to his feet, ignoring the slow shaking of Leaver's downbent head. +"By the way," he said, with a glance at the cottage, now a mere blur in +the oncoming twilight, "have you heard of the young photographer who is +to sweep down upon us and make wonderful, dream-like images of us all, +for good hard cash and fame? A friend of my wife's: a girl who looks +twenty-five, but is a bit more, I am told. A remarkably good-looking, not +to say fascinating, person with a grandmother still more fascinating--at +least to me. They are to come as soon as this rookery can be made +habitable." + +"Miss Mathewson spoke of it. It will be an interesting event to the +village, I should suppose. But I shall not be among the victims of the +lady's art. I may as well tell you, Red--I must get away next week." + +Burns wheeled upon him. "What's that you say?" + +The other proceeded with evident effort, laying his head back against the +tree-trunk again. "I am as grateful to you and Mrs. Burns as a man can +possibly be, so grateful that I can't put it into words--" + +"Don't try. Go on to something more important." + +"I have trespassed on your hospitality--" + +"Don't use hackneyed phrases like that. Say something original." + +--"as long as I can be willing to do it. I am as much improved as I can +expect to be--for a long time. I can't hang on, a useless invalid on your +hands--" + +"Cut it, old man! You're not an invalid, and you're not useless. You're +giving me one of the most interesting studies I've engaged in in a long +time. I'm liable to write a book on you, when I get sufficient data." + +Leaver smiled faintly. "Nevertheless, I can't do it, Red. You wouldn't do +it in my place. Be honest--would you?" + +"Probably not. I'd be just pig-headed fool enough to argue the case to +myself precisely as you are doing. Well, Jack, I've expected this hour. +It's a pity there isn't more faith and trust in friendship in the world. +We're all deadly afraid of trying our friends too far, so after just +about so long we strike out for ourselves. But since it is as it is, and +you're growing restless, I'll agree that you leave us, if you'll stay for +a while where you'll be under my observation. I've set my heart on making +a complete cure in this case--or, rather, you understand, assisting +Nature to do so. If you go off somewhere I shall lose track of you. +Suppose you stay in the village here for a while longer. I know a +splendid place for you, just round the corner. Quiet, pleasant home, +middle-aged widow and her young son--a lady, and a sensible, cheerful +one--she'll never bore you by talk unless you feel like it--and then the +talk will be worth while. What do you say? You know perfectly well that +you're not yet quite fit to shift for yourself. Be rational, and let me +manage things for you a while longer." + +Leaver stood up; in the dim light Burns could not see his face. But he +heard his voice--one which showed tension. + +"You don't know what you're asking, old friend. There are reasons why I +feel like getting away, entirely apart from any conditions under your +control. Yet since you ask it of me, and I owe you so much, and since--I +suppose it doesn't really make much difference where I am--I'll stay for +the present." + +"Good! I'm much obliged, Jack." + +Burns got up, also, and the two strolled away together, in the pleasant +summer dusk. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A PRACTICAL ARTIST + + +"Here I am! And the goods are here too. Isn't it a miracle? It could +never have been done if I hadn't found a kind friend among the railroad +men, who sent my things by fast freight. Now to settle in a whirlwind of +a hurry and fly back for Granny." + +These were Miss Charlotte Ruston's words of greeting as she shook hands +with the occupants of the Macauley car, which had met her at the station +on the last day of July. She looked as fresh and eager to carry out her +plans as if she were not just at the end of a journey. + +"I suppose you'll stop for luncheon first," Martha Macauley suggested. +She noted, with the approval of the suburbanite who cares much to be well +dressed, the quietly smart attire of the arriving traveller. + +"Indeed I will. Fuel first, fire afterward. But I'm fairly burning to +begin, July weather though it is. How are my hollyhocks? A splendid row? +I've dreamed of those hollyhocks!" + +"They are all there--as well as one can see them above the weeds. We +would have had the grass cut for you, but didn't venture to touch so much +as a spear, lest we destroy some picturesque effect," Ellen said, giving +her friend's hand an affectionate grasp as Charlotte took her place +beside her. + +"I do want to see to it all for myself. I've had the greatest difficulty +in waiting these four weeks, or should have had if I hadn't been so busy. +But now that I'm here I'll show you how to make a home out of four +chairs, three rugs, a table, a mirror, and an adorable copper bowl. Talk +of the simple life--you're going to see it lived just across the street, +you matrons with innumerable things to dust!" + +"We shall be delighted to watch you do it," Ellen assured her, and Martha +gave an incredulous assent. + +It was but a few hours before they saw the prophecy coming true. Miss +Ruston barely took time for luncheon, and by the time the dray containing +her modest supply of household goods was at her door she was ready for +work. A blue painter's blouse slipped over her travelling dress, her +sleeves rolled well up her shapely arms, she had plunged into the labour +of settling. She had for an assistant a woman whom Ellen had engaged for +her, and a tall youth who was the woman's son, and these two she managed +with a generalship little short of genius. + +The floors had been cleaned and stained with a simple dull-brown stain a +week before, and Miss Ruston eyed them with satisfaction, uneven though +they were. She set the lad at work oiling them, demonstrating to him with +her own hands, carefully gloved, the way to do it. Every window she flung +wide, and Mrs. Kelsey was presently scrubbing away at the dim, small +panes, trying her best to make them shine to please the young lady who +from time to time stopped as she flew by to comment on her work. + +"That's it, Mrs. Kelsey, you know how, don't you? I haven't much in the +way of hangings for them, so we must have them bright as mirrors. Hard to +get into the corners? Yes, I know. But it's somehow the corners that show +most. Try this hairpin under your cloth,"--she slipped one out from her +heavy locks--"you can get into the corners with that, I'm sure. Tom, +there's a spot as big as a plate you haven't hit. You can't see it in +that light; bend over this way a minute, and you'll find it. That's it! +It would have been a pity to leave it, wouldn't it! Don't miss any more +places, Tom. I haven't many rugs, and the floors will show a good deal." + +"I didn't know artists were ever such practical people," confessed Mrs. +Red Pepper Burns, sitting on the edge of a straight-backed old chair in +the small kitchen. The house boasted but four rooms, two below and two +above, with a small enclosure off the kitchen which had been used for a +bedroom in the benighted days when people knew no better, and which +Charlotte had promptly set aside for a dark room. + +"Practical? I'm not an artist, as you use the word, but I assure you real +artists are the most practical people in the world. Not one of them but +can make a whistle out of a pig's tail, or a queen's robe out of a sheet +and a blue scarf! What do you think of my light-housekeeping outfit?" + +She held up an aluminum skillet which she had just taken from the box she +was unpacking. "Here's everything we can need in the way of cooking +utensils, packed into a foot square, and light as a feather, the whole +thing. My purse was rather light when I had bought it, too." She made a +funny little grimace, then laughed. "But my most trying purchase was my +tin bath! You can't imagine what a hunt I had for it. But I found it at +last in an Englishman's little out-of-the-way shop, and a big tin ewer to +go with it. I'm proud of them now, and emptying the tub once a day is +going to be fine for my muscles." + +"You have splendid courage, dear, and I can see you're not afraid of hard +work. I want you to promise me this, though, Charlotte. When you are +specially tired, and there's luncheon or dinner to get, run over and let +us give you a trayful of things. Cynthia always cooks more than we eat, +and then has to contrive to use it in other ways." + +Charlotte nodded. "Thank you. Luckily, though I'm poor I'm not proud. By +the way, you haven't an unused kitchen chair, have you? To tell the truth +I forgot several things, and one of them is a chair for the kitchen. I +probably shall not sit down myself, and shall always serve our little +meals in the living-room, but I foresee that I shall have guests here in +the kitchen, and I'd like to be able to offer them a chair. That one +you're sitting in is my very best old split-bottomed, high-backed +photographer's treasure, which must go in the front room by the +fireplace." + +"When you are through explaining I will assure you that two kitchen +chairs will arrive as soon as I go home," promised Ellen. + +"Bless you! I foresee that you will make a splendid neighbour. Do you +want to climb upstairs and see the nest I'm going to feather for Granny?" + +She turned to the narrow little staircase between the walls, and gayly +led the way. But Ellen exclaimed in dismay over the steepness of the +stairs. + +"Charlotte! Do you think dear little old Madam Chase can climb these? +They are the steepest I ever saw!" + +"She won't need to. Private lift, always ready." + +"What do you mean? Surely not--" + +Charlotte extended two round, supple arms. "Why not? Granny weighs just +eighty pounds--if she is wearing plenty of clothes. In her little nightie +and lavender kimono considerably less. And I'm strong as strong." + +"But even then she's more than you ought to carry up and down this +ladder." + +Charlotte turned at the top of the stairs, and laughed back at her +friend. "Granny's a sports-woman," said she. "She will--whisper +it!--thoroughly enjoy sliding down these stairs, and, as for my carrying +her up them, haven't you yet found out that a weight you love devotedly +is just no weight at all? Now, look here! Aren't these bits of rooms +fascinating? Hot, just now, I admit--" She ran to the windows, wrenched +them open and propped them up. "Too hot in July, certainly; we'll camp +downstairs while this weather lasts. But fine and warm and sunny through +the winter. A bit of an oil-stove will make Granny as snug as a kitten, +and her maid Charlotte will see that she's never left alone with it +burning." + +"I see you're quite invincible in your determination to make the best of +everything. I can hardly believe you are the same girl I used to know, +brought up to be waited on and petted by everybody. You've developed +splendidly, and I'm proud of you." + +"Thank you, Len. No, I'm not the same girl at all. I've been having to +depend upon my own management for four years now--long enough to learn +a good many makeshifts. It's been rather a pull, but I've had Granny +through it all, and as long as she's left to me I won't complain. I used +to be an extravagant person, but you've no idea how I've learned to make +money last. Don't stay up here, it's too hot for you. But I'll get the +place in order, for it may be cooler by the time I bring Granny, so we +can sleep here." + +"I'll help. What comes first?" + +"Nothing--for you. I'll run up and down with rugs and +curtains,--really, they're about all there are to go up here, +except Granny's dressing-table. I've saved that for her, and a +little old single bed she likes. I'll have Tom bring them up." + +But Ellen insisted on helping, and when the bed was in place made it up +with the fine old linen Charlotte produced, exclaiming over its handsome +monograms, of an antique pattern much admired in these days. + +"But where is your bed, Charlotte? I want to get that ready, too," she +urged, when various small tasks were completed. + +"Oh, never mind about mine. I'll see to that later." Charlotte was +rubbing away at an old brass candlestick upon the dressing-table. + +"I didn't see another bed. Surely you can't both sleep in this?" + +"Hardly--poor Granny! No; mine is a folding cot, the nicest thing!" + +"And you've no furniture at all for your room?" + +"Don't want it. Granny will let me peep in her mirror. Don't look so +shocked, Len. We're just camping out for a year, you know, and I brought +all we needed. What's the use of being encumbered with household goods?" + +"But you have them, somewhere? Let me send for them, dear, please. If you +are to stay all winter you must be comfortable." + +"We shall be. And--I haven't any more things, if you must have it. When +the estate was sold I bought in all I could afford, but have sold some +since. You may as well know it, but I want you to understand that I don't +consider it a hardship at all to live as I intend to live this year. I +shall be making money hand over fist, presently, and by the time I have +had my city studio a year or two shall be affording Eastern rugs and +hand-carved furniture. Wait and see!" + +She stopped polishing and stood looking at her friend with the peculiar, +radiant look which was her greatest charm, her dark eyes glowing, her +lips in proud, sweet lines of resolution, her round chin held high. Then +she laughed, throwing her head higher yet, with a gay spirit; came +forward and caught Ellen Burns by the shoulders and bending kissed her. + +"I told you I wasn't proud," she said, "but I am! _Too proud to be +proud!_ I never believed in the pride which covers up, but in that which +frankly owns its poverty, and laughs at it. I laugh!" + +"You splendid girl! Where did you get it?" + +"Picked it up. But I really think I shall have the happiest year out of +this I've known yet." + +"I believe you will. And I shall delight in having you so near." + +The two descended. By the time Mrs. Kelsey's work-day was over the front +room was in order, and Charlotte, bidding good-night to her servitors, +gave them hearty praise and bade them come back early in the morning. +Ellen had gone home, bidding Charlotte follow her at convenience. + +"I must run out and pick some flowers for my copper bowl," Charlotte had +said. "Then the room will be ready to show your husband this evening. I'm +anxious to have it make a good impression on him, and I've discovered +that men always notice posies." + +So, out in the tangled garden she chose a great bunch of delphinium, in +mingled shadings from pale blues and lavenders to deepest sapphire tones, +and bringing it in exultingly filled the copper bowl and set it on the +old spindle-legged table opposite the fireplace. Woven rag rugs in dull +blues lay on the floor; one great winged chair, Granny's chair, stood by +the window. Besides this were the splint-bottomed, high-backed chair, two +Sheraton chairs, and a Chippendale mirror,--all relics of a luxurious old +home. Two small portraits in oil hung upon the wall, painted by some +master hand, portraits of Charlotte's parents. This was all the +furnishing the room contained, but somehow, in the warm light of +the late July afternoon, it looked anything but bare. + +The Chesters, the Macauleys and the Burnses, all came across the street +in the early July evening, to view the work which had been done. +Charlotte had slipped on a thin white gown and pinned a bunch of +old-fashioned crimson-and-pink "bleeding-hearts" at her waist, to do the +occasion honour. She looked, somehow, already as if she belonged with the +place. She sat upon the doorstone and hemmed small muslin curtains which +were to go in the bedrooms upstairs, and Martha, Winifred, and Ellen, +seeing this, sent for their sewing materials and helped her, while the +daylight lasted. + +Burns, looking on, hands in pockets, suddenly observed, "We fellows ought +to be doing something for her. What do you say to every man going for +a scythe and cutting the grass? No lawn mower can tackle a tangle like +this." + +Macauley groaned. "Why begin to be neighbourly at such a pace? Cutting +this grass is going to be no easy task." + +But Chester and Burns had already started across the street, and Macauley +was obliged to follow. By the time darkness fell the front yard had been +cropped into at least a semblance of tidiness, and Charlotte was offering +her thanks to three warm gentlemen, and regretting that she had not been +keeping house long enough to have any refreshment to offer them. + +"Come over when we are settled, and Granny and I will have some sparkling +Southern beverages for you," she promised. + +"You are coming over to sleep, child," Ellen said, as the time for +departure arrived, and Charlotte showed signs of closing up her small +domain. + +"Not at all. I mean to have the fun of spending my first night in my new +home," Miss Ruston declared, and held to her decision, in spite of the +arguments and entreaties of the women and the assertions of the men that +she would be afraid. + +"Well, then, beat on a dishpan if anything disturbs you, and we'll rush +across in a body and rescue you," promised Macauley. + +Left alone, Charlotte went inside, lighted a genial looking lamp, and sat +down alone in her little living-room. Chin in her palms, she leaned her +elbows upon the spindle-legged table, looking up at the portrait of her +mother, its fine colourings glowing in the mellow light from the lamp. +She sat for a long time in this posture, her eyes losing their sparkle +and growing dreamy, and--at last--a trifle misty. When this stage +occurred she suddenly jumped up, carried the lamp into the kitchen, +searched until she found a candle and lighted it, then, extinguishing +the lamp, she went slowly upstairs to the cot bed. + +By the following evening her preparations were so far complete that she +could take the evening train for Baltimore, announcing that the two +future occupants of the little house would return within forty-eight +hours. During her absence the three women who were her friends put their +heads together, ordered extra baking and brewing done in their own +kitchens, and ended by stocking her small shelves with a great array +of good things. + +Before the forty-eight hours had quite gone by Miss Ruston was leading a +tiny figure, with shoulders held almost as straight as her own, in at the +hedge gate. It was twilight of the August evening. The cottage door was +open and the rays from the lamp lately lighted by her neighbours streamed +down the path. + +Charlotte stooped--she had to stoop a long way--and put her lips close to +the small ear under the white hair which lay softly over it. "Doesn't it +look like home, Granny?" she said, in a peculiar, clear tone, a little +raised. + +"What say, dear?" responded a low and quite toneless voice--the voice of +the very deaf. + +"Home, Granny?" repeated the younger voice. The strong arm of the taller +figure came about the little shoulders in the small gray travelling coat. + +"Warm? Not so warm as it was on the train. I shall be quite comfortable +once I am sitting quietly in my chair." + +Doctor and Mrs. Burns, following the travellers with certain pieces of +hand luggage, looked at one another. + +"Bless her small heart, is she as deaf as that?" queried Red Pepper, in a +whisper. "I shall have difficulty in getting my adoration over to her!" + +"She has grown much deafer since I knew her, several years ago," Ellen +explained. "But as her eyes seem bright as ever I imagine you will have +no difficulty in making her understand your adoration. She is used to +it." + +"I should think she might be. She is the prettiest old lady I ever saw, +and looks one of the keenest. We shall understand each other, if we have +to write on slates." + +Charlotte led Madam Chase--Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase was the name +on the visiting cards she still used with scrupulous care for the +observances of etiquette--in at the cottage door and placed her in the +winged chair. She untied and removed a microscopic bonnet, drew off the +gray coat, and laid an inquiring finger on her charge's wrist. + +"Let me attend to that," begged R.P. Burns, looming in the small doorway. +"I'll find out how tired she is. I doubt if she would admit it by word +of mouth." + +He went down on one knee beside the chair, a procedure which brought his +smiling face beside the old lady's questioning one. His fingers clasped +her wrist, and held it after he had found out what it told him. + +"Tired?" he said, very distinctly, his lips forming the word for her to +see. + +Madam Chase shook her head decidedly. "Not at all, Doctor. But the train +was very warm and very dusty. I shall be glad to feel a cool linen pillow +under my head instead of a hot cotton one." + +He nodded. "Could you eat a bit, and drink a cup of tea?" + +"What say, Doctor? Tea? Yes, I should be glad of tea. I never like the +decoction they serve upon trains and call tea." + +"I'll have it for her in a minute," and Ellen went out into the kitchen. + +Burns looked up at Miss Ruston. "As soon as she has had her tea she must +go to bed. She has stood the journey well, but she needs a long rest +after it." Then he looked again at Mrs. Rodney Rutherford Chase. "I can +see you are a very plucky small person," said he, and her nod and smile +in answer showed that at least she caught the indications of a +compliment. + +Presently, when she had had her tea, had patted Ellen's hand for bringing +it, and had looked about her a little with observant eyes which showed +pleasure when they rested on certain familiar objects, she laid her white +curls back against the chair and looked up at her granddaughter like a +child who asks to be put to sleep. + +Burns advanced again. "May I have the honour?" he asked, stooping over +the tiny figure with outstretched arms. + +"You'll find me pretty heavy, Doctor," said she, but she put up her +arms and clasped his neck as he lifted her, quite as if it were a matter +of course with her to have stalwart men offer their services on all +occasions. Burns strode up the steep and narrow staircase with her as if +she had been a child, Charlotte preceding him with a pair of candles. In +her own room he laid the little old lady on her bed, then stooped once +more. + +"May I have a reward for that?" he asked, and without waiting for +permission kissed the delicate cheek, as soft and smooth as velvet +beneath his lips. + +"You are a very good young man," said the old lady. "I think I shall have +to adopt you as a grandson." + +Burns laid his hand on his heart and made her a deeply respectful bow, at +which she laughed and waved him away. + +"Adorable," said he to Charlotte, on his way down, "is not a word which +men use over every small object, as you women do, therefore it should +have the more force when they do make use of it. No other word fits +little Madam Chase so well. Consider me yours to command in her service, +at any hour of day or night." + +"Thank you," Charlotte called softly after him. "I assure you she will +command you herself, and delight in doing it. She never fails to +recognize homage when she receives it, or to demand it when she does +not. But she will give you quite as much as she takes from you." + +"I'm confident of it," and Burns descended to his wife. "You have a +rival," he told her solemnly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A RUNAWAY ROAD + + +Camera hung by a strap over her shoulder, small tripod tucked under her +arm, Charlotte Chase Ruston, photographer, turned aside from the country +road along which she was walking, to follow a winding lane leading into a +deep wood. The luring entrance to this lane had been beyond her power to +resist, although the sun had climbed nearly to the zenith, warning her +that it was time to turn her steps toward home. In her search for +picturesque bits of landscape to turn to account in her work, her +enthusiasm was likely at any time to lead her far afield. + +Just as the lane promised to debouch into an open meadow and release its +victim from any special sense of curiosity, it suddenly swerved to one +side, forced its way under a pair of bars, and ran curving away into deep +shadows, fringed with ferns, and overhung with the dense foliage of oak +and walnut. A distant glimpse of brilliant scarlet flowers, standing like +sentinels in uniform against the dark green of the undergrowth, beckoned +like a hand. With a laugh Charlotte set her foot upon the bottom rail. +"I'm coming," she called blithely to the scarlet flowers. "You needn't +shout so loud at me." + +Hurrying, because of the hour, she pulled her blue linen skirts over the +fence, and dropped lightly upon the other side. She ran along the lane to +the flowers, stopped to admire, but refused to pick them, telling them +they were better where they were, and would droop before she could get +them home. Then she went swiftly on around a bend in the cart-path, +catching the faint sound of falling water, and impelled to seek its +source, just as is every one at hearing that suggestive sound. And, of +course, the water was farther away than it sounded. + +A trifle short of breath, from her haste, she ran it down at last, and +came upon it--a series of small waterfalls down which a small stream +tumbled recklessly along a vagrant watercourse, seeming to care little +when it reached its destination, so that it contrived to have plenty of +fun and exercise by the way. And on the bank, stretched recumbent, hands +clasped under head, lay a long figure in gray flannels, a straw hat and a +book at its side. + +Charlotte stopped short. The figure turned its head, sat up, and got +rather quickly to its feet, pushing back a heavy, dark lock of hair which +had fallen across a tanned forehead. Dr. John Leaver came forward. + +"I'm so sorry I disturbed you," said Charlotte Ruston, finding words at +last, after having been surprised out of speech by the sudden apparition, +"I hope I didn't wake you from a nap." + +"You haven't disturbed me, and I was not asleep. I'm only waiting for Dr. +Burns, who may come now at any minute. This is a pleasant place to meet +in, isn't it?" + +Their hands met, each looked with swift, straight scrutiny into the face +of the other, and then hands and eyes parted abruptly. When they regarded +each other after that, it was as two casual acquaintances may exchange +glances, in the course of conversation, when other things are of more +interest than the personal relation. + +"Indeed it is pleasant--charming! The path lured me on and on, I couldn't +stop. I ought to be at home this minute. Did you walk so far? Mrs. Burns +told me you were here, and that you had been ill. I was very sorry, and +I'm now so glad to see you looking so well." + +"Thank you. I am much myself again, but not yet quite equal to a walk of +this distance. Dr. Burns and his car are just a few rods away, on the +other side of this bit of woods. He has a patient in a little shack over +there, and brought me along to see this spot. It was worth coming for." + +"You must enjoy Dr. Burns very much." + +"We are old friends, and being together again after a nine-years' +separation, is a thing to make the most of." + +"I should think so. He seems so alive, so full of interest in every +living thing. He must be a fine comrade." + +"The finest in the world. To me there is nobody like him, and most people +who know him, I've noticed, feel in the same way. He has a beautiful +wife. She is a friend of yours, she tells me." + +"Also an old friend, and almost the dearest I have. I'm very happy to be +near her. Dr. Leaver, will you tell me what time it is, please? I have a +dreadful suspicion that I shall be very late." + +As he drew out his watch a voice was heard from the other side of a clump +of undergrowth, calling crisply: + +"All right, Jack, we're off. One more call before luncheon, and it's +blamed late, so get busy." + +"In a minute," Leaver called back, smiling, as he showed Charlotte his +watch's dial. + +Red Pepper Burns looked over the bushes, discerning in his friend's tone +an intention of delay, and inclined to be still more peremptory with him +about it. Discovering now what looked like an interesting situation, he +came forward, bareheaded, his frown of impatience turning to a smile of +greeting. + +"What luck, to find a dryad in the woods!" he cried. "Did this gentleman +invade your domain?" + +"Not at all. I invaded his most unexpectedly. I was following a lane, +intending to turn back at any moment, when it ran away under a fence and +treacherously led me into trouble." + +"Call it trouble, do you, meeting your friends in the woods? That's +always the way! Call a woman luck, and she calls you trouble! Let me tell +you, Miss Charlotte, it's luck for you, meeting us, for we can give you a +lift of a mile down the road. We have to turn off there, but you'll be +less late for a luncheon that's probably already cold than you would be +after walking the whole distance. You won't refuse? You mustn't, for I +expect it's my only chance to get John Stone Leaver of Baltimore started. +Otherwise he'll stand here till mid-afternoon, showing you his watch and +pointing out to you the beauties of this noisy brook." + +"Thank you, Dr. Burns, but you can't very well take me in a car built for +two." + +"Can't I? The car has frequently carried half a dozen, judiciously +distributed over the running-boards, to the imminent peril of the tires +and springs. We'll put Dr. Leaver on the running-board. It will hurt +neither his clothes nor his dignity, and if it does he can get off and +walk." + +He led the way. If she could have done so Charlotte would gladly have +turned and run away. But there are people from whom one cannot easily +run away, and Red Pepper Burns was one of them. With all his powers of +discernment, he had no possible notion that the two who followed him were +not eager to accept this arrangement. They looked well together, too, he +had observed as he neared them--exceedingly well. He was sure he was +doing them a favour in keeping them together as long as possible. + +In point of actual distance he certainly succeeded literally in +keeping them extremely near together, during the few minutes it took to +get out of a winding wood-road to the main highway, and to drive at a +stimulating pace a mile down that road. When Leaver took his place upon +the running-board he was unavoidably close to Charlotte's knee, and his +head was within reach of her hand. His hand, grasping the only available +hold with which to keep himself in place, as Burns let the car go at high +speed, was close under her eyes. + +Keeping his eyes upon the road, Burns, in a gay mood now, kept up a +running fire of talk, to which Charlotte, as became necessary, responded. +Leaver, straw hat in hand, also stared straight ahead, and Charlotte, +unobserved by either companion, looked at the head below her, its heavy, +dark-brown hair ruffled by the wind of their progress, noted--not for the +first time--the fine line of the partial profile, the shoulder in its +gray flannel, the well-knit hand, tanned, like its owner's face, with +much exposure. And, as she made these furtive observations, something +within her breast, which she had thought well under control, became +suddenly unmanageable. + +"I'm sorry to desert you here, so ungallantly," Burns declared, bringing +the car to a standstill at a cross-road. "If my friend here were quite +fit I'd put him down, too, and give him the pleasure of walking in with +you. In a week or two more I'll turn him loose. Looks pretty healthy, +doesn't he?" + +"I'm entirely able to walk in with Miss Ruston now," said Leaver, +standing, hat in hand, in the road, as Charlotte adjusted her belongings +and prepared to walk rapidly away. + +"That's my affair, for a bit longer," and Burns put out a peremptory +hand. "Be good and jump in. The lady will excuse you, and I won't, so +there you are. Forgive me, Miss Ruston, and don't bring on heart failure +by walking too fast in this August sun." + +"I won't. Good-bye, and thank you both," and Charlotte set briskly off +toward home, while the car swept round the turn and disappeared into +a hollow of the road. + +"That's what I call a particularly worth-while girl," commented Burns, as +the Imp carried them away. "Beauty, and sense, and spirit, not to mention +originality and a few other attributes. You don't often get them all +combined. Good old family, according to my wife, but all gone now, and +this girl left to make her way on her own resources. But perhaps you know +all this already, since you've met her before?" + +"I know the main facts?--yes," Leaver responded. His lips had taken on a +curiously tight set, since the car had left the corner. His eyes, under +their strongly marked brows, narrowed a little, as he looked out across a +field of corn yellowing in the sunlight. "She has visited more or less in +Baltimore, where she has been very much admired." + +"Why 'has been'?" queried Burns. "She doesn't look like a 'has-been' to +me. More like very much of a 'now-and-here'--eh?" + +"I mean only that since she has been thrown upon her own resources she +has applied herself closely to the study of photography, and has been +little seen in society." + +"I imagine when she was seen she kept a few fellows guessing. She looks +to me as if she might have refused her full share of men." + +"I have no doubt of it." + +That which Burns would have enjoyed saying next he refrained from. But to +himself he made the observation: "By the signs I haven't much doubt you +were one of them, old man." Aloud he questioned innocently: + +"You know her rather well?" + +"Quite well." + +"Your manner says 'Drop it,'" observed Burns, with a keen glance at a +side-face clean-cut against the landscape. "I've encountered that manner +before, and I'll take warning accordingly. This is a fine day, and it's +rather an interesting case I'm going to see, up this road. If you care to +come in I'll be glad of your opinion, but I won't insist on it." + +"Unless you really wish it, I'll stay out, thank you." + +Burns left his companion in the car, open book in hand. It was a book Red +Pepper had strongly recommended, with the motive of stirring up his +friend to interested resentment,--a particularly unfair and prejudiced +discussion of a subject just then being torn to pieces by all manner of +disputants, with the issue still very much in doubt. He knew precisely +the place Leaver had reached in his reading, and noted, as he got out of +the car, the page at which he was about to begin. The page was one easily +recognizable, for it was one upon whose margin he himself had drawn, in a +moment of intense irritation with the argument advanced thereon, a rough +outline of a donkey's head with impossibly long and obstinate ears. + +He left Leaver with eyes bent upon the page, not the semblance of a smile +touching his grave mouth at sight of the really striking and effective +cartoon which so ably expressed a former reader's sentiments. Burns went +into the house making with himself a wager as to how far Leaver's perusal +of the chapter would have progressed in the ten minutes which would +suffice for the visit, and was divided whether to stake a page against a +half-chapter, or to risk his friend's being aware of his observation and +leaping through the chapter to its end. + +When he came out the book was closed and lying upon Leaver's knee. Burns +took his place and drove off, malice sparkling in his eye. + +"What did you think of that chapter?" he inquired. + +"Interesting argument, but weak in spots." + +"Hm--m. Which spots?" + +Leaver indicated them. There could be no doubt that he had read +the chapter carefully to the end. Burns put him through a severe +cross-examination, but he stood the test, much to his examiner's disgust. +In detective work it is usually irritating to have one's theories +disproved. But he still doubted the evidence of his ears. Either John +Leaver was a colder blooded deceiver than he thought him, or his powers +of concentration were more than ordinarily great, that he could turn from +the contemplation of a subject like the one left at the cross-roads +corner, a subject which Burns was pretty sure vitally concerned him, to +a mere abstract discussion of a modern sociological problem, bare of +practical illustration, and dealing purely with one man's notions not yet +worked out to any constructive conclusion. + +"Well," said Leaver, turning suddenly to look at Burns with a smile, "are +you satisfied that I have read the chapter?" + +Burns also turned, met his companion's eye, and broke into a laugh. "I +shall have to admit you have," said he. + +"Why should you have doubted it?" + +"I haven't been gone long enough for you to have read and digested it." + +Leaver looked at his watch. "You were gone seventeen minutes. That's +long enough to take in the argument pretty thoroughly. As to digesting +it--it's indigestible. Why try?" + +"No use at all. But having given my mental machinery a lot of friction I +enjoyed trying to stir yours up also to irritation and discontent. But +I haven't done it. You've remained calm where I grew hot. Also you've +proved your ability to change the subject of your thinking as you would +switch off one electric current and switch on another. It shows you're a +well man." + +"I must warn you, as I have done at various times in our association: +'Don't jump to conclusions.' Your first one, that I hadn't read the +chapter, was wrong. I had read it. Your second one, that, after all, I +had read the chapter while you were in the house, was also wrong. I had +read it by the side of the brook, an hour ago." + +Burns's laughter spoke his enjoyment as heartily as if he were not the +one cornered. But his amusement ended in triumph, after all, though to +this he discreetly did not give voice. Since he had met Miss Charlotte +Ruston in the woods Dr. John Leaver had not given himself to the study of +any other man's ideas. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AFTER DINNER + + +"Charlotte Chase Ruston, I want you to come over to a little dinner +to-night. Just a few people, and as informal as dinners on hot August +evenings should be. Afterward we'll spend the time on the porch." + +"Thank you, Len. Whom are you going to have? I want to prepare my mind +for what is likely to happen." + +Mrs. Burns mentioned her guests. "I've arranged them with special +reference to Dr. Leaver," she explained. "I think it will do him good, +just now, to have to exert himself a little bit. He seems well enough, +but absolutely uninterested in things or people,--except the children. He +spends hours with them. I'm going to put you next him, if I may." + +"Please don't. I particularly want the chance to talk with Mr. Arthur +Chester about something I've found he can tell me. We never can get time +for it, and this will be just the chance. Give Miss Mathewson to Dr. +Leaver, and put some pretty girl on his other side." + +"I will, if you prefer, of course," Ellen agreed promptly. She had +observed that, although she had taken pains to have them meet, Dr. Leaver +and Miss Ruston seemed to be in the habit of quietly avoiding each other. +But she was not the woman to ask her friend's confidence, since it was +not voluntarily given. She could only wonder why two people from the same +world, apparently so well suited to each other, should be so averse to +spending even a few moments together. + +An hour later Charlotte, having dispatched considerable business, +bundling it out of the way as if it had suddenly become of no account, +was delving in a trunk for a frock. + +"It's the one and only possible thing I have that will do for one of +Len's 'little dinners,'" she was saying to herself. "I know just how +she'll be looking, and I must live up to her. I wonder if I can mend it +to be fit--I wonder." + +She carried it downstairs. Madam Chase, sitting by the window with her +knitting, looked up. + +"Mending lace, dearie?" she asked. "Can't I do it for you?" + +"I'm afraid it's beyond even you, Granny," she said, ruefully. To the +deaf ears her gesture told more than her words. + +"Let me see," commanded the old lady. When the gauzy gown was spread +before her she examined it carefully. + +"If it need not be washed--" she began. + +"It must be. Look at the bottom." Charlotte's expressive hands +demonstrated as she talked. "I've danced in it and sat out dances in all +sorts of places in it. But I can wash it, if you can mend it. I'll wash +it with the tips of my fingers." + +"I will try," said her grandmother. + +That afternoon Charlotte carefully laundered the mended gown, dried it in +the sun and ironed it, partly with her fingers, partly with a tiny iron. +Finished, it was a work of art, a frock of rare lace of exquisite design, +several times made over, and now, in its last stage, prettier than in its +first. + +"If it will hold together," Charlotte said laughing, as she put it on, +and, kneeling before Granny, waited while the delicate old fingers slowly +fastened each eyelet. When she rose she was a figure at which the old +lady who loved her looked with pleased eyes. + +"You are beautiful, dearie," she said. "And nobody will guess that your +dress is mended." + +"Not a bit, thanks to your clever fingers. Now I'll go find some flowers +to wear, and then I'm off. I'll come back to put you to bed, and you'll +send Bob over if you want the least thing, won't you, even the least?" + +Charlotte went out into her garden, holding her skirts carefully away +from possible touch of bush or briar. Late August flowers were many, but +among them were none that pleased her. She came away therefore without a +touch of colour upon her white attire, yet seeming to need none, the +bloom upon her cheek was so clear, the dusk of her hair so rich. + +"Isn't she fascinating?" said Winifred Chester in the ear of John Leaver, +as Charlotte came in. "I never saw a girl who seemed so radiantly well +and happy, with so little to make her so. I think she and Madam Chase +must be very poor, all the nice things they have seem so old, and the new +things so very simple. Ellen says the family was a very fine one." + +"Very fine," he agreed. His eyes were upon Charlotte as she greeted her +hosts. He answered Winifred's further comments absently. He bowed gravely +in response to Charlotte's recognition of him, then turned and talked +with the pretty girl whom Ellen had asked him to take in to dinner. + +At the table Miss Ruston and Dr. Leaver found themselves nearly opposite. +Leaver talked conscientiously with his companion, then devoted himself to +Winifred Chester, upon his other side. Returning to do his duty by Miss +Everett, he found her eager to discuss those opposite. + +"They say Miss Ruston does the most wonderful photographs," she observed. +"One would know she was devoted to some art, wouldn't one? The way that +frock is cut about her shoulders--only an artist would venture to wear it +like that, without a single touch of colour. Every other woman I know +would have put on a string of gold beads or pearls or at least a pendant +of some sort." + +For a moment Leaver forgot to answer. He had not looked at Charlotte +since he had first taken his seat. Now, with Miss Everett calling +his attention to her, and everybody else, including the subject of +their interest, absorbed in their own affairs, he let his eyes rest +lingeringly upon her. He had had only brief glimpses of her since she +had come to town, and had seen her at such times always in the summer +street-or-garden attire which she constantly wore. Now he saw her under +conditions which vividly brought back to him other scenes. The white lace +gown she wore, with its peculiar cut, like the spreading of flower petals +about the beautifully modeled shoulders--it struck him as familiar. Had +she worn any jewels upon that white neck when he had seen her? He thought +not. He had never known her to wear ornament of any sort, he was sure. +She needed none, he was equally sure of that. As she sat, with her head +turned toward Arthur Chester, who was expounding with great elaboration +something which called for maps upon the tablecloth drawn with a rapidly +moving finger, she was showing to the observers across the table a face +and head in profile, an outline which had been burned into the memory of +the man who now regarded it and forgot to make answer. + +Miss Everett glanced at him curiously. Then she murmured: "Don't you +think the leaving off of all ornaments is sometimes just as much a +coquetry as the wearing of them would be? It certainly challenges notice +even more, doesn't it?" + +"It depends on whether one happens to possess them, I should say," Leaver +returned. + +"About their drawing attention, or their absence drawing it? I suppose +so. But when you don't know which it is, but judge by the richness of the +gown that the wearer can afford them--" + +"I'm no judge of the richness of a gown." + +"I am, then. That is the most wonderful lace--anybody can see--at least +any woman." + +"Tell me, Miss Everett,"--Leaver made a determined effort to get away +from the personal aspect of the subject,--"why does a woman love jewels? +For their own sake, or because of their power to adorn her--if they do +adorn her?" + +The young woman plunged animatedly into a discussion of the topic as he +presented it. She was wearing certain striking ornaments of pearl and +turquoise, which undoubtedly became her fair colouring whether they +enhanced her beauty or not. It was while this discussion was in progress, +Leaver forcing himself to attend sufficiently to make intelligent +replies, that Charlotte Ruston suddenly turned and looked at him. He +looked straight back at her, a peculiar intentness growing in his +deep-set eyes. + +He did not withdraw his gaze until she had turned away again, and the +encounter had been but for the briefest space, yet when it was over John +Leaver's colour had changed a little. For the moment it was as if nobody +else had been in the room--he was only dully conscious that upon his +other side Winifred Chester was addressing him, and that he must make +reply. + +When the company which had spent the sultry August evening upon the porch +in the semi-darkness was near to breaking up, Leaver came to Charlotte +and took his place beside her. When she left the house he was with her, +and the two crossed the street and went in at the hedge gate together. + +"May I stay a very little while?" he asked. And when she assented he +added, "Shall we find the bench in your garden?" + +"Do you know that bench?" she questioned, surprised. + +"I spent many hours upon it before you came, and during the days when I +was not getting about much. I listened to the reading of two books, +lounging there. So it seems like a familiar spot to me." + +"It is my favourite resting place. I am sorry you were driven away by my +coming. You and Miss Mathewson would have been very welcome there, all +the rest of the summer, if I had known." + +"Thank you. But I have passed the invalid stage and am not being treated +as a patient. I read for myself, at present, and tramp the country, +instead of sitting on benches, anywhere. It's a great improvement." + +"I am very glad." + +Charlotte let him lead the way to the retreat under the apple-tree, and +he proved his knowledge of it by stopping now and then to hold aside +hindering branches of shrubbery, and to lift for her a certain heavily +leafed bough which drooped across the path, but which would hardly have +been discerned in the summer starlight by one not familiar with its +position. + +"It would be a pity to tear that gown," he remarked, as the last barrier +was passed. "It occurred to me, as I looked at you to-night, that it was +one I had seen you wear in Baltimore, last winter. Am I right?" + +"Last winter, and the winter before, and even the winter before that, if +you had known me so long," she answered, with a gay little laugh. "I am +so fond of it I shall not discard it until it can no longer be mended." + +"You are wise. I believe it is hardly the attitude of the modern woman +toward dress of any sort, but it might well be. We never tire of Nature, +though she wears the same costume season after season." + +"Her frocks don't fray at the edges--or when they do she turns them such +gorgeous colours that we don't notice they are getting worn." + +"Aren't there some rough edges on this bench? Please take this end; I +think I recall that it is smoother than the other." + +"Thank you. One good tear, and even Granny's needle couldn't make me +whole again." + +He bent over to pick up a scarf of silver gauze which had slipped from +her shoulders. He laid it about them, and as he did so she shivered +suddenly, though the air was warm, without a hint of dampness. But she +covered the involuntary movement with a shrug, saying lightly, "A man I +know says he thoroughly believes a woman is colder rather than warmer in +a scarf like this, on the theory that anything with so many holes in it +must create an infinite number of small draughts." + +"He may be right. But I confess, as a physician, I like to cover up +exposed surfaces from the open night air--to a certain extent--even with +an excuse for a protection like this." + +He sat down beside her. The bench was not a long one, and he was nearer +to her than he had yet been to-night. She sat quietly, one hand lying +motionless in her lap. The other hand, down at her side, laid hold of the +edge of the bench and gripped it rather tightly. She began to talk about +the old garden, as it lay before them, its straggling paths and beds of +flowers mere patches of shadow, dark and light. He answered, now and +then, in an absent sort of way, as if his mind were upon something else, +and he only partly heard. She spoke of "Sunny Farm"--the children's +hospital in the country--of Burns and Ellen and Bob--and then, suddenly, +with a sense of the uselessness of trying all by herself to make small +talk under conditions of growing constraint, she fell silent. He let the +silence endure for a little space, then broke it bluntly. + +"I'm glad," he said, in the deep, quiet voice she remembered well, "that +you will give me a chance. What is the use of pretending that I have +brought you here to talk of other people? I have something to say to you, +and you know it. I can't lead up to it by any art, for it has become +merely a fact which it is your right to know. You should have known it +long ago." + +He stopped for a minute. She was absolutely still beside him, except for +the hand that gripped the edge of the bench. That took a fresh hold. + +When he spoke again, his voice, though still quiet, showed tension. + +"Before I saw you the last time, last spring, I meant to ask you to marry +me. When I did see you, something had happened to make that impossible. +It had not only made it impossible, but it made me unable even to +explain. I shall never forget that strange hour I spent with you. You +knew that something was the matter. But I couldn't tell you. I thought +then I never could. Seeing you, as I have to-night, I realized that I +couldn't wait another hour to tell you. But, even now, I don't feel that +I can explain. There's only one thing I am sure of--that I must say this +much: All my seeking of you, last winter, meant the full intent and +purpose to win you, if I could. And--you can never know what it meant to +me to give it up." + +The last words were almost below his breath, but she heard them, heard +the uncontrollable, passionate ache of them. Plainer than the words +themselves this quality in them spoke for him. + +For a moment there was silence between them again. Then he went on: "I +can't ask--I don't ask--a word from you in answer. Neither can I let +myself say more than I am saying. It wouldn't be fair to you, however you +might feel. And I want you to believe this--that not to say more takes +every bit of manhood I have." + +Silence again. Then, from the woman beside him, in the clearest, low +voice, with an inflection of deep sweetness: + +"Thank you, Dr. Leaver." + +Suddenly he turned upon the bench--he had been staring straight before +him. He bent close, looked into her shadowy face for a moment, then +found her hand, where it lay in her lap, lifted it in both his own, and +pressed it, for a long, tense moment, against his lips. She felt the +contact burn against the cool flesh, and it made intelligible all that he +would not allow himself to say, in terms which no woman could mistake. + +Then he sprang up from the bench. + +"Will you walk as far as the house with me?" he asked, gently. "Or shall +I leave you here? It is late: I don't quite like to leave you here +alone." + +"I will go with you," she answered, and, rising, drew her skirts about +her. He stood beside her for a moment, looking down at her white figure, +outlined against the darkness behind them. She heard him take one deep, +slow inspiration, like a swimmer who fills his lungs before plunging into +the water; she heard the quick release of the breath, followed by his +voice, saying, with an effort at naturalness: + +"If I had such a place as this, where I'm staying, I should be tempted to +bring out a blanket and sleep in it to-night." + +"One might do worse," she answered. "These branches have been so long +untrimmed that it takes a heavy shower to dampen the ground beneath." + +They made their way back along the straggling paths, and came to the +cottage, from whose windows streamed the lamplight that waited for +Charlotte. As it fell upon her Leaver looked at her, and stood still. +Pausing, she glanced up at him, and away again. She knew that he was +silently regarding her. Quite without seeing she knew how his face +looked, the fine face with the eyes which seemed to see so much, the firm +yet sensitive mouth, the whole virile personality held in a powerful +restraint. + +Then he opened the door for her, and she passed him. She looked back at +him from the threshold. + +"Good-night," she said, and smiled. + +"Good-night," he answered, and gave back the smile. Then he went quickly +down the path and away. + +Ten minutes afterward she put out the light in the front room, and stole +out of the door, leaving it open behind her. Still in the white gown of +the evening, but with a long, dark cloak flung over it, she went swiftly +back over the paths to the garden bench. Arrived there she sat down upon +it, where she had sat before, but not as she had been. Instead, she +turned and laid her arm along the low back of the bench, and her head +upon it, and remained motionless in that position for a long time. Her +eyes were wide, in the darkness, and her lips were pressed tight +together, and once, just once, a smothered, struggling breath escaped +her. But, finally, she sat up, threw up her head, lifted both arms above +it, the hands clenched tight. + +"Charlotte Ruston," she whispered fiercely, "you have to be strong--and +strong--and stronger yet! You have to be! _You have to be!_" + +Then she rose quickly to her feet, with a motion not unlike that with +which John Leaver had sprung to his an hour before. It was a movement +which meant that emotion must yield to action. She went swiftly back to +the house, in at the door, up the straight, high stairs to her room. + +As she lighted her candle a voice spoke from Madam Chase's room, its door +open into her own. + +"Charlotte?" + +"Yes, Granny?" + +The girl went in, taking the candle, which she set upon the +dressing-table. She bent over the bed, putting her lips close to +the old lady's ear. + +"Can't you sleep, dear?" she asked. + +"Not until you are in, child. Why are you so late?" + +"It's not late, Granny. You know I went to Dr. Burns's to dinner." + +"It's very late," repeated the delicate old voice, slightly querulous, +because of its owner's failure to hear the explanation. "Much too late +for a girl like you. You should have had your beauty sleep long ago." + +Charlotte smiled, feeling as if her twenty-six years had added another +ten to themselves since morning. She patted the soft cheek on the pillow, +and tenderly adjusted the gossamer nightcap which, after the fashion of +its wearer's youth, kept the white locks snugly in order during the +sleeping hours. + +"I'm here now, Granny. Please go to sleep right away. Or--would you like +a glass of milk first?" + +"What say?" + +"Milk, dear,--hot milk?" + +"Yes, yes, it will put me to sleep. Quite hot, not lukewarm." + +Charlotte went down the steep stairs again, heated the milk, and brought +it back. When it had been taken she kissed the small face, drew the linen +sheet smooth again, and went away with the candle. In her own room she +presently lay down upon her cot, rejoicing that the old lady could not +hear its creaking. + +Toward morning she fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A CHALLENGE + + +"Miss Ruston!" + +"Yes?" The answer came through the door of the dark-room. "I can't come +out for four minutes. Can you give me the message through a closed door?" + +"Certainly," responded Amy Mathewson, standing outside. She was dressed +for motor travel and her eyes were full of anticipation. "Mr. Macauley +is taking some of us out to meet Dr. Burns at Sunny Farm. The Doctor has +telephoned from there that he would be very glad if you could come with +us, bring your camera, and take some photographs of a patient for him." + +"Delighted--if I can arrange for Granny," Charlotte called back. + +"Mrs. Burns's Cynthia will stay with her." + +"How soon must we start?" + +"As soon as you can be ready." + +"Give me ten minutes, and I'll be there." + +The big brown car was waiting outside the hedge gate when, nearly as good +as her word, Charlotte ran down the path. She had pulled a long linen +coat over her blue morning dress, and a veil floated over her arm. + +"Dear me, you all look so correct in your bonnets and caps! Must I tie up +my head, or may I leave off the veil until my hair gets to looking wild?" + +"It never looked wild yet that I can recall, so jump in and go as you +please. It's too hot for caps, and I'll keep you company," responded +Macauley, from the front seat. His wife, Martha, sat beside him, swathed +in brown from head to foot. Martha had acquired a motoring costume which +she considered matched the car and was particularly smart besides, and +she seldom left off any detail, no matter how warm the day. Martha looked +around as Charlotte took her place beside Miss Mathewson on the broad +rear seat. The two swinging seats which equipped the car to carry seven +passengers were occupied by Bobby Burns and young Tom Macauley. + +"People who have hair like Miss Ruston can go bareheaded where the rest +of us have to tie ourselves together to keep from blowing away," observed +Martha. + +Her husband laughed. "I never heard you own quite so frankly before that +parts of you were detachable," said he. + +"They're not!" cried Martha, indignantly. "But Miss Ruston's hair is that +crisp, half curly sort that stays just where you put it, and mine is so +straight and fine that it gets stringy. It makes all the difference in +the world." + +The car moved off. After a minute it turned a corner and came to a +standstill before a house. Macauley sounded a penetrating horn, and after +a minute the door opened and John Leaver came out. + +"Come on, Doctor," called Macauley. "R.P. has been telephoning in, in the +usual fever of haste, to have us get out there. It seems the place is in +order and two patients have arrived. He wants a doctor, nurse, and +photographer on the job at once. Find a place on the back seat, there?" + +Leaver came quickly down the walk. He looked like a well man now, whether +he felt like a well one or not. He had gained in weight, his face had +lost its worn look, his eyes were no longer encompassed by shadows. The +sun was in his eyes as he opened the rear door and prepared to take the +one seat left in the car, that beside Charlotte Ruston, who had moved to +one side as she saw what was about to happen. Her shoulder pressed close +against that of Miss Mathewson, she left so large a space for the +newcomer. + +After the first exchange of small talk, it was a silent drive. Macauley +was making haste to obey the summons he had received, and the rush of air +past those in the car with him was not conducive to frequent speech. Soon +after they were off Charlotte drew her big white veil over her head and +face, and was lost to view beneath its protecting expanse. One of the +veil's fluttering ends persisted in blowing across Leaver's breast, quite +unnoticed by its owner, whose head did not often turn that way. The man +did not put it aside, but after a time he took hold of it and kept it in +his hand, secure from the domineering breeze. + +"Here we are! Behold Sunny Farm, the dream of Doctor and Mrs. Red Pepper, +given tangible shape. Not a bad-looking old rambling place, is it?" + +Macauley brought his car to rest beside the long green roadster already +there. Its occupants jumped out and strolled up the slope toward the +white farmhouse, across whose front and wing stretched long porches, on +one of which stood a steamer chair and a white iron bed, each holding a +small form. Upon the step sat Ellen Burns and a nurse in a white uniform; +by the bed stood Burns himself. + +Miss Mathewson's observant eyes were taking veiled note of her recent +charge as he went up the steps and approached the bed. The little patient +upon it had not lifted his head, as had the child in the chair, to see +who was at hand. + +"Oh, the little pitiful face!" breathed Charlotte Ruston in Amy's ear, as +she looked down into a pair of great black eyes, set in hollows so deep +that they seemed the chiseling of merciless pain. + +"This is Jamie Ferguson," said Burns, with his hand on the boy's head. +"He is very happy to be here in the sunshine, so you are not to pity him. +Come here, Bob, and tell Jamie you will play with him when he is +stronger. He knows wonderful things, does Jamie. And this is Patsy Kelly, +in the chair." + +There was a pleasant little scene now enacted upon the porch, in which +Bob and Tom were introduced to the small patients, and everybody looked +on while shy advances were made by the well children, to be received with +timid gravity by the sick ones. Through it all Red Pepper Burns was +furtively observing the demeanour of Dr. John Leaver. + +He had hardly taken his eyes from Jamie Ferguson. Into his face had come +a look his friend had not seen there since he had been with him, the look +of the expert professional man who sees before him a case which interests +him. He stood and studied the child without speaking while Bob and Tom +remained, and when the small boys, too full of activity to stay +contentedly with other boys who could not play, were off to explore +the place, Leaver drew up a chair and sat down beside the bed. + +Burns glanced at his wife, and gave a significant nod of his head toward +the interior of the house. Ellen rose. + +"Come Martha, and Charlotte," said she, "and let me show you over the +rooms. I'm so proud of the progress we have made in the fortnight since +the house was vacated for us." + +She led them inside. Amy Mathewson went over to the chair and Patsy +Kelly, turning her back upon the pair by the bed. + +"When did you come, Patsy?" she asked. + +"We come the morn," said Patsy, a pale little fellow of nine, with a +shock of hair so red that beside it that of Red Pepper Burns would have +looked a subdued chestnut. "In the ambilunce we come. I liked the ride, +but Jamie didn't. He was scared of bein' moved." + +"Jamie is not so well as you. How fine it is that you can lie in this +chair and have your head up. You can see all about. Isn't it beautiful +here?" + +"It is. I'm glad I come. He said I'd be glad, but I didn't believe him. I +didn't know," said Patsy Kelly, with a sigh of satisfaction. "I had mate +and pitaty for breakfast the morn," he added, and rapture shone out of +his eyes. + +By the side of Jamie Ferguson Dr. John Leaver was telling a story. He was +apparently telling it to Dr. Burns, who listened with great interest, but +at the same time shy Jamie Ferguson was listening too. There were curious +points in the story when the narrator turned to the boy in the bed and +inquired, smiling: "Could you do that, Jamie?" to which questions Jamie +usually replied in the negative. They were mostly questions concerning +backs and legs and hips, and the boy in the story seemed to find +difficulty in using his, too, which made Jamie feel a strong interest in +him. Altogether it was a fascinating tale. When it was over the two men +walked away together down the slope, and between them passed other +questions and answers, of a sort which Jamie could not have understood. + +Down by the gate Leaver came to a pause, nodding his head in a thoughtful +way. "You are quite right, I believe, both in your conclusions and in +your plan for operation. I should go ahead without further delay than is +necessary to get him into a bit better condition." + +"I thought you would agree with me," Burns replied. "I'm gratified that +you do. But I'm not going to operate. I've got a better man: Leaver, of +Baltimore." + +The other turned quickly. A strange look swept over his face. + +"I told you my decision about that," he said. + +"I know you did. But I told you some time ago about this case, and warned +you that it was your case. I haven't changed my mind." + +Leaver shook his head. "I haven't changed mine, either. But I didn't know +this was the case you meant. If I had I shouldn't have gone to examining +it without an invitation." + +"You had an invitation. That was what I got you out here this morning +for. I didn't bring you myself because I didn't want you steeling +yourself against looking into it, as you would if I had told you about it +on the way out. My plan worked all right. The minute you saw the child +your instincts and training got the better of your caution. That's what +they'll continue to do if you give them a chance. See here, you don't +mean to quit your profession and take to carpentry, do you?" + +"I expect to practise medicine," Leaver said, and there was a queer +setting of his lips as he said it. + +"Medicine! You? Jack, you couldn't do it." + +"Couldn't I? I don't know that I could." He drew a half shuddering +breath. "But I can try, somewhere, if not in Baltimore." + +"I'd like to thrash you!" cried Red Pepper Burns, and he looked it. +"Standing there the picture of a healthy man and telling me you're going +to take to doling out pills and writing prescriptions.... See here. We've +put in a little surgery up there in the north wing, it's a peach of a +place. Come and see it." + +He led the way rapidly back up to the house, in at the door and up the +stairs. At the end of a long corridor he threw open the door of a small +room, whose whole northern side was of glass. Its equipment was as +complete as could be asked by the most exacting of operating surgeons. + +"Good!" Leaver cried, quite forgetting himself for the moment. "I had no +idea you meant to carry things so far as this. Fine!" + +"Isn't it? Could you have a better place to try your hand again? Nobody +looking on but Amy Mathewson, Miss Dodge--whom you met downstairs--and +Dr. Buller--for the anesthetic. Buller's the best anesthetizer in the +state and a splendid fellow besides. Also my humble self, ready to be +your right-hand man. I promise you this,--if the least thing goes +wrong--_and you ask it_--I'll take your place without a word. Jack, the +case is one that needs you. I've never done this operation: you have. +You've written a monograph on it. It's up to you, John Leaver. I don't +dare you to do it, _I dare you not to do it_!" + +For the first time, in response to his arguments on this subject, Burns +got no answer but silence. But his friend's face was slowly flushing a +deep, angry red. At this sight Burns rejoiced. His theory had been that +if he could wake something in Leaver besides deep depression and sad +negation he had a chance to influence him. He believed thoroughly that if +he could force the distinguished young surgeon through one successful +operation confidence would return like an incoming tide. He had hoped +that the pathetic sight of the little malformed body of Jamie Ferguson +would arouse the passion for salvage which lies in the breast of every +man who practises the great profession; he saw that thus far his plan had +succeeded. Now to accomplish the rest. + +"Suppose," said Leaver, turning slowly toward the other man, "I agree to +stand beside you and direct the operation?" + +It was Burns's turn to colour angrily, his quick temper leaping to fire +in an instant. + +"Not _much_! Let every tub stand on its own bottom! Either I do the +job or I don't do it; but I don't take the part of an apprentice. I'll +agree to play second fiddle to you, with you playing first. But I'll +be--condemned--if I'll play first, with a coach at my elbow. Take that +and be hanged to you!" + +He walked over to the open window, threw back the screen and put his +head out, as if he needed air to breathe. Leaver was at his side in an +instant. + +"I beg your pardon, my dear fellow, I do sincerely. It was an unworthy +suggestion, and I don't blame you for resenting it. Nobody needs help +less than you. You could do the operation brilliantly. That's why there's +no need in the world to force me into the situation--no need--" + +Burns wheeled. "There _is_ need! There's need for you--to save your soul +alive. You've been no coward so far--your overworked nerves played you a +trick and you've had to recover. But you have recovered, you are fit to +work again. _If you don't do this thing you'll be a coward forever!_" + +It bit deep, as he had known it would. If he had struck a knife into his +friend's heart he could not have caused so sharp a hurt. Leaver turned +white under this surgery of speech, and for an instant he looked as if he +would have sprung at Burns's throat. There followed sixty silent seconds +while both men stood like statues. But the merciless judgment had turned +the scale. With a control of himself which struck Burns, as he recalled +it afterward, as marvellous, Leaver answered evenly: "You shall not have +the chance to say that again. I will operate when you think best." + +"Thank God!" said Red Pepper Burns, under his breath. + +The two walked out of the little white room, with its austere and +absolute cleanliness, without another word concerning that which was to +come. Burns took his friend over the house, and Leaver looked into room +after room, approving, commending, even suggesting, quite as if nothing +had happened. And yet, after all, not quite as if nothing had happened. +He was not the same man who had come out to Sunny Farm an hour before. +Burns knew, as well as if he could have seen into Leaver's mind, the +conflict that was going on there. The thing was settled, he would not +retreat, yet there was still a fight to be fought--the biggest fight of +his life. On its issue was to depend the success or failure of the coming +test. Burns's warm heart would have led him to speak sympathetically and +encouragingly of the issue to be met; his understanding of the crisis it +precipitated kept him mute. Whatever help he was now to give his friend +must be given, not through speech but through silence, and by that +subtler means of communication between spirit and spirit which cannot be +analyzed or understood, but which may be more real than anything in life. + +They went downstairs, presently, and rejoined the party. Miss Ruston and +Miss Mathewson, Mr. James Macauley and his son Tom, with Bobby Burns, +were engaged in a spirited game of "puss in a corner," for the benefit of +Patsy Kelly, who lay looking on from his chair with sparkling, excited +eyes. Beside Jamie Ferguson, who could not see, Mrs. Burns sat, +describing to him the game and interpreting the shouts of laughter which +reached his ears as he lay, too flat upon his back to see what was +happening twenty feet away. + +Ellen looked up, as her husband approached, and something in his face +made her regard him intently. He smiled at her, his hazel eyes dark as +they often were when something had stirred him deeply, and she guessed +enough of the meaning of this aspect to keep her from looking at Dr. +Leaver until he had been for some time upon the porch. + +When she did observe him, he was standing, leaning against a pillar +and looking at the wan little face below her, from a point at which +Jamie could not know of his scrutiny. His back was turned upon the +game upon the grass, though the others were watching it. When it ended +Burns called Charlotte Ruston to the taking of the photographs he +wanted--snapshots of the two little patients carried into the full +sunlight. This being quickly accomplished, he announced his own immediate +departure. + +"Will you go back with me in the Imp, or at your leisure with the crowd +in the car?" Burns asked Leaver, in an undertone. "My wife will be glad +to go in either car; she suggested your taking your choice." + +"If the Macauleys will not misunderstand, I should prefer to go with +you," Leaver replied. + +"They won't. Two medicine-men are supposed always to wish for a chance to +hobnob, and we'll put it on that score. I really want to consult you +about Patsy's case." + +"Not going with us? Willing to forsake three fair ladies for one +red-headed fiend, just because you know he's going to give us his dust? +I like that!" cried Macauley, who could be trusted never to make things +easy for his friends. + +"Abuse him as you like. He's off with me at my request," called Burns, +pulling out into the road and turning with a sweep. + +Martha Macauley looked after the Green Imp's rapidly lessening shape +through the dust-cloud which it left behind. "I never thought till to-day +that Dr. Leaver seemed the least bit like a noted surgeon," said she, as +they waited for Macauley to get his car underway. "I could never imagine +his acting like Red, and rushing enthusiastically from bedside to +operating-room, pushing everything out of his way to make time to cut +somebody to pieces and sew him up again, for his ultimate good. But +to-day somehow, he seemed more--what would you call it--professional?" + +"That's the word," her husband agreed. "It's the word they juggle with. +If a thing's 'professional,' it's all right. If it's not, it may as well +be condemned to outer darkness at once." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A CRISIS + + +"Little wife?" + +"Yes, Redfield Pepper--" + +"I'm as nervous as a cat up a tree with a couple of dogs at the foot!" + +"Why, Red, I never heard you talk of being nervous! What does it mean?" + +"An operation to-morrow." + +"But you never are 'nervous,' dear." + +"I am now." + +"Is it such a critical one?" + +"The most critical I ever faced." + +Ellen looked at her husband, or tried to look, for they were moving +slowly along the street, at a late hour, Burns having suggested a short +walk before bedtime. It was quite dark, and Ellen could judge only by her +husband's voice that he spoke with entire soberness. + +"Can you tell me anything about it?" she suggested, knowing that relief +from tension sometimes comes with speech. Any confession of nervousness +from Red Pepper Burns seemed to her most extraordinary. She knew that he +often worked under tremendous tension, but he had never before admitted +shakiness of nerve. + +"Not much, if anything at all. It's a particularly private affair, for +the present. It's a queer operation, too. I may not handle a knife, tie +an artery, or stitch up a wound--may do less than I ever did in my life +on such an occasion, yet--I'll be hanged if I'm not feeling as owly about +it as if it were the first time I ever expected to see blood." + +Ellen put her hand on his arm, slipped it into the curve, and kept it +there, while he held it pressed close against him. "Red, have you been +working too hard lately?" she asked. + +"Not a bit. I'm fit as a fiddler. Don't worry, love. I've no business +to talk riddles to you, of all people. But for a peculiar reason I'm +horribly anxious about the outcome of to-morrow's experiment, and had +to work it off somehow. Just promise me that when you say your prayers +to-night you'll ask the good God not to let me be mistaken in forcing a +situation I may not be able to control." + +"I will," Ellen promised, with all her heart, for she saw that, whatever +the crisis might be, it was one to which her usually daring husband was +looking forward with most uncharacteristic dread. + +She was conscious that Burns spent a restless night. At daybreak he was +up and out of the house. Before he went, however, he bent over her and +kissed her with great tenderness, murmuring, "A prayer or two more, +darling, won't hurt anything, when you are awake enough. I've particular +faith in your petitions." + +She held him with both arms. + +"Don't worry, Red. It isn't like you. You will succeed, if it is to be." + +"It's got to be," he said between his teeth, as he left her. + +He swallowed a cup of Cynthia's hot coffee--bespoken the night before, +as on many similar occasions--and ran out to his car just as the slow +September sunrise broke into the eastern sky. In two minutes more he +was off in the Imp, flying out the road to Sunny Farm. + +Arrived there he astonished Miss Dodge, the nurse in charge, who was not +accustomed to Dr. Burns's ways. He had left the small patient, Jamie +Ferguson, the night before, entirely satisfied with his condition for +undergoing the operation set for nine o'clock this morning. He now went +once more painstakingly over every detail of the preparation he had +ordered, making sure for himself that nothing had been omitted. + +Then he called for Miss Mathewson, who had spent the night at the Farm. +She was to assist Leaver as she was accustomed to assist Burns. He took +her off by herself and addressed her solemnly, more solemnly than he had +ever done. + +"Amy, if you ever had your wits on call, have them this morning. In all +my life I never cared more how things went at a time like this. I care +so much I'd give about all I own to know this minute that the thing would +go through." + +"Why, Dr. Burns," said she, in astonishment, "it should go through. It is +a critical operation, of course, but the boy seems in very fair shape for +it, and Dr. Leaver has done it before. Dr. Leaver is quite well now--" + +"I know, I know. Feel of that!" + +He touched her hand with his own, which was icy cold. She started, and +looked anxiously at him. + +"Doctor, you can't be well! This isn't you--to be so--nervous! Why, think +of all the operations you've done, and never a sign of minding. And this +isn't even your responsibility--it's Dr. Leaver's." + +"That's right, scold me," said he, trying to laugh. "It's what I need. +I'm showing the white feather, a hatful of them. But you're mistaken +about one thing. It _is_ my responsibility, every detail of it. Don't +forget that. If the case goes wrong, it's my fault, not Dr. Leaver's." + +Then he walked away, leaving Miss Mathewson utterly dumbfounded. She +understood perfectly that Dr. John Leaver had suffered a severe breakdown +from overwork, and that this was his first test since his recovery. But +she knew nothing of the peculiar circumstances of his last appearance in +an operating-room, and could therefore have no possible notion of the +crisis this morning's work was to be to him. She did know enough, +however, to be deeply interested in the outcome, and she watched the +Green Imp flying down the road toward home with the sense that when it +returned it would bear two surgeons for whom she must do the best work +of support in her life. + +"Ready, Jack?" + +"Ready." + +John Leaver took the seat beside Burns, giving the outstretched hand a +strong grip. He carried no hand-bag, there was no sign of his profession +about him. He had sent to Baltimore for his own instruments, but they +were waiting for him in the little operating-room at Sunny Farm, having +been through every rite practised by modern surgery. + +The car set off. + +"It's a magnificent morning," said Red Pepper Burns. + +"Ideal." + +"September's the best month in the year, to my fancy." + +"A crisp October rivals it, to my notion." + +"Not bad. There's a touch of frost in the air this morning." + +"Quite a touch." + +The car sped on. The men were silent. His one glance at his friend's face +had showed Burns that Leaver had, apparently, his old quiet command of +himself. But this, though reassuring, he knew could not be trusted as an +absolute indication of control within. For himself, he had never been +so profoundly excited in his life. He found himself wondering how he was +going to stand and look on, unemployed, yet ready, at a sign, to take the +helm. He felt as if that moment, if it should come, would find him as +unnerved as the man he must help. Yet, with all his heart and will, he +was silently assuring himself that all would go well--must go well. He +must not even fear failure, think failure, imagine failure. Strong +confidence on his own part, he fully believed, would be definite, if +intangible, assistance to his friend.... + +Rounding a curve in the road, the white outlines of Sunny Farm house +stood out clearly against the background of near green fields, and +distant purple hills. + +"House gets the sun in great shape mornings," observed Burns. + +"The location couldn't be better," responded Leaver's quiet voice. + +The car swung into the yard. The two men got out, crossed the sward, and +stood upon the porch. Miss Mathewson met them at the door, her face +bright, her eyes clear, only a little flush on either cheek betraying +to Burns that she shared his tension. + +"Jamie seems in the best of condition," said she. + +"That's good--that's good," Burns answered, as if he had not made sure of +the fact for himself within the hour. + +"I will go in and see him a minute," Leaver said, and disappeared into +Jamie Ferguson's room. + +Outside Burns walked up and down the corridor, waiting, in a restlessness +upon which he suddenly laid a stern decree. He stopped short and forced +himself to stand still. + +"You idiot," he savagely addressed himself, "you act like a fool medical +student detailed to give an anesthetic at a noted surgeon's clinic for +the first time. Cut it, and behave yourself." + +After which he was guilty of no more outward perturbation, and, +naturally, of somewhat less inner turmoil. + +"Satisfied?" he asked of Leaver, as the other came out of Jamie's room. + +Leaver nodded. "Rather better than I had hoped. He's a plucky little +chap." + +"You're right, he is." + +The two went up to the dressing-room. Half an hour later, clad in +white from head to foot, arms bare and gleaming, hands gloved, +allowing assistants to open and close doors for them lest the slightest +contamination affect their rigid cleanliness, they came into the +operating-room. For the moment they were left alone there, while the +nurses went to summon the bearer of the little patient. It was the +moment Burns had dreaded, the stillness before action which most tries +the spirit at any crisis. + +He could not help giving one quick glance at his friend before he turned +away to look out of the window with eyes which saw nothing outside it. +In that instant's glance he thought the old Leaver stood before him, +cool, collected, armed to the teeth, as it were, for the fight, and +looking forward to it with eagerness. There had been possibly a slight +pallor upon his face, as Miss Dodge had adjusted his mask of gauze, but, +as Burns recalled it, this was a common matter with many surgeons, and it +might easily have been characteristic of Leaver himself, even though +Burns had not remembered it. His own heart was thumping heavily in his +breast, as it had never thumped when he had been the chief actor in the +coming scene. + +"Lord, make him go through all right," he was praying, almost +unconsciously, while he eyed the September landscape unseeingly, and +listened for the sound of the stretcher bearers.... + +As they came in at the door Burns turned, and saw, or thought he saw, +Leaver draw one deep, long breath. Then, in a minute or so, the fight was +on. He remembered, of old, that there was never much delay after the +distinguished surgeon saw his patient before him, had assured himself +that all was well with the working of the anesthetic, and had taken +up his first instrument.... + +Swift and sure moved Leaver's hands, obeying the swift, sure working of +his brain. There was not a moment's indecision. More than one moment of +deliberation there was, but Burns, watching, knew as well as if his +friend had been a part of himself that the brief pauses in his work were +a part of the work itself, and meant that as his task unfolded before him +he stopped to weigh feasible courses, choosing with unerring judgment the +better of two possible alternatives, and proceeding with the confidence +essential to the unfaltering touch. As Burns beheld the process pass the +point of greatest danger and approach conclusion, he felt somewhat as a +man may who, unable to help, watches a swimmer breasting tremendous seas, +and sees him win past the last smother of breakers and make his way into +calmer waters. He was conscious that he himself had been breathing +shallowly as he watched, and now drew several deep inspirations +of relief. + +"By George, that was the gamest thing I ever saw," thought Burns, +exultingly. "He hasn't shown the slightest sign of flinching. And Amy +Mathewson--she's played up to every move like a little second brain of +his." + +He looked at the small clock on a shelf of the surgery, and his head +swam. "He's outdone himself," he nearly cried aloud. "This will stand +beside anything he's ever done. If he'd been slower than usual it would +have been only natural, after this interval, but he's been faster. Oh, +but I'm glad--glad!" + +The event was over. Both Leaver and Burns, no longer under the necessity +of avoiding contact with things unsterilized, felt the small patient's +pulse and nodded at each other. The assistants bore Jamie Ferguson's +little inert body away, Miss Dodge attending. + +Dr. Leaver turned to Miss Mathewson. He drew off the masking gauze from +his head, showing a flushed, moist face and eyes a little bloodshot. But +his voice was as quiet as ever as he said: + +"I've never had finer assistance from any one, Miss Mathewson. If you had +been trained to work opposite me you couldn't have done better." + +"You work much like Dr. Burns," she said, modestly. "That made it easy." + +Burns burst into a smothered laugh. "That's the biggest compliment I've +had for a good while," said he. + +As they dressed, neither man said much. But when coats were on, and the +two were ready to go to Jamie's room, they turned each to the other. + +"Well, old man?" Burns was smiling like the sunshine itself into his +friend's eyes. "I think I never was so happy in my life." + +"I know you're happy," said the other man. "I don't believe I'll trust +myself yet to tell you what I am." + +"Don't try. We won't talk it over just yet. But I've got to say this, +Jack: You never did a more masterly job in your life." + +Leaver smiled--and shivered. "I'm glad it's over," said he. + +They went down to Jamie's room, and there, on either side of the high +hospital cot, watched consciousness returning. With consciousness +presently came pain. + +"I'm going to stay with him," Leaver announced, by and by. Jamie's +little, wasted hand was fast in his, Jamie's eyes, when they rested +anywhere with intelligence, rested on his face--a face tender and +pitiful. + +"Good for you. I shall feel easier about him if you do," and Burns went +away with the feeling that this course would be as good for the surgeon +as for the patient. + +He stopped in the lower hall to telephone Ellen. + +"All safely over, dear," he said. "The patient doing well so far, and no +reason why he shouldn't continue, as far as we can see." + +"Oh, I'm so glad, Red," came back the joyous reply, and Burns responded: + +"That goes without saying, partner. I'll tell you a lot more about it, +now, when I get back." + +The Green Imp went back at a furious pace. Half-way home, however, as it +neared a figure walking by the roadside, it suddenly slowed down. + +"Will you ride home, Miss Photographer?" Burns called. "Or do you prefer +trudging all the way back with that camera and tripod?" + +"I'm delighted to ride, Dr. Burns," replied Charlotte Ruston. +"Captivating roadside views enticed me much farther than I intended, +and the camera weighs twice what it did when I started." + +"Jump in, then, and let me give you a piece of good news I'm bursting +with," and Burns held out his hand for the camera. "You're getting a +beautiful sunburn on that right cheek," he commented. + +"I'll burn the left to match it, if you won't drive too fast. You'll have +to go a little slower while you talk. I've noticed you're always silent +when you're scorching along the road." + +"So I am, I believe. Well, I'm not going to be silent now. I've just come +from seeing Jamie Ferguson put on the road to future health and +happiness, the good Lord willing--and I've a notion He is." + +"Jamie--the little cripple who lies on his back?" + +"The same. He'll lie on his back some time longer and then, I think, +he'll get up." + +"You operated on him to-day? How glad I am!" + +"No, I didn't operate. It took a better man than I. I've never done +this particular stunt, and Jamie was not a patient for experiment. Jack +Leaver did the trick, and a finished trick it was, too. I'm so full of +enthusiasm over his performance that I'm bursting with it, as I warned +you." + +Charlotte Ruston had turned suddenly to face him. As he looked at her, +with this announcement, he had a view of lovely, startled eyes. + +"What's the matter?" he asked, wondering. He had to look ahead at the +road, but he cut down on the Imp's speed, so that he could spare a glance +at his companion again. "You look as if I'd given you bad news instead of +good." + +"Oh, no!--oh, no!" she said, in odd, short breaths. "It's +great--wonderful! Poor little fellow! I'm very glad. You said--Dr. +Leaver did it? I was simply--surprised." + +"Did it brilliantly. But there's no occasion for surprise about that. +Having been in Baltimore as much as you have, you must know his position +there. There's nobody with a bigger reputation." + +"But I thought he had been--ill?" + +"Tired out. Small wonder, at the pace he was going--the working pace, I +mean. He never let up on himself. I got him here to rest up. He would +have been off long ago if I would have given him leave, but I had his +promise to keep away from work till he was thoroughly fit for it, so I've +made the most of my chance. I shall never get another. If I know him +he'll be back in his office before the week ends. Once give a chap like +him a taste of work after idleness, and there's no use trying to hold +him." + +"You think him fully fit, now?" + +"Never so fit in his life, if I'm any judge. I've seen him at work many +a time, and I never saw finer methods than his to-day, his own or any +man's--and I've watched some pretty smooth things. By the way, I +understand you had met Dr. Leaver before you met him here?" + +"Yes, I had met him." + +Burns was not possessed of more than the ordinary amount of curiosity +concerning other people's affairs, but he was accustomed to observe human +nature and note its signs, and it struck him now rather suddenly that +both John Leaver and Charlotte Ruston had seemed rather more than +necessarily non-committal concerning an acquaintance which both admitted. +He saw no reason why he should not ask a question or two. Asking +questions was a part of his profession. + +"I hope you've managed to coax him before your camera. He's looking so +well now, I'd like a picture of him before he goes back and works himself +down again." + +"You might suggest it to him," said Miss Ruston. She was looking straight +ahead. She wore a hat of white linen, of a picturesque shape, such as are +in vogue in the country in warm weather, and it drooped more or less +about her face. Burns could not see her eyes when she looked forward, +but he could see her mouth. It was an expressive mouth, and it looked +particularly expressive just now. The trouble was that he could not tell +just what it expressed. + +"I'll do it, this afternoon, and keep it as a reminder of a patient of +whom I think a heap. No, I can't do it this afternoon, either, for he +won't leave Jamie till he can leave him comfortably over the first stage. +But by to-morrow afternoon, perhaps. We'll have to catch him on the fly, +for I'm confident he'll be off the minute the youngster is out of danger. +Well, I hope you know my friend well enough to appreciate that he's about +the finest there is anywhere?" + +"I'm beginning to know _you_ well enough, Dr. Burns, to see that you care +more to have your friends appreciated than to win praise yourself." + +"No, no--oh, Cesar, no! I've not reached such a sublime height of +altruism as that. To tell you the honest truth--which is supposed to be +good for the soul--I'm horribly envious of Jack Leaver for having done +that stunt this morning." + +"Envious? Of course you are. At the same time would you have taken it +away from him and have done it yourself, if you had had the chance?" + +"Trust a woman to confront a man with the unthinkable, and then expect +him to take credit for not having been guilty of it! Would I have +snatched a juicy bone away from a starving lion? That's what Leaver has +been all these months. It's what any man gets to be when his job is taken +away from him and he doesn't know when he will get another. No--at the +same time that I'm envious I'm genuinely happy that the lion got his +bone. He needed it. It's going to make a well lion of him; he is one now. +You're glad, too, aren't you?" + +He gave her one of his quick, discerning glances. + +"Of course I am." She spoke quite heartily enough to satisfy him. + +"Good! Then, if I can wheedle him before the camera, you'll be interested +in making a picture of him that Ellen and I shall want to frame and look +at every day?" + +"I will give you my amateur's best, certainly, Dr. Burns." + +"Prunes and prisms!" he exclaimed, and broke into a laugh. "I didn't +expect that, from a girl like you. I should have expected you to--well, +never mind. I was on the verge of being impertinent, I'm afraid. Forgive +me, will you, for what I might have said? I'll bring him over at the +first opportunity." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BEFORE THE LENS + + +"Red, this is certainly the unkindest cut of all! I haven't minded your +other prescriptions, but to insist on giving a well man the worst dose +of his experience to take--" + +"Stuff and nonsense! A bad prescription--to go across the street and let +the prettiest photographer in the United States take a sun picture of +you before you leave town? Besides, you owe it to us. I haven't the +smallest kind of a likeness of you. I want a nice big one, to use in my +advertisements. I only wish I had a picture of you 'as you were,' to +put beside the 'as you are.' It would be telling. 'The great Burns's +greatest cure. The celebrated Leaver of Baltimore as he was when Burns +finished with him.' I'll send you a dozen copies of the paper." + +"Please, Dr. Leaver." Mrs. Red Pepper Burns added her plea. "Red really +wants it very much, and so do I. You admit you have no photograph to send +us, and we know quite well you won't go and have one made by Mr. Brant, +as you should. So please let Miss Ruston try her art. We think you owe it +to us." + +Leaver looked at her, and his determined lips relaxed into a smile. +"I admit that argument tells, Mrs. Burns," he said. "I suppose it is +ungracious of me, but, to tell the truth, I've always preferred to be +able to say I had no portraits of myself." + +"Oh, I see," Burns broke in. "We're not considering, Ellen, the urgent +demands for a popular bachelor surgeon's photograph. It's precisely like +Jack not to hand them out to the ladies, or to the newspaper men. All +right, old chap. Give us what we want and we'll have the plate smashed. +Now will you be good? Come, let's go over. If you really mean to leave +to-night this is our last chance." + +The two men crossed the street, in the mellow September sunshine. Burns +preceded Leaver and knocked at the door. + +"Will you take a shot at my friend before he goes?" Burns asked +Charlotte. "He hates standing up to be shot at, but I have him primed +for the ordeal." + +"Must it be a shot, or may I make a portrait?" asked the photographer, in +her professional manner. + +"I want a portrait," replied Burns, promptly. "Your best indoor +work--Brant and the Misses Kendall put on their mettle to rival it." + +While Charlotte was absent, making ready her plates, her visitors waited +in the little living-room and looked about it. Its walls were now +possessed of many interesting photographs of people in the village, +among them several of Burns himself, at which he gazed with a quizzical +expression. + +"She certainly succeeds in making a hero of me, doesn't she?" he +observed. "Red hair turns dusky before the camera, luckily for me. I look +as if there wasn't much of anything I couldn't do, including playing +leading man in a melodrama--eh?" + +"She has caught the personality, cleverly enough," Leaver commented, +looking over Burns's shoulder. + +"I rather think, though," mused Burns, "that I don't look so much as if +there wasn't anything I couldn't do as that I thought there wasn't. +There's a difference, Jack,--eh? Do I really seem as ready to bounce out +of my chair and tackle somebody as that picture makes me look? If I do I +need to have a tourniquet applied somewhere about my neck to stop the +flow of blood to my bumptious head." + +Smiling, Leaver studied the photograph in question. "It's the best I ever +saw of you. It's precisely that air of being all there and ready for +action which is your most endearing characteristic. It is the quality +which made me willing to put myself in your hands last April." + +"Much obliged. But you didn't put yourself in my hands. I laid hands +on you and tied you down. I couldn't do it now, though," and Burns +turned to survey his friend with satisfaction. "You are in elegant trim, +if I do say it who shouldn't, and that's why I want a picture of my +handiwork--and Nature's. It's just possible that Nature deserves some +credit, not to mention Amy Mathewson. By the way, she's another who must +have this portrait of you, my boy." + +"She certainly shall, if she cares for it," admitted Leaver, gravely. +"I'm very willing to remind her how much I owe her, in that and better +ways." + +Charlotte appeared. As she set about her work Bob came racing over the +lawn and in at the open door. + +"Uncle Red, somebody wants you right away quick!" he announced. + +"Just my luck! I wanted to help pose the picture," grumbled Burns, but +went off, the boy on his shoulder shouting with delight. + +The photographer, in the plain dress of dull blue, which, artist-wise, +she had chosen as her professional garb, and in which she herself made a +picture to be observed with enjoyment, moved deftly about the room +arranging her lights and shadows. This done, she turned to her sitter. +When she came in he had been standing before a set of prints upon the +wall, studying them critically, but from the moment of her entrance he +had been watching her, though he held a photograph in his hand with which +he might have seemed to be engaged. + +"Ready?" she asked, smiling. "Or, rather, as ready as you ever will be?" + +"Does my reluctance show as plainly as that? But I am quite ready now to +do your bidding." + +"Sit down in that chair, please. But first--I really can't wait longer to +ask you--how is Jamie Ferguson?" + +"Doing finely." His face lighted with pleasure at the thought. + +"Will he have the full use of his poor little legs?" + +"It is too soon to say positively. We hope quite confidently for that +result. He shows better powers of recuperation than we dared expect." + +"Yesterday," said Charlotte, her hand on a certain bulb out of sight, +"Miss Mathewson told me something Jamie had said. It was the most +extraordinary thing--" + +She related the incident, in which the lad had shyly praised both +Leaver and Burns as seeming to him like big brothers. She told it with +animation, her watchful eyes on her sitter's face. At a certain point, +just before the climax of the story, she gave the bulb a long, slow +pressure; then, ending, she remarked: + +"Now, if you are ready, Dr. Leaver." + +His face immediately grew grave, lost its expression of interested +attention, and set in lines of resignation. She went through a number of +motions and announced that the sitting was over. + +"It wasn't so bad, was it?" she questioned, gayly, as she removed the +plate she had used. "I'm not even going to try again. I've discovered +that it's not always best to repeat an attempt, and when you are pretty +sure you have what you want, it doesn't pay." + +"Thank you for making the operation so nearly painless. I haven't had +a photograph taken since I was a medical student, and I wasn't prepared +for so short a trial. But, even so, I felt the desperateness of the +situation. Doubtless that will show plainly in the final result." + +"Mine is a discreet camera, and doesn't tell all it sees, so it is +possible it may keep your reluctance disguised." + +She took away the plate, left him for a few minutes alone among the +photographs, and returned. + +"It is quite all right, I think, Dr. Leaver," she said, "and the agony is +over. You are leaving town to-day?" + +He rose. "I go to-night. I should have come to say good-bye, in any case, +but, as I go out to Sunny Farm for one more look at the boy, I must be +off. So--I'll make this the good-bye." + +"I hope you'll have the busiest, happiest sort of winter," she said, in +the charming, friendly way which was naturally her own. "So busy and so +happy you'll forget this long, trying time of waiting to be well. Surely, +the rest--and Dr. Burns--have done the work. When you see the portrait +I hope it will show you, better than looking at yourself in any mirror, +what good has been done." + +"Thank you. I know a great change has been wrought, somehow, thanks to a +man who insisted on having his own way when I didn't want to let him. You +expect to stay in this cottage all winter?" + +"All winter, and all spring. Imagine us by a splendid fire in this good +fireplace." + +"I hope it won't smoke on windy days." Leaver looked doubtfully at it. +"It strikes me as better photographic material than as practical defence +against the cold." + +"I shall demonstrate that it is entirely practical. And Granny's little +feet will seldom touch the floor. I have a beautiful foot-warmer for her, +which will keep her snug as comfort." + +"I know you have a strong courage, and will face any discomfort bravely." + +His eyes were dwelling upon her face, noting each outline, as if he meant +to take the memory of it with him. + +"All the courage in the world. What would life be without it? With it, +one can do anything." + +"I believe you." He was silent for a moment, still looking at her +intently. "I wonder," he said then, "if you would be willing to give me +something I very much want. I have no right to ask it, and yet, for the +sake of many pleasant hours we have spent together--that's a tame phrase +for me to use of them, from my standpoint--for their sake would you be +willing to let me have--a picture of yourself? I promise you it shall be +seen by no one but myself. It would mean a good deal to me. Yet, if you +are not entirely willing, I won't ask it." + +He spoke in the quietest, grave way. After a moment's hesitation she +answered him as quietly. + +"I don't know why I should mind, Dr. Leaver, and yet, somehow, I find +I do. Will you believe it's not because I don't want to please you?" + +His face showed, in spite of him, that the denial hurt him. He held out +his hand. + +"You are quite right to be frank. Shall we say good-bye? All kinds of +success to you this winter--and always." + +"Thank you, Dr. Leaver. I give you back the wish." + +They shook hands, the two faces smiling at each other. Then he went +quickly away. Looking after him she saw that he carried his hat in his +hand until he had reached the gate in the hedge. He closed the gate +without a backward glance, and in a minute more was out of sight. + +She went into her dark-room and examined again the plate she had just +developed. Holding it in a certain light, against darkness, she was able +to obtain a faint view of the picture as it would be in the print. +Unquestionably she had made a lifelike and extraordinarily attractive +portrait of a man of distinguished features, caught at a moment when he +had had no notion that the thing was happening. She studied it long and +attentively. + +"It would have been better if I hadn't made it," she said slowly to +herself. "For now I shall have it to look at, and I shall have to look at +it. I'm not strong enough--not strong enough--I don't _want_ to be strong +enough--to forego that!" + + * * * * * + +After nightfall, on that September evening, Leaver took his departure. +Burns was to convey him in the Imp to the city station, because his +train did not stop in the suburban village. For a half-hour before his +going Burns's porch was full, the Macauleys and the Chesters having come +over to do Dr. Leaver honour. They found less chance for talking with him +than they might have done if he had not gone off with Miss Mathewson for +a short walk. + +"Something in it, possibly, do you think?" James Macauley asked, in an +aside, of Mrs. Burns. "Miss Mathewson certainly has developed a lot of +good looks this summer that I, for one, never suspected her of before. +Whether she could interest a man like him I don't know and can't guess. +He's no ordinary man. I didn't like him much at first, but as he's +improved in health he's shown up for what he is, and I can understand +Red's interest in getting him on his feet again. He's certainly on 'em +now. That was a great stunt he did for the little chap, according to Red. +Looks a bit suggestive of interest, his going off with Miss Amy for a +walk, at the last minute, don't you think? Still, I can't imagine any +man's looking in that direction when there's what there is across the +street. He hasn't shown any signs of life, there, has he?" + +"Jimmy, you're a sad gossip. If I knew all these people's affairs, or if +I knew none of them, I shouldn't discuss them with you. But I'm quite +willing to agree with you that both Amy and Charlotte are delightful, +each in her way." + +"Never did get any satisfaction out of you," grumbled James Macauley, +good humouredly. "I didn't suppose women had such a fine sense of honour +when it came to talking over other women." + +"Then it's time you found it out." + +"What's this? Ellen giving you hot shot?" Burns came up, watch in +hand. "It's time those people were back. They've probably fallen into +a discussion of surgical methods, and forgotten the time." + +The missing pair presently appeared. James Macauley looked curiously at +them, but could detect no sign of sentiment about them. Indeed, as they +came up the walk Leaver's voice was heard saying in a most matter-of-fact +way: + +"I'll send you a reprint on that subject. You'll find the German notion +has completely changed--completely. Nothing has happened in a long time +that so marks advance in research along those lines." + +"He's safe," the observer whispered to Mrs. Burns. "No fun to be had out +of that. Unless--he was clever enough to change his line when he came +within earshot. It has been done, you know. I've done it myself, though I +never jumped to German reprints as a safety station. But, you can usually +tell by the woman. She looks as if she had merely been out for a nice +walk. Not a hair out of place, no high colour, no--" + +Ellen moved away from him. She was conscious that she, too, had been +noting signs, but she would not join him further in discussing them. + +"I am not good at farewell speeches," said John Leaver, holding Ellen's +hand in both his own, when he had taken leave of every one else. "I only +hope I can show you, somehow, how I feel about what you and your husband +have done for me. I tried to tell Miss Mathewson something of the same +thing, but she wouldn't have it, which was fortunate, for the words stuck +in my throat." + +Burns took him away. "If they hadn't, you'd have missed your train. We've +got to make time, now." + +As he took his place in the Green Imp Leaver looked across the street at +the cottage back among the trees. Its windows were quite dark, although +the hour was barely ten o'clock. Burns looked over, too. + +"By the way," he said, as they moved away, "why wasn't Miss Ruston among +the crowd assembled to see you off? As an acquaintance of yours in +Baltimore she ought to join in the send-off back to that town." + +"She gave me her good wishes this afternoon, after taking the photograph. +Red, speaking of Baltimore, when are you coming down?" + +"When I get a card saying you are holding a clinic on a subject I'm +anxious to see demonstrated." + +"Do you expect me to go to holding clinics?" + +"Surest thing in the world. You can't keep out of them." + +"Do you suppose the men who saw my breakdown will be eager to welcome me +back?" + +"No question of it. Good Lord, man, you're not the first nor the +ten-thousandth man who has broken down from overwork. Because my axe +becomes dull I'm not going to refuse to use it when it comes back from +the grindstone with a brighter edge than ever on it, am I? Wait till you +see your reception. Some of those fellows have been making a lot of +mistakes in your absence--have been trying to do things too big for them. +They'll be only too glad to turn some of their stunts over to you. And +the big ones, who are your friends, will rejoice at sight of you. Of +course you have rivals; you don't expect them to welcome you with open +arms. They'll be sorry to see you back. Let them be sorry, and be hanged +to them! Go in and show them that they're the ones who need a rest now, +and that you'll take care of their work in their absence." + +Leaver laughed. "Red, there's nobody just like you," he said. + +"That's lucky. Too many explosives aren't safe to have around. I know, +and have known all along, Jack, that it's been like a cat lecturing a +king, my advice to you. A better simile would be the old one of the mouse +gnawing the lion out of the net. If I've done anything for you, that's +what I've done." + +Leaver turned in his seat. "Red," said he--and his voice had a deep ring +in it as he spoke--"you're about the biggest sized mouse I ever saw. I +want to tell you this: Since I've been watching your work up here I've +conceived a tremendous admiration for your standards. There are none +finer, anywhere. I've come to feel that you couldn't do anything bigger +or better in the largest place you could find. Indeed, this, for you, is +the largest place, for you fill it as another man couldn't." + +"The frog, in the marsh, where he lived, was king," Burns quoted, in an +effort at lightness, for he was deeply touched. + +"That's not the sort of king you are. You would be king anywhere. But +you're willing to rule over a kingdom that may look small to some, but +looks big as an empire to me, now that I understand. I've reached this +point: I am almost--and sometime I expect to be entirely--glad that the +thing happened to me which brought me here to you. You have done more for +me than any man ever did. And there's one thing I think I owe to you to +tell you. The greatest thing I've learned from you, though you haven't +said much about it, is faith in the God above us. I'd about let go of +that when I came here. Thanks to you, I've got hold of it again, and I +mean never to let go. No man can afford to let go of that--permanently." + +Burns was silent for a moment, in answer to this most unexpected tribute, +silent because he could find no words. When he did speak there was a +trace of huskiness in his voice. "I'm mighty glad to know that, Jack," he +said simply. + +Then, presently, for they had flown fast over the smooth road, they +were entering the city limits, traversing a crowded thoroughfare, and +approaching the great station on whose tower the illuminated face of the +clock warned them there was little time to spare. Arrived there, every +moment was consumed in a rush for tickets and in checking baggage. +Leaver secured his sleeper reservation with some difficulty, owing to a +misunderstanding in the telegram engaging it, and at the last the two men +had to run for the train. At the gate there was only space for a hasty +grip of two warm hands, a smile of understanding and affection, and an +exchange of arm-wavings at a distance as Leaver reached his car, already +on the verge of moving out. + +As Burns drove away he was feeling a sense of loneliness as unpleasant as +it was unexpected, and found himself longing to get back to a certain +pair of arms whose hold was a panacea for every ache. + +"He thinks he owes it all to me," he was saying by and by, when this +desirable condition had been fulfilled. "But maybe I don't owe something +to him. If the sight of a plucky fight for self-control is a bracing +tonic to any man I've had one in watching him. I never saw a finer +display of will against heavy odds. Another man in the shape he was in +last spring would have gone under." + +"It would be pretty difficult, I think, dear," said his wife, softly +touching his thick locks, as his head lay on her lap, "for any man to go +under with you pulling him out." + +"I didn't pull him out. No man in creation can pull another out, no +matter how strong his effort. The chap that's in the current has got to +do every last ounce of the pulling himself. I don't say God can't help, +for I'm positive He can, but I don't think a man can do much. And it's my +belief that even God helps chiefly through making the man realize that he +can help himself." + +"For which office he sometimes appoints a man as his human instrument, +doesn't he?" + +Burns turned his head and touched his lips to the hand which had laid +itself against his cheek. + +"Perhaps, when he can't find a woman. As a power conductor she is the +only, original, copper wire!" + + * * * * * + +The curiosity which James Macauley had freely expressed as to the +probable degree of friendship between Leaver and Amy Mathewson, developed +by months of close association, was, with him and with others, not +unnatural. But, in Ellen's case, the desire to know just how much the +situation had meant to Amy herself, was a result of her increasingly +warm affection for a young woman of character and personal +attractiveness, mingled with a sense of her own and her husband's +responsibility in bringing together two people who might be expected +to emerge from the encounter not a little affected by it. + +On the morning after John Leaver's departure, Ellen, standing at a +window, found herself watching with more than ordinary intentness the +face of Amy as she came up the walk to the house. Lest Leaver should +realize to what an extent his presence had disturbed the regular routine +of Burns's office, Amy had not been allowed to resume her position +according to the old regime, but had spent only a portion of her time +there, more as a guest of the house might assume certain duties than as a +regularly hired assistant would attend to them. This was, therefore, the +first time, since Leaver had left the confinement in his room, that Amy +Mathewson had appeared in the office in her old role, announced by the +donning of her uniform. + +"I certainly don't see any unhappiness there," said Ellen to herself, +watching Amy as she stooped to pick up an early fallen scarlet leaf upon +the lawn. She fastened it upon the severe whiteness of her attire, then +came on to the house with an alert step, as if she approached work she +looked forward to with zest. Her colour was more vivid than it had been +last June, when first she began to live the outdoor life with her +patient, her eyes were brighter, her whole personality seemed somehow +more significant. Ellen had noted in her these signs of enriched life +many times before during these weeks; but the fact that Amy's aspect, on +the day after the departure of her comrade of the summer, seemed to have +suffered no change, but that her whole air, as she came to her old task, +was that of one who hastens to a congenial appointment, gave to Ellen a +distinct sense of relief from an anxiety she had suffered from time to +time throughout the whole experience. + +Burns had gone away early, summoned by an insistent call, and the office +was empty. Knowing this, Ellen went in to greet her friend. There could +be no other term, now, for the whole-hearted bond between the two. + +"Isn't it glorious, this touch of frost in the air?" Amy came in smiling, +her cheeks bright with the sting of the early October morning. "And +to-day--to-day, at last, I am free to go to work as I like. I don't +believe Dr. Burns has sent out a bill for three months. He would go +bankrupt before he would tell a man what he owed him." + +"Do you like sending out bills so well as that?" Ellen asked, +incredulous. + +"I like anything that means being at work again, without having to play +that I'm a lady of leisure at any moment that anybody wants my company. +I like to have things methodical and systematic. I don't even mind +sending out bills, when I know they should be sent." + +She stirred about the office, getting out her typewriter and oiling it, +while the two talked of various things. Her whole manner was consistent +with her words: she seemed to be full of the very joy of living. It +occurred to Ellen once to wonder if, by any possibility, this could be +the result of expectation of future continuance of her friendship with +Leaver. But something happened presently which, though but a simple +incident enough, and all in the day's routine, made any such supposition +seem most unlikely. + +The telephone bell rang. Ellen saw Amy's face change at the first sound +of her questioner's voice, with that subtle change which sometimes tells +more than the person engaged in this form of communication realizes. + +"Yes, Dr. Burns," she said. "Yes ... Yes ... Yes ... Yes, I can +have everything ready in an hour ... I will ... I won't forget one +thing.... Yes ... Good-bye!" + +Not an illuminating set of replies, given at long intervals which +evidently spelled instructions from the other end of the wire. But Amy's +voice was eager, her concise replies by no means veiled that fact, and +Ellen could read, as plainly as if Amy had said it, that the voice which +spoke to her was the one of all voices, as it had been for so long, which +could give the commands she loved to obey. + +She turned from the desk and looked at Ellen with the same animated +expression of face. But even as she explained, she was taking instruments +from their cases, setting out certain hand-bags, and preparing to fill +them. + +"It is an emergency case--operation--out in the country. Impossible to +take the patient to the hospital; everything must be made ready on the +spot. Dr. Burns is to come for me in an hour. He will let me stay with +the case. It's work, Mrs. Burns; real work again, at last!" + +"You extraordinary girl! A debutante, going to a party again, after +enforced confinement at home, couldn't be gayer about it. I knew you +loved your work, but I didn't know you loved it like that!" + +"Didn't you?" Her hands moving swiftly, she seemed not to stop and think +what was going to be wanted, she went from one preparation to another +with swift, sure knowledge. "I'm not sure I did, myself, until I had to +stop and take what was really just a long vacation, with hardly a thing +to do. Vacations are very pleasant--for a while--but they may last too +long." + +"Evidently Dr. Leaver thought so, too. He seemed ready enough for work +again." + +"Of course he was. And work--and only work--will put him quite back where +he was before the breakdown. I fully believe, Mrs. Burns, that labour is +a condition of healthy life. And of the two evils, too much labour or too +much idleness, the latter is the greater." + +"You make me feel a drone," Ellen declared. + +Amy gave her a quick, understanding glance. + +"You? Oh, no, Mrs. Burns. You do the prettiest work in the world, and the +most necessary." + +"But yours is fine--wonderful." + +"Not fine, nor wonderful. Dr. Burns's work is that. Mine is +just--supplementary." + +"But absolutely essential. How many times has he told me what he has owed +you all these years for perfection of detail. He says he doubts if he +himself could secure such perfection if it all depended upon his care." + +Amy Mathewson bent suddenly over a strange looking instrument, whose +parts she had been examining before putting them into the bag. Her fair +cheek flushed richly. "I am glad to give him the best I can do," she +said, quietly, yet Ellen could detect an odd little thrill in her voice. + +Within herself Ellen understood the truth, which she had long ago +guessed. And with it came a fresh revelation. This was the reason why Amy +Mathewson could see, unmoved, the departure of Leaver, who had been so +closely thrown with her all that strange summer. With the deep loyalty of +a few rare natures, having once given her love, even though she received +nothing but friendship in return, she could care for no future which did +not include that friendship, dearer than the love of other men. + +Ellen was still in the office, held there by a curious fascination of +interest in Amy's rapid, skillful preparations. It meant so much, this +operating at a country house, she explained to Ellen. It meant the +working out of all manner of difficult details, that the final conditions +might as closely as possible resemble those which were to be had, ready +to hand, in the operating-room of any hospital. + +"It's a serious handicap to a surgeon's best work," she asserted, "when +he has to do it at a home. With all my precautions, I can never feel so +sure of giving him perfect cleanliness of surroundings." + +"You can, if any one can," Ellen said, feeling for the first time as she +spoke, a curious little twinge of envy of the one whom her husband had +long called, with affectionate familiarity, his "right-hand man." + +Often as she had seen the two drive away together it seemed to her to-day +that she looked at them with new eyes. Just as Amy set out the closed +hand-bags, with a box and a bundle beside them, and donned hat and +driving-coat, the Green Imp came rushing up the road and stopped in front +of the house. Burns ran in, fired half a dozen rapid questions at Amy, +nodding his head with approval at her answers, said, "All right, we're +off," and picked up the hand-bags. Then he dropped them, snatched off his +cap and strode over to his wife. + +"We're in a mess of a hurry," he apologized, and kissed her as if he were +thinking of something else, as he undoubtedly was. Then he seized the +bags, Amy the box and bundle, and the two hurried out. A moment later +Ellen saw the car start, getting under headway in twice its own length, +and disappearing down the road in a cloud of dust. + +"She would rather stay where she can help him than go away to a home of +her own with any other man," Ellen said to herself; and the little twinge +of envy became almost a pang. She stood staring out of the window, her +dark eyes heavy with her thoughts, her lips taking on a little twist of +pain. Then, presently, she lifted her head. "She will never, never let +him know. He will never discover it for himself. But if she can find +happiness in being of use to him, and he can reward her by being her good +friend, why should I mind? Can't I be generous enough for that, when I +know I have his heart? Her love for him won't hurt him. She can't take it +back, but she will never let it show so that he can feel more of it than +is good for him. It is so little for me to spare her--so much for her to +have. I will be glad, I _will_ be glad!" + +She smiled at Bobby Burns, running up the walk, but, being a woman, she +smiled through tears. + +The little lad ran in. "Oh, Auntie Ellen," he cried, "do you care 'cause +I gave my new ball away? It was a new boy came to school, all patched. +He'd never had a ball in his life. Uncle Red said I had to be good to +other boys, 'cause I've got so much more'n some of them. I sort o' wanted +to keep the ball, too," he added, regretfully. "It was a dandy ball." + +"But it was nice to give it away, too, wasn't it, Bob?" + +He nodded, looking curiously up at her. "You're cryin', Auntie Ellen," he +said, anxiously. "Does sumpin' hurt you?" + +"Nothing that ought to hurt, dear. It's too bad that being generous does +hurt sometimes. But it ought not to hurt, when we have so much more than +some of the others, ought it, Bob?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FLASHLIGHTS + + +"Please tilt your parasol back the least bit more, Miss Austin. That's +it! Now walk toward me, up this path, till you reach the rosebush." + +Miss Austin, a tall, thin young woman clad in white muslin and wearing +also a prim expression with which her photographer had been struggling +for some time in vain, obeyed these directions to the letter. Her lips +in lines of order and discretion, her skirts hanging in perfect folds, +she advanced up the straggling path, the picture of maidenly composure. +The nearer she drew to the rosebush the more fixed became the look of +meeting a serious obstacle and overcoming it by sheer force of will. + +Charlotte Ruston, standing by her camera focussed on the spot of path +beside the rosebush, drew a stifled, impatient breath. "I'm going to +scream at her in a minute," she thought, "or fall in a faint. I wonder +which would startle her out of herself most." + +"Do you mind," she said aloud, "if I tell you how perfectly charming you +look?" + +Miss Austin's lips tightened into a little set smile, more artificial +than ever. But just as she reached the rosebush a motor car rushed up the +street and came to a standstill before the gate in Charlotte's hedge. Out +of the car--a conspicuous affair of a strong yellow colour, and hitherto +unseen in the town--descended a figure in a dust-coat, a figure upon +which Miss Edith Austin had never set eyes before. Pausing by the +rosebush she looked toward the scene at the gate, and her face relaxed +into an expression of alert interest. + +The camera clicked unnoticed. Quicker than a flash Charlotte had gone +through a series of motions and had made a second exposure, smiling +delightedly to herself. + +"It's a gentleman to see you," called Miss Austin, softly, as the heavily +built figure in the dust-coat opened the gate and advanced up the path. + +Miss Ruston made all secure about her camera, and turned to meet the full +and smiling gaze of the newcomer, standing, cap in hand, just behind +her. He was a man who might have been thirty or forty--it would not have +been easy for a stranger to tell which at first glance, for his fair hair +was thick upon his head, his face fresh and unwrinkled, and his eyes +bright. Yet about him was an air of having been encountering men and +things for a long time, and of understanding them pretty well. + +"Mr. Brant!" Charlotte's tone was that of complete surprise. + +"You were not expecting me?" He shook hands, gazing at her in undisguised +pleasure. He was not much taller than she, and the afternoon sun was at +his back, so he had the advantage. + +"I certainly was not. How does it happen? A business journey?" + +"A most luckily opportune one--for me. It brought me within a hundred +miles, and my descriptions to my friend of an interesting region did +the rest." + +His eyes swerved to the figure of Miss Edith Austin, standing tensely by +the rosebush, an observer whose whole aspect denoted eager absorption in +the meeting before her. Charlotte presented him. Miss Austin expressed +herself as assured of his being a stranger to the town the moment her +eyes fell upon him. + +"And a very dusty and disreputable one, I'm afraid," Mr. Brant declared. +"I should have stopped at some hotel and made myself presentable," he +explained to Charlotte, "if I had not been afraid I should lose a minute +out of the short time Van Schoonhoven agrees to leave me here." + +Charlotte took him to the house and left him politely trying to converse +with her grandmother--at tremendous odds, for he was not a rival of Red +Pepper Burns in his fondness for old ladies, not to mention deaf ones. +The photographer returned to her sitter. + +"I have several pictures of you now, Miss Austin," she said, "and I think +among them we shall find one you will like." + +"But aren't you going to have one of this last pose?" Miss Austin +inquired, anxiously. "Of course, I know you have company now--" + +"That doesn't matter. But I have two exposures, by the rosebush, and I +think they are both good. I have kept you standing for quite a long time, +and I want you to see proofs of these before we try any more." + +"I haven't once known when you were taking me. I can't help feeling that +if you just let me know when you were going to take the picture I could +be better prepared." + +"One can be a bit too much prepared. The best one I ever had made of me +was done an instant after I had carelessly taken a seat where the +operator requested. I looked up and asked, 'How do you want me to sit?' +He answered, 'Just as pleases you. I have already taken the picture.'" + +"Dear me! How methods change! Our best photographer here is always so +careful about every line of drapery, and just how you hold your chin +I don't see how you can just snap a person and be sure of an artistic +result." + +"You can't. And perhaps you won't like these at all. But I will show you +proofs to-morrow. And if they are not right we'll try again, if you are +willing." + +Miss Austin went away, parasol held stiffly above her head, though the +sun was behind her. She was wondering, as she went, who the man was who +had come to see Miss Ruston, and she arrived without much difficulty at +the conclusion that he was probably going to marry her. His speech about +being in such haste to reach her that he couldn't take time to go to a +hotel and make himself neat seemed to her sure evidence that the two were +upon a footing more intimate than that of mere friendship. + +"If you are not too proud," said Miss Ruston to Mr. Eugene Brant, "you +may come into the kitchen and wash your hands and face. Afterward you may +stroll about my garden while I get supper." + +"I am not too proud to wash my face in your kitchen," responded Mr. +Brant, following her with alacrity, "but I shall not be willing to stroll +about your garden while you get supper. After supper, if you like, we +will explore it to its mystic end down by the currant bushes I see from +the window here." + +He accepted the basin of water Charlotte gave him, as gracefully as she +presented it, dried his face upon the little towel she handed him, and +declared himself much refreshed. She did not apologize for the lack of a +guest-room where he might remove the signs of dusty travel, nor did she +allude to the absence within the house of most of the appliances +considered necessary in these days for creature comfort. But she +dismissed him to the garden with a finality against which his pleadings +to be allowed to be of use to her proved of no avail, and only when, +after a half-hour, she appeared in the doorway with a pail, and +approached the old well nearby, did he discover a chance to show his +devotion. + +"If you knew what fun I should consider it to be carrying plates and +things around for you in there," said he, as he drew the water for her, +"you wouldn't keep me out here. What do you imagine I came a hundred +miles out of my way for--to study the possibilities of landscape +gardening as applied to miniature estates like these of yours?" + +"You might do much worse," she responded promptly. "I have spent not a +little thought on just how much trimming to give my old shrubbery and how +much to leave in a wild tangle. Will you come in now and have supper? We +will take it with Granny in the front room." + +Mr. Brant was hungry, after his long drive, and he eyed with satisfaction +the small table by the door, set out with fine old china and linen. He +consumed two juicy hot chops with keen relish, accompanied as they were +by well-cooked rice. A simple salad followed, and gave way to a dish of +choice peaches, upon which his hostess poured plenty of rich cream. She +gave him also two cups of extremely good coffee, and he rose from the +repast feeling content, though the fact that he had made a heartier meal +than either of the ladies had not escaped him. + +By and by he had his way, and took Charlotte out to the garden. Little +Madam Chase had been put to bed at what she called "early candle-light," +because such an hour best suited her. + +"Well, are you going to do me the honour of telling me all about it?" Mr. +Brant asked, as he settled himself upon the old bench by Charlotte's +side. He scanned her closely once more in the waning light. + +"What do you want me to tell you?" + +"Just what I ask--all about your coming here. How you get on. What it +means to you. Your hopes--your fears, if you have any. I realize, better +than you do, perhaps, that this is not a small venture for you to make. +I am interested--you understand how interested--to know just the +situation." + +His tone was that of a brother, warm and kind. She responded to it. + +"I am doing as well as I could expect. Almost every day I have a +sitter--sometimes two. My friends are very good; they bring me every one +who will come. People seem to like the things I do--some of them." + +"Almost every day you have a sitter!" he repeated. "Do you call that +doing well? How long have you been here?" + +"Just seven weeks. Yes, I do call that doing well. It takes time to +become established, of course. Now that I have made pictures of many +of the prominent people others will follow, I'm confident. You know this +isn't the portrait season--too many have cameras of their own and are +taking snapshots of outdoor scenes, with themselves in the foreground." + +"You don't find yourself wishing you had stayed in the city, as I +advised?" + +"Not a bit. I want more experience first. I want to be able to do work +I needn't apologize for when I really begin with a city studio." + +"You are doing finished work, in my opinion." + +"Not in mine." + +He laughed. "There is nothing weak about your will," said he. + +"I hope not. I need a strong one." + +"Granted, if you mean to persist in making your own way. But I live in +hope that when you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that you +are perfectly competent to hew out that way for yourself, you will be +willing to let some stouter pair of arms take a turn with the axe." + +His tone had meaning in it, but she turned it aside. + +"Could anybody take your studio away from you? Even though you don't do +it for a living, but only because you adore it, could you be induced to +give it up?" + +"I'm not trying to induce you to give yours up. I'll build a separate one +for you right beside mine, any time you say the word, and you shall +pursue your avocation in perfect freedom. All I object to is your making +the thing your vocation. I know of a better one for you." + +She shook her head. "We went over all this ground--over and over +it--before I came away. Why do you come out here and begin it all over +again? I don't want to talk about it." + +"I came because I had to see for myself what sort of a place you were +in. I had a notion that it wasn't good enough. It isn't. You can't be +comfortable in it, through the most of the year. Neither can Madam +Chase." + +"We can be perfectly comfortable." She spoke quickly and decidedly. "You +know absolutely that I wouldn't sacrifice what is dearest to me in the +world for the sake of having my own way. The little house is primitive, +but Granny can be made as snug in it as in any stone mansion." + +"The thing may tumble down about your ears in the first high wind." + +"It will not. Dr. Burns went over it thoroughly, and says it is much more +substantial than it looks." + +"Dr. Burns! May I ask who the gentleman is?" + +"My neighbour across the street. He is devoted to Granny, and had as many +fears as you could have before he tested the house." + +"Is he married?" + +"Certainly." It was impossible to help laughing a little at his tone, +which was that of a jealous boy. + +"Thank heaven for that! I'm suspicious of men who are devoted to your +grandmother, charming old lady though she is. But, in spite of Dr. +Burns's invaluable opinion, I must beg to differ with him. You can't be +comfortable in that chicken-coop through the winter." + +"I don't know," Charlotte said slowly, sitting up very straight in the +twilight, and looking steadily in front of her, "that you have any right +to care whether we are comfortable or not." + +"No right to care? Not the right of an old friend? Charlotte, you +wouldn't deny me that? Why, child, I saw you grow up. I was your father's +trusted friend, in spite of being much younger than he. And I'm not so +much older than you, after all--only fifteen years. You might at least +let me play at being elder brother to you." + +"I did let you play that for a long, long time. It was only when--" + +She paused. He took her up. + +"Only when I began to intimate that the relation wasn't fully satisfying +that you began to give me the cold shoulder. You haven't even written to +me since you've been here. Are you aware of that?" + +She nodded. "There was nothing to write. And I've been very busy." + +He drew in his breath, held it for a minute, and let it go again +explosively. + +"Charlotte," said he, presently, "it seems to me I've lost ground with +you. I wish I knew why. You know perfectly well that I won't bother you +with my suit if you won't listen to it,--at least, I won't bother you +with it all the time. I don't promise to give up hope. But what I can't +bear is to have you treat me as if you wouldn't have even my friendship +any longer. It hurts to hear you say I have no right to care whether you +live in a comfortable home or not." + +She turned impulsively. "Then I take it back. You have a certain right, +it's true. You have been a good friend, and I owe you much. It's because +I'm foolishly sensitive about this little cottage. I can see, of course, +that it looks like a poor place to a man who lives in one of the finest +houses in the State of Maryland, but I can't let that influence me. If +you happened to be the sort of man who loves to go off into the woods and +live in a log shack for a whole hunting-season you'd understand its charm +for me. I don't in the least mind washing my face in a tin basin. You do +mind." + +"Not when you offer it. But it's not the tin basin I object to. That +is--" + +"It _is_ the tin basin. You don't like to see a woman live in such a +plain way. But I tell you this, Mr. Brant: she can be just as much a +woman of refinement--" + +"My dear girl--" + +"Yes, I lost my temper for a minute," she admitted. "I shouldn't have +said that. I shouldn't offend you by implying that you don't know it. +What I mean is that the luxuries you consider essential are not +essential. I was brought up among them. I loved them as you do. It is +good for me to do without them--I am conscious of it every day. I shall +be a stronger woman and a better woman if I can learn not to care." + +"But you haven't wholly learned yet." He said it with satisfaction. + +"_I have learned!_" She flung it at him. "I don't mind living in +this simple way, except when a man like you comes along and tries, +deliberately tries, to make me conscious of it." + +He leaned toward her with a sudden, passionate gesture. "Charlotte, +forgive me! It is because I long so to take you away from it, to give +you the sort of home you have known in the old days. It fits you so +well--that sort of home. You were a princess in the old home; you would +be a queen in a new one." + +"Oh, don't!" + +"All right, I won't." + +There was silence between them for some time after this. Brant sat with +his hands clenched and resting upon his knees, his head bent a little. +Charlotte had turned and laid one bended arm upon the high back of the +old bench--her head rested against it. She was the first to speak, in the +light tone with which her sex is accustomed to let a situation down from +the heights of strong emotion to a more normal level. + +"What do you do with a sitter who won't let you bring out her best +points, but insists on making herself into the stiffest sort of a lay +figure?" + +"Chloroform her and relax the tension." Brant's tone was grim. Then, +suddenly, he looked up. "Will you let me go in and make a flashlight of +you by a new method I've worked out? I promise you you'll find it a trick +worth knowing." + +"I shall be delighted. You've taught me half I know, and I'm more +grateful than I seem." + +"I hope that's true," he said, still in the grim tone, as they went up +the garden path toward the house. + +Inside the house he became the exponent of the art of which he was past +master. His study was to him only a diversion, but he had become +distinguished in it as an amateur who played at being a professional +for the interest of it, and who possessed a collection of photographic +portraits of half the celebrities in the world. With eager interest +Charlotte watched him manipulate improvised screens and devices for +casting light and shadow, and when he posed her understood the result +he meant to produce. + +"Oh, that will give a new effect!" she said, delightedly. "I should never +have thought of it in the world." + +"It will almost absolutely overcome the flatness of the flashlight, as +you will see when we develop it--if you will let me stay so long. Now--" + +The flash flared and died. Brant smiled with gratification. If he knew +what he was doing he had a new portrait of Charlotte Ruston which would +surpass anything he had yet made of her. It seemed to him that during +these last weeks she had grown even more desirable than he had ever known +her. There had always been a spirit and enchantment about her personality +which had been his undoing, but there was now a quality in it which was +well nigh his despair--the quality born of self-sacrifice and endeavour, +those invisible but potent agencies in the creating of the highest type +of womanly charm. + +The pair went into the dark-room together. Here, at least, Mr. Brant +was able to give sincere approval. Although the place was cramped +no necessary detail was lacking. Charlotte had not spared expense +in transporting material or in fitting the spot with the requisite +conveniences for swift and sure work. In a very few minutes Brant was +showing his pupil the negative, which her trained eye was fully able +to appreciate. + +"Oh, that will make a perfect print," she exclaimed, everything else +forgotten in the joy of the artist over the overcoming of difficulties. +"You certainly have conquered almost the last obstacle to the making of +flashlight portraits. That will be soft as daylight. I will make the +print to-morrow and let you know." + +"You don't mean to send me merely a report of its appearance, I hope." + +She laughed. "Of course I'll make a print for you, if you want it. +Perhaps you'll admit, when you see the setting, that the old room isn't +such an inartistic choice for a photographer." + +"The old room is delightful--as a background. But when your feet are +freezing on its cold floor, in the dead of next winter--Never mind, we +won't go back to that. I admit it's a September night, and there's no use +in my borrowing trouble. Besides, I suppose I must be off in half an +hour. Let's make the most of it." + +They sat in the room in question and talked of developers and +fixing-baths, of processes and results, and Charlotte found such interest +in these technical topics that she glowed and sparkled as another woman +might have done at talk of quite different things. She knew well enough +that nobody could give her greater aid or inspiration in her work than +Eugene Brant, whose signature upon any portrait meant approval in the +large world where he was known. + +In spite of his over-heaviness of outline he was not an uninteresting +figure as he sat there. His face had not taken on superfluous flesh as +his body had acquired weight, and its lines were good to the eye of the +artist. His eye was clear, his smile full and not lacking in a certain +winning quality which spoke of sympathy and understanding. One who had +never before seen him would not doubt that here was a man worth +acquaintance, in spite of the fact that his only labour was in the +pursuit of a fancy rather than in the making of a living. + +The hour came for his reluctant departure. Standing on Charlotte's shaky +little porch he looked up at her as she stood on the threshold above him. +Against the light in the room behind her the outlines of her lithe young +figure were to him adorable. He took her hand and held it for a minute +with a strong pressure which spoke for him of his longing to keep it in +his permanent possession. + +"Will you send me off with the assurance that at least my friendship is +still something to you?" he asked her. "You can be as independent as you +like, but you need friends. Or, if that has small weight with you, let me +appeal to your generosity. I need your friendship even more than you need +mine." + +"Unhappy Mr. Brant." She was smiling. "So few friends, so few pleasures, +he needs poor Charlotte Ruston's support!" + +"Poor Charlotte Ruston is a greater inspiration to Eugene Brant's good +work than any dozen of his fashionable patrons." + +"I am honoured--truly. And, of course, we are friends, the best of +friends. I will send you the print soon. Thank you for coming. You have +helped me very much." + +With which he was obliged to be content. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN FEBRUARY + + +One cold December morning Charlotte Ruston, sweeping up her hearth after +making her fire for the day, preparatory to bringing little Madam Chase +downstairs, heard the knock upon her door which heralded Mrs. Redfield +Pepper Burns. It was a peculiar knock, reminiscent of the days at +boarding-school when certain signals conveyed deep meaning. This +particular triple tattoo meant "I have something to tell you." + +Charlotte opened the door, smiling at sight of her friend. "You are worth +looking at, in those beautiful furs, with the frost on your cheeks," she +said, drawing Ellen in to the fire, and passing a caressing hand over the +rich softness of her sleeve. "Furry hat and furry gloves--and furry +boots, too, probably--let me see? I thought so," as she examined Ellen's +footgear. "You could start on a trip to Greenland, this minute, and not +freeze so much as the tip of your nose, behind that wonderful muff." + +"It will be Greenland on the Atlantic liner next week," said Ellen, +drawing off the enveloping coat at Charlotte's motion, and seating +herself in Granny's winged chair. "The trip to Germany is on foot, at +last. Red has had to put it off so many times I began to think we +shouldn't get away this year at all. But he's taken our passage now, and +vows that nothing shall hinder. So I'm packing in rather a hurry, for we +mean to be off on Saturday, though we shall not sail until Tuesday. One +can always use a day or two in New York." + +"Lucky mortals. I wish I were going with you." Charlotte said it gayly, +but her eyes were suddenly wistful. "How long shall you stay? I shall +miss you horribly." + +"I wish you were going, dear. Nothing could make me happier. We should be +a great party then, for Dr. Leaver goes with us. It's a sudden decision +on his part. Red wrote him of certain work he wanted to do in the clinics +and urged him to go along, thinking it would be just the thing for him +now, after plunging into work again with such a will. You know they spent +a year there together, ten years ago, and Dr. Leaver wrote that the +thought of going over the old scenes with Red tempted him beyond +resistance. He's been across twice since, but only for a special purpose +of study. Of course both will do more or less observing in clinics now, +but I imagine they will get in a bit of merrymaking together. If I only +had you to go about with me while they were busy I should ask nothing +better." + +"Shall you be gone all winter?" + +"Oh, no; only two months in all. Neither Red nor 'Jack'--as he always +calls him--feel that they can spare longer than that, this time. So by +the first of March you will see us returning to our own fireside, and +probably glad enough to get back to it. German fires, as I remember them, +are by no means as hot as American ones. And that brings me to my plan +for you and Granny. I want you to come over and live in the house in our +absence. There'll be only Cynthia there, for Bob is to stay with Martha. +He will be happier over there with her boys than with Cynthia. So you +will have the whole house to yourselves and can be as snug as possible +all through the heaviest part of the winter." + +She smiled confidently at Charlotte, seeing no possible reason why her +friend should object to a plan so obviously for the comfort of all +concerned. But to her surprise Charlotte slowly shook her head. + +"It's a beautiful, kind plan, and exactly like you, but I couldn't think +of accepting it." + +"My dearest girl, will you tell me why? You would be doing me all kinds +of a favour." + +"No favour at all. Cynthia doesn't need us to help her take care of the +house. We shall be perfectly comfortable here, and--my business is here." + +"Charlotte, I'm afraid you won't be perfectly comfortable. This room +isn't really warm this morning, and it's not an extremely cold morning. +Through midwinter we're likely to have very heavy weather, as you don't +know, not having spent a winter here." + +"Have you? Isn't this your first winter North? You're just as much of a +Southerner as I am. You don't a bit know about Northern winters. You just +imagine they must be dreadful." + +"I've heard about the snowdrifts over the fences, the terrific winds, +and the intense cold. The storms will beat upon this little old house, +and I shall think about it away off in Germany--and be anxious. Please, +Charlotte, don't be unreasonable. Why in the world shouldn't you do me +a favour like this? Red wants it just as much as I do, particularly on +the grandmother's account. Think how comfortable she would be in my +living-room, and in my guest-room. And I should so love to have her +there." + +"I suppose I'm an ungrateful person, but I truly don't want to do it, +Len. Of course you know I wouldn't persist in a course that I thought +would do Granny harm, but I don't see how this can. She stays in bed in +the morning, as warm as toast, until I bring her down here, and I don't +bring her until the room is thoroughly warm. I give her her breakfast +here, and keep her perfectly comfortable all day, as she can tell you. At +night I take her up to a nest as cosy as a kitten's, and she has her hot +milk the last thing to send her off. Not a breath of discomfort touches +her beloved head." + +The two looked at each other, Charlotte's expression proudly sweet, +Ellen's charmingly beseeching. + +"I can see it's of no use," admitted Mrs. Burns, disappointedly, "but I'm +very sorry. Will you promise me this? If at any time it seems to you that +my plan is, after all, a better one for you than your own, you'll be good +and come straight over?" + +"I promise you that I'll take proper care of both of us, and love you for +a devoted friend. That ought to satisfy you. Do you know that as you sit +there, with that furry hat on your head and your cheeks glowing, you're +the prettiest thing north of Mason-and-Dixon's line?" + +"I know you're a flatterer, as you always were. If I can rival you in +that blue cotton--Charlotte, do you think you ought to wear cotton in +December?" + +"You wear gauze and low-cut gowns in the evening in January, don't +you?--and would in Labrador, if you went out to dinner. What's the +difference between silver tissue in the evening and blue cotton in the +morning?" + +"Considerable difference, as you very well know. But you're impossible to +argue with this morning, and I must run back to my packing. Red won't +hear of my taking more than a certain quite inadequate amount of luggage, +and I have to plan pretty closely accordingly." + +"That's good for you. You don't know the first thing about curtailing +your desires, and he means to teach you. Perhaps he won't limit you as to +how much you bring home." + +"I hope not. We shall stop for a week in Paris before we sail, and I mean +to bring you the loveliest evening frock you've had in a long time. It's +no use forbidding me, for I shall do it just the same." + +"I'm not going to forbid you," laughed Charlotte Ruston, with her cheek +against the furry hat. "I know when not to forbid people to do things +I want them to do. Only make it blue, my blue, and have a touch of silver +on it, and I'll wear it and think of you with adoration." + +"It's a bargain," and Ellen went away smiling, with the image of +Charlotte in the sort of blue-and-silver gown she meant to bring her, +effacing for the moment the other image of Charlotte in a blue cotton +house-dress on a freezing winter morning, in a chilly house. + +A few days later the travellers were off. When Red Pepper Burns and Ellen +came in to say good-bye in the early evening they found the little house +as warm as even the most solicitous person could desire, and both the +elder and the younger inmate looking so rosy and happy that doubts of +their continued welfare seemed unreasonable. Charlotte, expecting them, +was wearing a picturesque, if old and oft-rejuvenated, trailing frock of +dull-rose silk, whose effect was to heighten the already splendid colour +in her face. It gave her also a certain air of grand lady which seemed +hers by right, whether in the dignified old drawing-room Ellen remembered +in the Ruston house, or in this small apartment, illumined by fire and +candle-light, and graced by a little old lady in cap and kerchief of fine +lace. There were flowers on the table under the candles, and a tray with +delicate glasses and a plate of little cakes. Altogether, the whole +atmosphere of the room was so comfortably hospitable, and the charm of +Charlotte's gay manner so convincing, that both her guests went away with +the pleasant sense that they left real home happiness under the patched +shingles of the roof, and contentment greater than that found beside most +hearths. + +"Remember that James Macauley has promised to be a brother to you in +my absence, and will see you through any difficulty that may arise," +declared Burns, shaking hands. "Arthur Chester claims the same privilege +and both will be only too happy to be called on. The small boys will vie +with each other to keep your paths shovelled, and Bob wishes to be +considered guard-in-chief." + +"Cynthia will be flattered to be asked to help you in any way, dear," +Ellen urged. "She will be lonely with no one to cook for,--do make her +happy by letting her do things for you." + +"You dear people," Charlotte responded, "be assured that Granny and I +will remember all these counsels. Don't have us on your minds, but come +back to us with the first crocuses, and know that we shall be wild with +delight at seeing you." + +Burns stooped over Madam Chase's chair, and took both her small hands in +his. "What shall I bring you from Germany, dear lady?" he asked. + +She always heard him better than she heard most people, and laughed like +a pleased child at the question. "I spent a winter in Berlin, when I was +a young woman," said she. "I remember it clearly enough. There was a +little shop in one of the streets--I forget just which--where they sold +pictures of the emperor, in little carved frames. William the First, it +was then, grandfather of the present Emperor. I should like such another +little picture of the present Kaiser--and thank you!" + +"You shall have it--and something else, of my own choosing, if I may. +Good-bye, dear lady. May I kiss you good-bye?" + +She permitted the privilege, beaming with pleasure under the reverent +touch of her fair cheek. Then she gave Burns a parting admonition. + +"Take good care of that wife of yours; she is well worth it," she said. + +"I realize that more every day, Madam Chase. I'll take care of her--with +my life," he said, soberly, close to her ear. Then he bore Ellen away, +both looking back with friendly eyes at the pair they left in the +cottage, and wishing them well with all their warm hearts. + +They had barely sailed when the first heavy snowfall of the season +covered the world with a blanket of white, and this was the forerunner of +almost continuous genuine winter weather. No severe storms such as Ellen +had prophesied assailed the region until the first of February, but then +came such a one as deserved no other name than the modern term of +blizzard, a happening of which Madam Ruston and Charlotte had heard, +but had never genuinely experienced. + +"We're going to show you the real article this time," declared James +Macauley, stamping his way in out of the snow one evening, when the storm +had been in progress for twenty-four hours without intermission. "I came +over to assure you that if in the morning your roof has disappeared under +a drift you may rest easy in the knowledge that you will surely be +shovelled out before noon. My wife sent me over to find out if you had +plenty of supplies on hand." + +"We weren't provided for quite so long a siege, but I was coming over to +telephone from your house this morning. It's a great storm, isn't it? I +think it's fun, for it's my first experience. Do tell your boys to come +over and make a snow fort or something in my front yard." + +"They'll be delighted, when the storm stops. There's no use making forts +now, you know." + +"No, I didn't know. I was prepared to go out this morning and play with +them." + +Macauley looked at her. "Not in that dress, I hope," he observed, +bluntly. "It beats me, the way women wear their thinnest clothes in the +coldest weather. I wonder how I'd feel with the kind of rig you're +wearing. And it's none too warm here, it strikes me, if you don't mind my +saying it, in spite of that good-looking fire." + +"The room warms rather slowly in this extreme weather," Charlotte +admitted. She was standing close to the fire, in the unquestionably +summerlike dress of the blue cotton she chose for all her working frocks. +With its low rolling collar and short sleeves it certainly did not +suggest comfort. If Macauley had suspected that beneath it was no +compensating protection, he would have been considerably more concerned +than he was. His wife was accustomed to explain to him, when he +criticised the inadequacy of her attire, that she fully made up for it by +some extra, hidden warmth of clothing. And when he complained that anyhow +she didn't look warm she invariably replied that nothing could be more +deceiving than looks. + +He walked over to the windows. They were rattling stormily with each gust +of the tempest raging outside, and as he held his hand at their edges he +could feel all the winds of heaven raging in. + +"Jupiter!" he exclaimed. "No wonder you're cold. That stage fire of yours +can't warm all outdoors. I'll send for some window strips and nail you +up." + +"Please don't bother, Mr. Macauley. I am going to stuff them with cotton +myself, and that will do quite well. If you will be so kind as to +telephone this order to the grocery for me I shall be grateful, though +I hardly see how the delivery wagons can get about." + +He took the paper she handed him, and absently, after the manner of the +householder, his eyes scanned it. + +"Why, you want to order in larger lots than these!" he exclaimed. Then, +as he looked up and saw her smiling without reply, he reddened and +stammered hastily: "I beg your pardon; I looked without thinking. But, +if you don't mind my advising you, I'd say double each of these items, +at least; it's economy in the end. And--where's the meat order? Have you +forgotten?" + +"There are eggs on the grocery list," said Charlotte, a little flame of +colour rising in her own cheek. "Granny prefers those. But you may double +each item, if you wish. Probably you don't realize that I'm not ordering +for a family like yours, and things spoil quickly when kept in the +kitchen, as we keep ours." + +"Of course you know your own affairs," mumbled Macauley, in some +embarrassment. "But, if you'd heard R.P. Burns charging me to look after +you as if you belonged to me, you'd pardon my impertinence." + +"I appreciate your interest," Charlotte assured him, lightly. "But I'm +really enjoying the new experience of this storm and don't mind a bit how +long it lasts. Granny is warm as can be upstairs with her little stove, +and as she can't hear the wind howl her spirits aren't in the least +depressed. I admit I don't just love to hear the wind howl. If it would +be still about it I should like to see the snow bury my whole front lawn +three feet deep." + +"I'm glad you take it that way. Martha insists that such storms are very +depressing,--principally, I believe, because they keep her from running +in to see her neighbours. Well, I must be off. I'll send the youngsters +over to shovel a path to your front door; I had to wallow through +myself." + +He went away, and the storm raged on. The boys did not come over; their +labours would have been of small avail if they had worked never so +valiantly, for the drifts formed faster than they could have been +shovelled away. Night fell with Nature still unappeased, and the wind, +contrary to the prediction of the grocer's boy, when in the late +afternoon he fought his way in with his basket of supplies, did not +go down with the sun. + +In the middle of the night, Charlotte, waking from an uneasy sleep, felt +the house rocking so violently with the tempest that she became alarmed. +She wondered if the shaky frame could withstand the continued shocks. The +air of the room felt very cold to her cheek, although she had, out of +consideration for the unusual conditions, refrained from opening wide her +window. The rush of cold seemed to be coming from the door which opened +into her grandmother's room, and with a sudden fear she flew out of bed +and ran to investigate. With the first step inside Madam Chase's door her +bare foot encountered the icy touch of snow, and she realized that a +window was undoubtedly open to the full force of the storm. + +Without a thought of herself she rushed across the room, understanding +what must have happened: the shaky little old window frame had blown in, +for the tempest came straight from that direction. Yes, she stumbled upon +it, lying on the floor. She picked it up and tried to replace it, but an +instant's struggle convinced her that this was impossible. With a cry she +ran to the bed, herself chilled through, her heart beating fast with +fear. How long had Granny been lying there in the onslaught of wind and +cold? + +She seized upon the small figure huddled under the blankets, lifted it, +blankets and all, and bore it into her own room. She laid it on her own +cot, covered it with a mountain of clothing, and crushed into place the +door between the two rooms. Then, shaking with chill, her teeth +chattering, she dressed, answering the old lady's one shivering +complaint: + +"I thought I was very cold, in my dreams, Charlotte. What has happened?" + +"It's all right, Granny,--you are safe in my room. I'll get you warm in a +minute." + +She ran down to the kitchen, heated water over a spirit-lamp, and made a +stiff little hot drink, which she carried upstairs, with a hot-water +bottle. The bag at Granny's feet, the stimulating posset drunk, Charlotte +felt easier about her charge and went next at the task of making her +comfortable for the remainder of the night. She ran down again and made +up the fire in the fireplace, convinced that she must get the old lady +downstairs, now that with each blast the terrible wind was filling one +room with the storm and battling at the little old door to make an +entrance into the other. Then she put on a coat, and went up to wrestle +with Granny's bed, while the wind swept round her, and the snow flew +across the room and stung her cheeks. It was a hard task, getting the bed +apart and down the stairs, but she accomplished it, and set it up in the +living-room, far from the windows and with one side to the fire. Then she +brought down springs and mattress, warmed the latter thoroughly at the +blaze, and put it in place. + +"Now, dear," she said presently, bending over the cot, "I'm going to take +you down by the fire. It's too cold for you up here, and you'll be +perfectly comfortable there." + +Granny, wrapped in many blankets, was not quite so light a load as usual, +but Charlotte staggered down with her, and soon had her at ease in her +bed, freshly made up and warm with surrounding blankets. The room itself +could not be so quickly warmed, but Granny knew no discomfort nor +realized that her niece, with all her exertions, was still shaking now +and then with chill and excitement. She had small notion of the anxiety +Charlotte was suffering concerning her frail self. + +"You must get the window replaced at once, my dear," she remarked, +sleepily, from among her pillows. "It must be really quite a storm. +I could feel the bed shake. Down here it seems quieter." + +"Yes, Granny, much quieter. Go to sleep now, and make up for lost time." + +Her charge forgot to ask her what she meant to do herself, and presently +dropped comfortably off into a deep slumber. Charlotte piled on wood, +making a rousing fire, and sat beside it for the rest of the night, +wrapped in a blanket in the winged chair. She shivered away the hours, +unable to become warm no matter how close to the fire she crouched, and +in the morning was conscious that she had taken a severe cold, quite as +might have been expected. But, as her chief anxiety was relieved by +finding that Madam Chase awoke apparently in as good condition as ever +and not in the least the worse for her exposure, Charlotte made light to +herself of her own ill feelings. + +She struggled across the street in the morning to telephone a carpenter, +and as it was the dull season for workmen of his craft obtained one +immediately. He proved a conscientious person, who shook his head over +the ancient window frame and advised putting in a new one with a tightly +fitting sash. By night the room was secure from the weather, and Madam +Chase insisted on returning to it, in spite of Charlotte's entreaties +that she remain downstairs until the storm should be over. + +"Nonsense, child," she said firmly, "this is no place for me and my +bed. Any of our friends are likely to come in at any time, and it is +impossible to keep the room looking properly under such conditions. +Besides, I much prefer my own room." + +So at her bedtime Charlotte moved her back to her quarters, having heated +them to a summer temperature with the small oil-stove. + +"Poof!" said the little old lady, as she was brought into the room. "How +unnecessarily warm it is here! Just because a storm rages outside, dear, +why should it be necessary to heat this room so stuffily? The stove +consumes the air. When I'm in bed you must open the window and give me +something to breathe." + +"I was so frightened last night," Charlotte explained hoarsely in Madam +Chase's ear, "I feel like doing you up in cotton wool, lest such another +icy wind blow on you." + +"Why, what a cold you have, child!" cried her grandmother, recognizing +this undoubted fact more fully than she had yet done. "You must make +yourself some hot ginger tea, or some hot lemonade, and get to bed at +once. Promise me you will do it, my dear." + +Charlotte nodded, smiling in the candle-light. Then she tucked her charge +in with more than ordinary care, and spent some time in arranging the +ventilation of the room to her satisfaction. The storm outside was still +heavy, but the wind was less violent, and it had changed its quarter. + +She went downstairs again, finding it too early for her own bedtime, +weary though she was. Martha Macauley presently sent over a maid who was +commissioned to send Charlotte across for an evening with the family, the +maid herself to remain with Madam Chase. "If you have the courage to come +out in the storm," the note read. + +"I'm afraid I haven't, thank you," Charlotte wrote back, and dismissed +the maid with a word of sympathy for her necessary breasting of the +drift-blown passage across the street. + +"Oh, it's awful out," the girl said. "I don't think Mrs. Macauley knows +how bad it is, not being out herself to-day, and Mr. Macauley away." + +Charlotte made up her fire afresh, and pulling the winged chair close sat +down before it. She was cold and weary, and her head felt very heavy. She +had put on a loose gown of a thin Japanese silk--dull red in hue, a relic +of other days. Her hair was loosely braided and hung down her back in a +long, dark plait. Upon her feet were slippers, about her shoulders a +white shawl of Granny's. + +All the gay and gallant aspect of her, as her friends knew her, was gone +from her to-night, as she sat there staring into the fire. She still +shivered, now and then, in the too-thin red silk robe, and drew the shawl +closer. Her heart was as heavy as her head, her mind busy with retrospect +and forecast, neither enlivening. The courage which had sustained her +through almost four years of endeavour was at a singularly low ebb +to-night. It had ebbed low at other times, but usually she had been able +to summon it again by a mere act of the will, by a determination to be +resolute, not to be downcast, never to allow herself so much as to +imagine ultimate failure. To-night, although she told herself that her +depression was the result of physical fatigue, and fought with all her +strength to conquer the hopelessness of the mood, she found herself in +the end prostrate under the weight of thoughts heavier than the spirit +could bear. + +She sat there for an hour; then, still shivering, prepared to rake the +ashes over the remains of the fire and go to bed. It occurred to her +suddenly that before closing things up below she would see if Madam Chase +were asleep, or if she might need something hot to drink again, as +sometimes happened. She went wearily upstairs, her candle flickering in +the narrow passageway. It seemed, somehow, as if the whole house were +full of small conflicting winds pressing into it through every loose +window-frame and under each sunken threshold. + +She stooped over the bed, the candle-light falling on the small, white +face. White--how white! With all its delicate fairness, had it ever +looked like this before? With a sudden fear clutching at her heart she +held the little flame lower.... + +She groped her way half-blindly down the stairs, the candle left behind. +As she reached the foot a stamping sounded upon the porch outside the +living-room door. She ran toward it,--never had sound of human approach +been so madly welcome. Before she could reach the door a knock fell upon +it. + +She wrenched at the latch, finding the door frozen into place, as it had +been all through this weather. She tugged in vain for a moment, then a +voice called from the other side: + +"Look out! I'm going to push!" + +With a catch in her throat, her heart pounding even more wildly than it +had done before, she stood aside. What voice was that? It couldn't be +possible, of course, but it had sounded like one she knew in its every +inflection, one which did not belong to any of her nearby friends. It +could not be possible--it could not--but-- + +The door crashed open, and a mound of snow fell in with it. Striding in +over the snow came a tall figure in an enveloping great coat, covered +with white from head to foot, the face ruddy and smiling. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FROM THE BEGINNING + + +John Leaver turned and tried to close the door, but the mound of snow +prevented. The wind was sweeping in with fury. "Go away from it," he +commanded. "I'll see to it." + +He kicked the snow out with his foot, crowded the door into place, and +turned about again. He stood still, looking at the figure before him, +with its startled face, wide eyes staring at him, breath coming short. +Charlotte's hands were pressed over her heart, she seemed unable to +speak. + +"Did I frighten you, rushing in upon you at this time of night?" The +smile upon his face died, he looked as if she had put out a hand to hold +him off. Then, as he regarded her more closely, he saw that which alarmed +him. + +"Is something wrong? Has something happened?" he asked hurriedly. + +She nodded, still staring with a strange, wild look. Then, in a breath, +she found speech and action. + +"Oh, come!" she gasped. "Granny is--something has happened to Granny!" +and ran to him and caught at his hand, like a child, pulling him. + +"Just a minute," he said, quickly, releasing himself, and pulled off his +snow-covered overcoat and frozen gloves, and threw them to one side. Then +he put out his hand to her. + +"Now!" he said, and they ran together to the stairs, and up them. At the +top Charlotte paused. + +"In there!" she whispered, and let him take the lead. + +Her hand held very tight in his he crossed the room. He took up the +candle from the dressing-table, approached the bed, and gave the candle +to Charlotte. Letting go her hand then, he bent and looked closely into +the still, peaceful old face ... made a brief, quiet examination.... + +He led her down the stairs again. She was fully blind now, seeing +nothing, conscious of but two things--the sense of a great blow having +fallen stunningly, and the sense of being held firmly by a warm, strong +hand. She clung to that hand as if it were all that lay between sea and +shore. + +In the living-room, before the fire, she felt the hand draw itself gently +away. But then she found herself clasped in two warm arms, her head +pressed gently down upon a strong shoulder. A voice spoke with a +throbbing tenderness which seemed to envelop her: + +"Don't question anything, just let me take you to my heart--where you +belong. God sent me to you at this hour, I'm sure of it. I felt it all +the way--that you needed me. I am yours, body and soul. Let me serve you +and take care of you as if it had all been settled long ago. Be big +enough for that, dear." + +She listened, and let him have his way. Whatever might come after, there +seemed nothing else to do now. The Presence in the room above seemed to +have changed everything. One could not speak or act as might have been +possible an hour ago. Only the great realities counted now. Here were +two of them confronting her at once--Death and Love. How could she be +less primitively honest in the face of one than of the other? + +He put her in the winged chair, drew the white shawl closely about her +shoulders, dropped upon one knee by her side, and, taking possession once +more of her hand, spoke low and decidedly: + +"I will go over to the Macauleys and send Mrs. Macauley to you. Then Mr. +Macauley and I will take everything in charge--with your permission?" + +He waited for her assent. She gave it with closed eyes, her head tilted +back against the wing of the chair, her lips pressed tight together that +they might not tremble. + +"You will want to take her to Washington, or on to South Carolina?" + +"South Carolina--where she was born." + +"We shall not be able to start till the storm is over. There is no train +or trolley service out from the city to-night, and there will not be +until the wind and drifting stops. My train was ten hours late. I should +have been here this morning. Meanwhile, I will stay just where you want +me. You and Mrs. Macauley can settle that. I wish for your sake Mrs. +Burns were here--and Red." + +"They are not here? Then--how did you come to--" + +"Come home before them? I couldn't stay away contentedly as long as they. +I had had an all-summer's vacation, and wanted to be at work. But I came +from the ship straight up here, to satisfy myself that all was well with +you. I found you--needing me. Can I help being thankful that I came?" + +"Dr. Leaver--?" + +"Yes?" + +Charlotte sat up suddenly, opening her eyes, pressing her free hand again +over her heart with that unconscious gesture as old as suffering. + +"If I had not insisted on keeping Granny here she would not have--would +not have--" + +She sank back, covering her face. + +"What had her being here to do with it? You took every care of her. She +was old--ripe--ready to go. The wonder is that she has lived so long, +with such a frail hold on life." + +"But--she had an exposure. This dreadful weather--night before last--her +window blew in--she was chilled--" + +Her voice broke. With difficulty she told him the story of the +experience. He lifted her hand to his lips and held it there. After +a minute he spoke very gently: + +"I doubt if that had anything to do with it. It was probably the crash of +the window blowing in that woke you, although you did not know it; she +may not have lain there but a moment. You overcame the slight chill, if +there was one, with your prompt measures. You brought her downstairs, +and carried her back. There was no strain whatever upon her, it was all +upon you. Dr. Burns has told me that her heart-action was the weakest and +most irregular he had encountered; that, at any hour, without seeming +provocation, it might stop. Why should you mourn? It was a happy way to +go--merely to stop breathing, as her attitude and expression show she +did. Her hour had come--you had nothing to do with it. Take that to your +heart, and don't blame yourself for one moment more." + +She lay back in the chair again, relaxing a little under the firm words. + +"Shall I go now and send Mrs. Macauley? It is nearly ten o'clock, time we +were letting them know. But before I go let me tell you one thing, then I +will say no more to-night. There is no more now to come between us than +there was a year ago when--listen, Charlotte--we knew--we both knew--that +we belonged to each other, and nothing waited but the spoken word. I dare +to say this to you, for I am sure, in my inmost soul, that you know as +well as I do where we stood at that time. And--the thing is gone which +came between us afterward." + +He stood up, put on his coat, said quietly: "You shall be alone but a +very short time," and went out. + +Left alone Charlotte laid both arms suddenly down upon the arm of the +chair--Granny's chair--and broke into a passion of weeping. It lasted +only for a little while, then she raised herself suddenly, threw back her +head, lifted both arms high--it was an old gesture of hers when she was +commanding her own self-control--gripping the clenched fists tight. Then, +as steps and the sound of voices were heard outside, she stood up, +holding herself quietly. + +When Mrs. Macauley came in, excitedly sympathetic and eager to comfort, +she found a quiet mourner ready to talk with her more composedly than she +herself was able to do. Martha, shocked though she was by the sudden +call, was full of curiosity as to the return of John Leaver, and only +Charlotte's reticent dignity of manner kept back a torrent of eager +questions. + +"It's certainly very fortunate he's here," she admitted. "He can take +charge of the journey South, knowing trains and routes much better than +Jim or I do. Of course we will go with you, dear. I judge from what Dr. +Leaver says he will go all the way--which will certainly be a comfort. He +seems so strong and capable--so changed from the way he acted when he +first came here, languid and indifferent. Oh, how sorry Red and Ellen +will be not to be here! Red was so fond of dear Madam Chase." + +Martha proved not unpleasant company for that first night, for her +practical nature was always getting the better of her notion that she +must speak only of things pertaining to the occasion. She went out into +Charlotte's kitchen and stirred about there, returning with a tray of +light, hot food. She had been astonished at the meagreness of the +supplies she found, but made no comment. + +"You must keep up your strength, my dear girl," she urged, when Charlotte +faltered over the food. "It's a long way between now and the time when +it will be all over. We may be delayed a day or two in getting off, and +delayed all the way down. I hear this storm is raging all over the +country." + +Her words proved true. It was two days before the little party could be +off. During that time Charlotte was overwhelmed with attention from her +neighbours. The Macauleys and Chesters could not do enough. Either +Winifred or Martha was constantly with her, and their presence was not +ungrateful. John Leaver came and went upon errands, never seeing +Charlotte alone, but making no effort to do so, conveying to her by his +look or the grasp of his hand the comradeship which she felt more +convincingly with every passing hour. His personality seemed somehow as +vital and stirring as the course of a clear stream in a desert place. + +At the short, private service which preceded the departure of the party +for the train, he came and took his place beside her in a quiet way which +had in it the quality of a right. Although he did not touch or speak to +her the sense of his near presence was to her like a strong supporting +arm. When the moment came to leave the room she heard his whisper in her +ear and felt his hand upon her arm: + +"Courage! You are not going alone, you know." + +It went to her heart. On the threshold she suddenly looked up at him +through her veil, and met in return such a look as a woman may lean upon. +Her heart throbbed wildly in response, throbbed as only a sad heart may +when it realizes that there is to be balm for its wounds. + +All through the long journey Charlotte felt Leaver's constant support, +although he made no further effort to define the relation between them, +even when for a short space, now and then, the two were alone together. +Instead he talked of his hurried trip abroad with the Burnses, and once, +when they were pacing up and down a platform, at a long stop, he told her +of his visit to a certain noted specialist in Berlin. + +"I had had a breakdown in my work last spring," he said, in a quite +simple way, as if he were speaking of something unimportant. "I had made +up my mind that I could never hope fully to recover from its effects. Dr. +Z---- told me that I was perfectly recovered, that I was as sound, +mentally and physically, as I had ever been, and that, if I used ordinary +common sense in the future about vacations at reasonable intervals, there +was no reason why the experience should ever be repeated. This assurance +was what sent me home. I found I couldn't stay in Germany and go +sightseeing with my friends after that. I wanted to be at work again." + +"I wonder that Dr. Burns didn't want to rush home with you," Charlotte +observed--though it was not of Red Pepper she was thinking. This simple +statement, she knew, was the explanation he was giving her of the thing +he had said to her last August under her apple-tree. It made clear to her +that which she had suspected before--it somehow seemed, also, to take +away the last barrier between them. + +"Burns needed the change--he hasn't had a vacation except his honeymoon +for years. By the way, he's having a second honeymoon over there." + +"I'm very glad," Charlotte responded. + +Then the summons came for the return to the train, and Mr. and Mrs. +Macauley, waving to them from the other end of the platform, met them at +the step. + +On the morning of the third day the party reached their destination. They +were met at the small station by a staid but comfortable equipage, driven +by an old family coachman with grizzled, kinky hair and a black face full +of solemnity. They were taken to the hospitable home of the owner of the +dignified old carriage and the fat, well-kept horses which had brought +them to her door, and were there welcomed as only Southern hostesses can +welcome. Mrs. Catesby's mother had been a friend of Madam Chase's youth, +and for her sake the daughter had thrown open her house to do honour to +the ashes of one whom she had never seen. + +"How glad I am," Charlotte said, soon after her arrival, standing by a +window with kind Mrs. Catesby, "to come down here where it is spring. I +could never have borne it--to put Granny away under the snow. She didn't +like the snow, though she never said so. Are those camellias down by the +hedge? Oh, may I go out and pick some--for Granny?" + +"I thought you might like them--and might want to pick them yourself, or +I should have had them ready. I sent for no other flowers. I remember my +mother telling me how Madam Chase loved them--as she herself did." + +From an upper window, in the room to which he had been assigned, Leaver +saw Charlotte go down the garden path to the hedge, there to fill a small +basket with the snowy blooms. When she turned to go back to the house she +found him beside her. + +"I see now why you wanted no other flowers," he said, as he took the +basket. "These are like her--fair and pure and fragile." + +"She was fond of them. She wore them in her hair when she was a girl. +They have no fragrance; that is why I want them for her now. How people +can bear strong, sweet flowers around their dead I can never understand." + +"I have always wondered at that, too," Leaver admitted. "My mother had +the same feeling." He looked closely at Charlotte's face, as the bright +sunlight of the Southern spring morning fell upon it. "You are very +tired," he said, and his voice was like a caress. "Not in body, but in +mind--and heart. I wish, by some magic, I could secure for you two full +hours' sleep before--the hour." + +"I couldn't sleep. But I am strong, I shall not break down." + +"No, you will not break down; that wouldn't be like you. And +to-night--you shall sleep. I promise you that." + +"I wish you could," Charlotte said, and her lips trembled ever so +slightly. "But I shall not." + +"You shall. Trust me that you shall. I know a way to make you sleep." + +However that might be, she thought, his presence was now, as all through +this ordeal, the thing which stood between her and utter desolation. A +few hours later, when he stood beside her at the place which was to +receive that which they had brought to it, she felt as if she could not +have borne the knowledge that she was laying away her only remaining +kinswoman, if it had not been for the sense of protection which, even at +the supreme moment, he managed to convey to her. Her hand, as it lay +upon his arm, was taken and held in a close clasp, which tightened +possessively upon it, minute by minute, until it was as if the two were +one in the deep emotion of the hour. + +All the beauty of spring at her tenderest was in the air, as the little +party turned slowly away, in the light of the late afternoon sun. +Somewhere in the distance a bird was softly calling to its mate. + +Behind Charlotte and Leaver, the kindly old clergyman who had been Madam +Chase's life-long friend was gently murmuring: + + "'Dust is dust, to dust returneth, + Was not written of the soul.'" + +Upon the evening of that day, spent as such evenings are, in subdued +conversation at a hearthside, Leaver came across the room and spoke to +Charlotte. + +"I am wondering," he said, "if a short walk in the night air won't make +you fitter for sleep than you look now. It is mild and fine outside. Will +you come?" + +"It will do you good, Miss Ruston," urged her hostess, who had taken a +strong liking to Dr. Leaver. The Macauleys seconded the suggestion also, +and Charlotte, somewhat reluctantly as to outward manner, but, in spite +of sorrow and physical fatigue, with a strong leap of the heart, made +ready. + +As her companion closed the door behind them Charlotte understood that +she was alone with him at last, as she had not been alone with him in all +these days, even when no person was present. She had small time in which +to recognize what was coming, for, almost instantly, it was at hand. +There was a small park opposite the house, and to the deserted walk which +circled it she found herself led. + +"Dear," Leaver's voice began, in its tenderest inflection, "I have a +curious feeling that no words can make it any clearer between us than it +already is. Last winter we knew how it was with us--didn't we? Won't you +tell me that you knew? It is my dearest belief that you did." + +"Yes, I knew," Charlotte answered, very low. + +"To me it was the most beautiful thing I had ever dreamed of, that two +people could so understand and belong to each other before a word was +said. When the time came to speak, and--the thing had happened that made +it impossible, I can never tell you what it meant to me. When I found +you there in the North it seemed as if the last ounce had been added to +the burden I was bearing. I couldn't ask for your friendship; I couldn't +have taken it if you had given it to me. I had to have all or nothing. +Can you understand that?" + +She nodded. She put up one hand and lifted the thin black veil she was +wearing, and turned her face upward to the stars. They were very bright, +that February night, down in South Carolina. + +"But now," he went on, after a moment, "it is all plain before us. +Charlotte, am I a strangely presumptuous lover to take so much for +granted? I don't even ask if you have changed. Knowing you, that doesn't +seem possible to me. I have never wooed you, I have simply--recognized +you! You belonged to me. I was sure that you so recognized me. It has +been as I dreamed it would be, when I was a boy, dreaming my first dreams +about such things. I have known many women--have had a few of them for my +very good friends. I never cared to play at love with any one; it didn't +interest me. But when I saw you I loved you. I won't say 'fell in love;' +that's not the phrase. I loved you. The love has grown with every day I +have known you--grown even when I thought it was to be denied." + +"I know," Charlotte said again, and now she was smiling through tears at +the friendly stars above her. + +"Yes, you know," he answered, happily. "That's the wonderful thing to +me--that you should know." + +A little path wound through the park, as deserted as the street. He led +her into this, and, pausing where a group of high-grown shrubs screened +them from all possible passers-by, he spoke with all the passion he had +hitherto restrained. + +"Charlotte, are you my wife? Tell me so--_in this_!" + +He laid one arm about her shoulders, his hand lifted her face as he +stooped to meet it with his own. When he raised his head again it was to +look, as she had looked, toward the stars. + +"That was worth," he said tensely, "all the pain I have ever known." Then +as he led her on he spoke again with an odd wistfulness. + +"Dearest, I have talked about our love not needing words, and yet, I find +I want to hear your voice after all. Will you tell me, in words, how it +is with you? I want to hear!" + +After a moment she answered him, softly, yet with a vibrant sweetness +in her tone. "John Leaver, it is as you say. I have known, from the +first, that I--must love you. You made me, in spite of myself. I +couldn't--couldn't help it!" + +He bent his head, with a low murmur of happiness. Then: "And I thought I +could do without words!" he said. + +For the first time in many days Charlotte's lips curved suddenly into the +little provoking, arch smile which was one of her greatest charms. + +"I never thought I could!" she said. + +He laughed. "You shall not! And now I'm going to speak some very definite +words to which I want a very definite answer. Charlotte, you are--I can't +bear to remind you--as far as kinspeople go, quite alone in the world. +There is no reason why that should be true. The nearest of all relations +can be yours to-morrow. Will you marry me to-morrow, before we go North? +Then we shall be quite free to stop in Baltimore or to go on as you +prefer. I can go with you, at once, to close up the little house, if you +wish. Is there any reason why we should stay apart a day longer?" + +"I don't know of any that would appeal to you. But there is one." + +"May I know it?" + +She hesitated. "I'm--very shabby," she said, reluctantly; "much shabbier +than you can guess." + +"We'll go by the way of New York, and you can buy all you need. That's an +objection which turns into an argument for the other side, for I want +very much to see a certain old friend in New York, who was out of town +when I landed last week. I can do it while you shop. Doesn't that +convince you?" + +"I can let it--if you really think it is best to be in such haste." + +"Why not? Why should we waste another day apart that we could spend +together? At its longest life is too short for love." + +"Yes," she murmured. + +"I'm thankful, very thankful, that you are too womanly to insist on any +prolonging of what has certainly been separation enough. I felt that you +wouldn't. Oh, all through, it has been your womanliness I have counted +on, dear,--an inexhaustible, rich mine of sense and sweetness." + +"You rate me too high," Charlotte protested, softly. "I'm only a +working-woman, now, you know. All the old traditions of the family have +been set aside by me." + +"You have lived up to their traditions of nobility understood in just a +little different way. It is these years of effort which have made you +what you are. If I had known you in the days before trouble came to you +I might have admired your beauty, but I shouldn't have loved your soul." + +"Then"--she looked up into his face--"I'm glad for everything I've +suffered." + + * * * * * + +The sunlight was pouring in again, next morning, when Charlotte awoke. +She lay, for a little, looking out into the treetops, holding the coming +day against her heart. + +"I can't believe it; oh, I can't believe it," she whispered to herself. +"A week ago so heavy and forlorn and poor--to-day, in spite of losing +Granny, so rich, rich. I'm to be--his wife--this day--his wife! O God! +make me fit for him; make me fit to take his love!" + +When she went downstairs she found him waiting at the foot, looking up at +her with his heart in his eyes, though his manner was as quiet and +composed as ever. At his side stood Martha Macauley, excited and eager. +The moment that Leaver's hand had released Charlotte's Martha had her in +her arms. + +"You dear girl!" she cried. "Of all the romantic things I ever heard of! +I'm so upset I don't know what to do or say, except that I think you're +doing just exactly right. It's as Dr. Leaver says; there isn't a thing in +the way. Why shouldn't you go back together? Only I wish Ellen and Red +were here; they're certain to feel cheated." + +"We'll try to make it up to them," Leaver said, smiling. + +"It's all right," declared James Macauley, joining them. "I like the idea +of getting these things over quietly, without any fuss over trunkfuls of +clothes. If a lady always looks like a picture, whatever she wears, why +should she need fairly to jump out of her frame because she's getting +married?" + +Upstairs, a little later, Martha, coming in upon Charlotte, as she bent +over a tiny trunk, put a solicitous question: + +"My dear, if there's anything in the world I can lend you, will you let +me do it? I have a few quite pretty things with me, and I'd love to give +them to you." + +Lifting a flushed, smiling face Charlotte answered: "That's dear of you, +but I think I have enough--of the things that really matter. I've only +this one travelling dress, but as we shall go straight to New York I can +soon have the frock or two I need. It's so fortunate I brought a trunk at +all. When I came away I was so uncertain just what would happen next, or +how long I might want to stop on the way back, that I put in all the +white things I had there." + +"And beautiful white things they are, too, if that is a sample," said +Martha, noting with feminine interest a dainty garment in Charlotte's +hands. "You're lucky to have them." + +"My mother left stores and stores of such things, and I've been making +them into modern ones ever since. They are my one luxury," and Charlotte +laid the delicate article of embroidered linen and lace in its place with +a loving little pat, as if she were touching the mother to whom it had +belonged. "Otherwise I'm pretty shabby. Yet, I can't seem to mind much." + +"You don't look shabby. You look much trimmer and prettier in that suit +and hat than I in mine, though mine were new this fall. If you knew how +I envy you that look you would be quite satisfied with your old clothes," +said Martha, generously. "And as for the husband you are getting--well--I +suppose you know you're in the greatest sort of good fortune. All the way +down here I've been watching him--Jim says I haven't done anything +else--and I certainly never saw a man who seemed so always to know how +and when to do the right thing. If ever there was a gentleman, born and +bred, Dr. Leaver is certainly that one. And he's a man, too--a splendid +one." + +"I'm so glad you recognize that," said Charlotte, a joyous ring in her +voice. + +Ten o'clock, the hour set for the marriage, came on flying feet. Before +Charlotte could fairly realize it she was walking down the street of the +small Southern village to the little old church which Mrs. Rodney +Rutherford Chase had attended as a girl. The old rector who met them +there had been a life-long friend of the Chase family. Then, in a sort +of strange dream, Charlotte found herself standing by John Leaver's side, +listening to the familiar yet quite new and strange words of the marriage +service. She heard his voice, gravely repeating the solemn vows, her own, +following them with the vows which correspond, then the old rector's deep +tones announcing that they two were one in the sight of God and man. + +She felt her husband's kiss upon her lips, and, turning, lifted her +tear-wet, shining eyes to his. At that moment they two might have been +alone in the world for all their consciousness of any other presence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE COUNTRY SURGEON + + +Redfield Pepper Burns and Mrs. Burns returned from their stay in Germany +just three months later than they had intended. The opportunities for +extended study and observation had proved so tempting to the surgeon who +had taken only a fortnight's vacation in several years that he had +decided to make the most of them. The pair had been kept fully informed +of the progress of events, had wept tears of gentle grief over the news +of Granny's sudden passing, and had smiled with satisfaction over that +which shortly followed it--the news of the marriage which had immediately +taken place. + +Charlotte had written to her friend a brief description, which--Ellen +reading it aloud to her husband--had called forth his sparkling-eyed +comment: + +"It's rather refreshing to find a woman who doesn't make clothes the most +important part of the ceremony, isn't it? No doubt at all but Jack's +found the right woman, eh?" + +"No doubt in the world," and Ellen's eyes silently went over the few +paragraphs again, reading between the lines, as a woman will, and as +Charlotte had known she would. + +"I thought I couldn't possibly sleep that night, when it had all been +arranged,"--the letter ran--"though I was so tired with all I had been +through. But in an hour I had gone straight off, and slept like a child, +my head on such a soft, soft pillow of confidence and rest. O Len,--to +lie on a pillow like that, after months of laying my unhappy head on +stones! + +"At ten next morning we went to the little stone church, all overgrown +with ivy, where Granny was a communicant so many years, and there we were +married, with Mrs. Catesby, Mr. Macauley and Martha for witnesses, and +Dr. Markham, the dear old rector, to give us his blessing. After that +John and I walked over to the place where we had laid dear Granny the day +before. + +"It wasn't sad, Len; how could it be? The flowers were still fresh +over her, and that blessed sunshine was so bright,--as it is in South +Carolina, I think, when all the rest of the world is dark. When we came +away I felt as I often have when I have put that little frail body to bed +and tucked her in and blown out her candle--as if she must surely sleep +well till morning. I am sure she will--sure! + +"Our whole party came North together as far as Harrisburg, then John and +I said good-bye to them and came over to New York, where I am writing to +you, now. I am buying a few simple clothes, just enough to begin to live +with in my new home. In a few days we go to Baltimore, where we shall +settle down in the house, which is just as it was left when John's mother +died, five years ago. He says I may change anything I wish, but from all +I know of his mother and himself I imagine that I shall not care to make +many changes in so fine an old place. He has his offices in a wing--I'm +so glad of that. She wanted him at home, and so shall I. + +"Len, you will want to know if I am happy. Do I need to tell you? All my +old readiness of speech fails me when I come to this. In spite of the way +talk bubbles from me, on ordinary subjects, you know I have never said +much of the big things of my life. I didn't tell you a word of all there +was between your guest of last summer and me. Neither can I talk about it +now. + +"Just this, to satisfy you, dear. Every time I look at his beautifully +strong, sweet, grave face, at his splendid quiet confidence of manner, +as he leaves me to go away to do some of the wonderful work he does, or +comes back to me after having done that work, I realize what it means to +be the wife of such a man. Oh, yes, I am happy, Len, so gloriously happy +I can't tell you another word about it!" + + * * * * * + +When Burns and Ellen landed in New York in late May they were met by a +telegram. Burns read it hurriedly, re-read it with a laugh, and handed +it to his wife. + +"Seems peremptory," he commented. "Shall we let Jack dictate? It will +mean only a short delay, and though I'm anxious to get home I'd like +mighty well to see them, shouldn't you?" + +The despatch read: + +"Important clinic on Thursday should like your assistance my wife urges +the necessity of seeing Mrs. Burns without further delay please take +first train for Baltimore. + +"Leaver." + +"Yes, I want to see them," Ellen agreed. "I'm quite willing to delay if +you will send Bob a telegram, all to himself, explaining and telling him +to tell the rest." + +"That will please him enough to make up for our failure to arrive on +the promised day. We'll run down for twenty-four hours with them, at +least.... I confess I'm eager to see Jack do one of his big stunts again. +And I'll wager I can show him one trick that even he doesn't know--the +last thing I got at Vienna, under W----" + +He sent off the message to Bobby Burns without delay, and despatched +another to Leaver, announcing their arrival that evening. In two hours +more they were on their way, and at six o'clock they were met in the +Baltimore station by Leaver himself. + +"See the old chap grin!" said Burns in his wife's ear, when they descried +the tall figure in the distance, coming toward them with smiling face and +alert step. "Can that be the desperately down person who came to us last +June? He looks as if--in a perfectly quiet way--he owned the city of +Baltimore!" + +"How well, how splendidly well, he looks!" Ellen agreed. + +Then they were shaking hands with Dr. John Leaver and listening to his +hearty greeting: + +"This is great of you two--great. We certainly appreciate it. Come, I'll +have you at home before you know it. Charlotte is waiting with the +warmest welcome you will find on this side of the Atlantic!" + +He hurried them away, but not so fast that Red Pepper Burns did not find +time to chuckle: "The power of association is beginning to tell already, +Jack. That was the most impetuous speech I ever heard from your lips. I +don't call such language really restrained--not from you." + +Leaver turned, laughing, to Ellen. "One would think I had been the most +solemn fellow known to history," said he. + +In two minutes he had bestowed his guests in a small but luxuriously +appointed closed car, had given the word to his chauffeur, and had taken +his place facing them. Burns examined the landau's interior with +interest. + +"The evidence of a slight but unmistakable odour tells me that this +is the jewel-box in which Baltimore's gem of a surgeon keeps his +appointments," said he. "Well, the Green Imp's beginning to show traces +of her age, but her successor will be no aristocrat of this type. I'd +rather drive myself and freeze my face to a granite image than be +transported in cotton-wool, like this." + +Leaver and Ellen laughed at his expression. + +"Of course you would," Leaver agreed. "And equally of course every friend +and patient of yours would grieve to see you shut up behind glass windows +with another hand on the steering-wheel. It's unthinkable and out of the +question for you, but for me--it's rather practical." + +Burns nodded. "Saves time--and carries prestige. I understand. You city +fellows have to play to the galleries a bit, particularly when you've +reached the top-notch and people demand that you live up to it. It's all +right. But I should feel smothered. And as for letting any young man in +a livery manage my spark and throttle,--well, not for mine, as I have +already remarked." + +Leaver looked at him as one man looks at another when he loves him better +than a brother. Then he put a question to Red Pepper's wife: "Can any one +wonder that there seems something missing in America when he spends the +winter in Germany?" + +She shook her head. "I never mean to find out what America is like when +he is out of it," said she. + +Burns regarded them both. "And I suppose you think you and Mrs. John +Leaver are just such another pair?" he said then, to his friend. + +"Just such another," was the decided answer. + +The car came to a standstill before a stately stone house, its walls +heavy with English ivy. In another minute the entrance doors were open, +and the party were inside. A radiant figure in white was clasping Ellen +Burns in eager arms, while a blithe voice cried: + +"Oh, my dear, this is so good, so good of you! We couldn't be entirely +satisfied until we had seen you here!" + +"Seeing _you_ here," declared Burns, shaking hands vigorously, when his +turn came, and regarding Charlotte with approving eyes, "reminds me of +one of Jack Leaver's favourite old maxims, which he used unsparingly +while he was chumming with me: 'A place for everything and everything in +its place.' The demonstration of that, raised to the nth power, is +certainly what I now see before me!" + +Charlotte's glowing eyes met her husband's fixed upon her. She gave him +back his smile before she answered Burns: + +"Thank you, Dr. Red Pepper. Your approval was all that was lacking." + +"Didn't I cable my approval with a reckless disregard of expense?" + +"Indeed you did. But you couldn't cable the italics that are in your +face--and it was the italics that we wanted!" + +Upstairs in the rooms of old-time elegance and comfort to which Charlotte +assigned them, Burns demanded to know how such quarters looked to his +wife. + +"You could put our whole house into that great living-room of theirs," he +asserted. "As for these two rooms, they would take in our whole upper +story. Don't you suppose stopping here will make you feel cramped at +home?" + +Ellen, arranging her hair before a low dressing-table of priceless old +mahogany, shook her head at him in the mirror. + +"Not a bit," she denied. + +"You used to live in a home like this one." + +"Not nearly so fine. Dr. Leaver is a rich man by inheritance, entirely +apart from his practice. Between the two he must have a very large yearly +income. My family was not a rich one, only--" + +"Only old and distinguished. Leaver has both--family and money. Not to +mention power. Your friend Charlotte ought to be a happy woman." + +"She surely ought, and is. But not happier than the woman you see before +you." + +Burns came close, lifted a strand of silky dark hair and drew it through +his fingers. Then he stooped and put it to his lips. + +"You stand by the country doctor, do you?" he murmured. + +"Always and forever, dear." + +"And yet you are a city woman, born and bred." + +"What has that to do with it? I should rather drive in the Green Imp over +the country hills with you than ride in the most superb limousine in +Baltimore--with any one else." + +He gathered her close in his arms for a minute. "Begone, dull envy," +said he. "From this moment I'll rejoice with Jack over every worldly +possession and envy him nothing, not even the power to give his wife +everything the world counts riches." + +They went down to such a dinner as such homes are famous for. The +candle-light from the fine old family candelabra fell upon four faces +brilliant with the mature youthfulness which marks the years about the +early thirties, the richest years of all yet lived. The splendid colour +of the crimson roses in the centre of the table was not richer in its +bloom than that in Charlotte's cheeks, nor the sparkle of the lights more +attractive than that in Ellen's dark eyes. As for the two men--all the +possible achievement of forceful manhood seemed written in their faces, +so different in feature and colouring, so alike in the look of dominant +purpose and the power born of will and untiring labour. + +During dinner a telephone call summoned Leaver to a consultation. +Immediately at its close he went away, carrying Burns with him. + +"You can't take me to a consultation, Jack," Burns had objected, with, +however, a betraying light of eagerness in his eye. He had been four +months away from work--he was hungry for it as a starving man for food. + +"Can't I?" Leaver answered, coolly. "Come along and see. It's a chance +to give the patient the opinion of an eminent specialist just back from +Berlin." + +"I'm no specialist." + +"Aren't you? I think you are. Specialist in human nature, which, if the +reports of this case are true, is the particular sort of diagnosis called +for. Trust me, Red, and--put on your gloves!" + +Burns had grinned over this suggestion. He hated gloves and seldom +wore them, but out of consideration for his friend--and Baltimore--he +extracted a pair of irreproachable ones, fresh from Berlin, and donned +them, with only a derisive word for the uselessness of externals as +practised by city professionals. + +Left alone with Charlotte, in a pleasant corner of a stately library, by +an open window through which she had watched the departure of the two men +in the landau, Ellen turned to her. + +"I can't tell you," she said, "how happy it makes me to see your +happiness. John Leaver is so exactly the man, out of all the world, who +is the husband for you. From all I know of you both, it seems to me +I never saw a pair more perfectly mated." + +"I'm glad it looks so from the outside," breathed Charlotte, softly. She +too had watched the departing pair; waving her hand as her husband, under +the electric light at the entrance, had turned to lift his hat and signal +farewell. She still stood by the window, through which the soft air of +the May night touched her warm cheek and stirred the lace about her white +shoulders. "From the inside--O Len,--I can't tell you how it looks! I +didn't know there was such glory in the world!" + + * * * * * + +"What do you think this fellow has done?" cried Red Pepper Burns, +returning with his host at midnight. He towered in the doorway, looking +in at his wife and Charlotte. From over his shoulder Leaver looked in +also, smiling. "He's arranged for me to operate on one of his most +critical cases to-morrow morning at his clinic. The country surgeon! Did +you ever hear of such effrontery? I may be ridden out of town on a rail +by to-morrow noon!" + +"Hear the man! He looks like a country surgeon, doesn't he?" challenged +Leaver, advancing. "London-made clothes, Bond-street neckwear, scarfpin +from Rome, general air of confidence and calm. I assure you I was +nowhere, when the family of my patient saw the lately arrived specialist +from Berlin." + +"It's not on that patient I'm to do violence," Burns explained, at +Ellen's look of astonishment. "He's just mixing things up on purpose. +It's a charity case for mine--but none the less honour, on that account. +I have a chance to try out a certain new method, adapted from one I saw +used for the first time abroad. If it doesn't work I'll--drop several +pegs in my own estimation, and in self-confidence." + +"It will work," said Leaver, "in your hands. The country surgeon is going +to surprise one or two of my colleagues to-morrow." + +The morrow came. Charlotte and Ellen drove with the two men to the +hospital, and watched them disappear within its bare but kindly walls. + +"How they can do it!" observed Charlotte, as the car went on. "I'm +proud of them that they can, but the eagerness with which they approach +such work, the quiet and coolness, and the way they bear the suspense +afterward when the result is still doubtful,--oh, isn't it a wonderful +profession?" + +At noon they returned in the car to the hospital. It was some time before +Leaver and Burns emerged, but when they did it was easy for the two who +awaited them to infer that all had gone well. + +"It's a pity to bring this suggestive odour out to you untainted ones," +said Burns, as he took his place opposite Charlotte, "but it can't be +helped. And as we bring also the news that Jack Leaver has brought down +the hospital roof with applause this morning, you won't mind." + +"What did he do?" Charlotte asked, eagerly. + +Burns briefly described the case--without describing it at all--after the +manner of the profession when enlightening the laity. He brought out +clearly, however, the fact that Leaver had attacked with great skill and +success several exceedingly difficult problems, and that his fellow +surgeons had been generous enough to concede to him all the honour which +was his due. + +"And now--what about your case?" Charlotte asked, realizing suddenly what +the morning's experience was to have been to Burns himself. + +"Died on the table," said Burns, with entire coolness. His face had +sobered at the question, but his expression was by no means crestfallen. + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Charlotte began, earnestly. + +But her husband interrupted her. "No condolences are due, dear. He gave a +dying man the most merciful sort of euthanasia, and at the same time +demonstrated a new method as daring as it was triumphant. With a case +taken a month earlier it would have saved a life. The demonstration is a +contribution to science. If he received no applause it was because we +don't applaud in the presence of death, but there was not a man there +who didn't realize that in certain lines the country surgeon could give +them a long handicap and still win." + +Burns looked out of the window without speaking. His sea-tanned face +showed a deeper shade under Leaver's praise. Leaver himself smiled at the +averted profile of his friend, and went on, while Ellen looked at him as +if he had given her something which money could not buy. + +"I wish," said John Leaver, laying a firm-knit hand on Burns's knee, +"you'd come to Baltimore, Red. Between us we'd do some things pretty well +worth doing. Without undue conceit I think I could promise you a backing +to start on that would give you a place in a twelvemonth that couldn't be +taken away from you in a decade. Why not? It's a beautiful city to live +in. Your wife is a Southerner, born and bred; it would be home to her +among our people. My wife and I care more for your friendship than for +that of any other people on earth. What is friendship for, if not to make +the most of?" + +Burns turned and looked at him, then at his wife, then back at Leaver. +There was a strange expression in his hazel eyes; they seemed suddenly on +fire beneath the heavy dark eyebrows. He took off his hat and ran his +hand through his coppery thick locks. Then: + +"Are you serious, Jack?" he questioned. "Or are you trying the biggest +kind of a bluff?" + +"Absolutely serious. How should I be anything else? You taught me certain +values up at your home last summer--you and Mrs. Burns. One was, as I +have said, the worth of a big, true friendship. I've been thinking of +this thing a long time. It's not the result of your performance this +morning. If you had failed entirely in that particular attempt my faith +in you would not have been shaken a particle, nor my desire to have you +associated with me here. But there's no denying that what you did this +morning would easily make an entering wedge for you. Why not take +advantage of it? Will you think it over?" + +Burns looked again at his wife. Her eyes held an expression as beautiful +as it was inscrutable. He could not read it. + +He turned back to Leaver. "Yes, we'll think it over," he said briefly. +Then he looked out of the window again. "What's the name of this park?" +he asked. + +The conversation veered to follow his lead. It was not resumed during the +drive home, nor again that day, between the four. It cannot be denied +that the subject was discussed by John Leaver and Charlotte through +varying degrees of hopefulness and enthusiasm. As for Burns and Ellen-- + +In their own quarters that night Burns threw a plump silk couch-pillow +upon the floor at Ellen's feet, and himself upon it, by her knee, as +she sat in a big chair by the open window. She was still wearing the +Parisian-made gown of the evening, with which she had delighted the eyes +of them all. It was the one such gown she had allowed herself to bring +home, treating herself to its beauty for its own sake, rather than +because she could find much use for it in her quiet home. + +Burns put up one hand and gently smoothed the silken fabric upon Ellen's +knee. + +"This is a beauty of a frock," said he. "I can't tell you what you look +like in it; I've been trying to find a simile all the evening. Yet it's +not the clothes that become you; you become the clothes." + +"Thank you. That's a dear compliment--from a husband." + +"It's sincere. You've worn such clothes a lot, in your life, before I +knew you. You are used to them--at home in them. If we came to Baltimore, +and I made good, you would have plenty of use for dresses like this. You +would queen it, here." + +She smiled, shaking her head. "Taking one's place in society in any +Southern city isn't quite such a foregone conclusion, dear," she said. +"Not for strangers from the North." + +"With the Leavers to vouch for us, and your own personality, I don't +imagine it would be a matter of tremendous difficulty. Even the country +surgeon could get along without smashing many usages, under your tuition. +Besides, you have the acquaintance of some of the--what do they call +them?--'best people,' was the term, I believe, Jack used to me. It's a +curious phrase, by the way, isn't it? Doesn't mean at all what it says!" + +"Not quite--always." + +He looked at her. "Would you like to come?" he asked, bluntly. + +"What about you?" + +"I would rather you answered first." + +"I decline to answer first. The offer is made to you, not me. You are the +head of the house, the breadwinner. It is for you to decide." + +"I can't decide without reference to you." + +"You needn't. When you tell me what you want I will tell you what I +want." + +He was silent for a little. Then suddenly he got to his feet, walked up +and down the room a few times, and came back to stand before her. + +"My little wife," he said, "if I thought you would be happier--" + +"I shouldn't." + +"Are you sure?" + +"Absolutely. If you wanted very much to come it would influence me, of +course. But doubting that--" + +"Why do you doubt it? Shouldn't I be lacking in ambition if I failed to +take advantage of such a chance? It is a chance, Ellen,--the chance of a +lifetime. Jack means precisely what he says, and he could give me such a +backing as would insure me a tremendous start." + +"Just the same, Red, you don't want to come!" + +"No, I don't," he owned, bluntly. "But why don't I? Is something wrong +with me?" + +"Not at all. You have made a large place for yourself at home; you do all +any man could do anywhere. And you are happy there. You wouldn't be happy +here, because you would have to alter your simple way of living. And if +you were not happy, neither should I be. Why should we change conditions +in which we are both entirely content, and in which you are accomplishing +just as much benefit to humanity as you could anywhere?" + +"Ah, but that's the question. Couldn't I accomplish more here?" + +"Is human life more valuable here than there?" + +"Not a whit." + +"Could you save more of it?" + +"I doubt it." + +"We should have to leave Sunny Farm." She looked up at him with a smile. + +"We should." He shook his head. "You would be sorry to do that?" + +"So sorry that I can't possibly think of it. Dear,--make your decision!" + +"I will. We will stay where we are." + +He gathered her close and kissed her tenderly. + +"A place for everything, and everything in its place," he quoted once +more. "The place for Jack and Charlotte is here--unquestionably. The +place for Ellen and Red is there. I believe it. Jack's offer didn't shake +my belief for a minute, as far as I am concerned. It did put into my mind +the question whether I ought not to make the change for your sake." + +"I don't believe," she said slowly, "that a man is often called upon to +leave the place where he can be most useful, on account of his wife's +tastes or preferences--providing nothing more serious is involved. And, +when her tastes and preferences are on his side of the question, there +can be no doubt at all. You may be at rest, Red, for I'm sure I'm +happiest to live your life with you, just as it is best for you to live +it. And I love my country surgeon so well I don't want him made over into +anything else. I can't believe he'd be so satisfactory in any other +shape!" + +Red Pepper Burns gently released himself from his wife's arms, walked +over to the window, and stood there looking out into the thick branches +of a magnolia tree, the ends of which came so close he could almost put +out a hand into the night and touch them. There was suddenly upon him a +deep realization of just how much her words meant. He felt unworthy of a +love like that, even though he knew that all there was of him to give was +wholly hers. + +She stood, motionless, looking after him, her eyes touched with a lovely +light, but she did not move. And, presently, when he had conquered the +curious stricture which had unexpectedly attacked his throat, he turned +and saw her there, an exquisite figure in the French gown which she could +seldom have occasion to wear where she had chosen to live out her life +with him. Both understood that the decision they had made was made for +a lifetime, as such decisions are. + +"I believe I could take it better," said he, somewhat unsteadily, "if you +weren't wearing that confounded dress. It makes me feel like what Jim +Macauley dubbed me once--a Turk. Who am I, that I should keep you hidden +away in my little old brick house?" + +She turned and caught up a long gauzy scarf of white silk with heavy +fringed ends. She drew it lightly about her shoulders, veiling the +delicate flesh from his sight. Then she flung one end of the scarf up +over her head and face, and came toward him, her dark eyes showing +mistily through the drapery, her lips smiling. + +"I'm not sure I don't like being guarded by my Turk, Red," she said. +"And--about the frock." She came closer still, standing before him with +downbent head, and speaking low, through the veiling, silken gauze. +"Please don't mind about that. I'm going to leave it behind with +Charlotte. I shall not care to wear it. When next May comes I hope I +shall be wearing only simple frocks that--little hands can't spoil!" + +With a low ejaculation he tore off the scarf, seizing her head in both +his hands and gently forcing her face upward that he might look into it. +For a minute his eyes questioned hers, then-- + +"And you're happy about it?" he asked of her breathlessly. + +"I was never so happy in my life.... O Red--are you so glad as that?" + +"I think I've been waiting for that all my life," confessed Red Pepper +Burns. + + +THE END + + * * * * * + + +OTHER BOOKS BY GRACE S. RICHMOND + +Red Pepper Burns + +Strawberry Acres + +Brotherly House + +A Court of Inquiry + +On Christmas Day in the Morning + +On Christmas Day in the Evening + +Round the Corner in Gay Street + +With Juliet in England + +The Indifference of Juliet + +The Second Violin + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Red Pepper, by Grace S. 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