"If it was _me_ that was doin' it," said Sarah, "I'd send for the
doctor."
"Well, but," Maggie protested, "she might be mad."
"If it was me, I'd let her be mad."
"Well, then, why don't you?" Maggie retorted.
"Send for him?" Sarah said airily impersonal. "Oh, it's none of my
business."
"Did you even it to her?" Maggie asked in a worried way.
"I did. I says, 'You're sick, Mrs. Richie,' I says.--She looked like
she was dead--'Won't I tell George to run down and ask Dr. King to come
up?' I says." "An' what did she say?" Maggie asked absently. She knew
what Mrs. Richie had said, because this was the fourth time she and
Sarah had gone over it.
"'No,' she says, 'I don't want the doctor. There's nothing the matter.'
And she like death! An' I says, 'Will you see Mr. Pryor, ma'am, before
he goes?' And she says, 'No,' she says; 'tell Mr. Pryor that I ain't
feelin' very well.' An' I closed the shutters again, an' come
down-stairs. But if it was me, I'd send for Dr. King. If she ain't well
enough to see her own brother--and him just as kind!"--Sarah put her
hand into the bosom of her dress for a dollar bill--"Look at that! And
you had one, too, though he's hardly ever set eyes on you, If she ain't
well enough to see him, she's pretty sick."
"Well," said Maggie, angrily, "I guess I earned my dollar as much as
you. Where would his dinner be without me? That's always the way. The
cook ain't seen, so she gets left out."
"You ain't got left out this time, anyhow. He's a kind man; I've always
said so. And she said she wasn't well enough to see him! Well; if it
was me's I'd send for Dr. King."
So the two women wrangled, each fearful of responsibility; until at
last, after Maggie had twice gone up-stairs and listened at that silent
door, they made up their minds.
"David," Maggie said, "you go and wait at the gate, and when the
butcher's cart comes along, you tell him you want on. An' you go down
street, an' tell him you want off at Dr. King's. An' you ask Dr. King
to come right along up here. Tell him Mrs. Richie's real sick."
"If it was me, I'd let him wait till he goes to school," Sarah began to
hesitate; "she'll be mad."
But Maggie had started in and meant to see the matter through: "Let her
be mad!"
"Well, it's not my doin'," Sarah said with a fine carelessness, and
crept up-stairs to listen again at Mrs. Richie's door. "Seemed like as
if she was sort of--_cryin_'!" she told Maggie in an awed whisper when
she came down.
David brought his message to the doctor's belated breakfast table.
William had been up nearly all night with a very sick patient, and
Martha had been careful not to wake him in the morning. He pushed his
plate back, as David repeated Maggie's words, and looked blankly at the
table-cloth.
"She's never really got over the shock about Sam Wright's Sam, has
she?" Martha said. "Sometimes I almost think she was--" Mrs. King's
expressive pantomime of eyebrows and lips meant "in love with
him"--words not to be spoken before a child.
"Nonsense!" said William King curtly. "No; I don't want any more
breakfast, thank you, my dear. I'll go and hitch up."
Martha followed him to the back door. "William, maybe she's lonely. I'm
very tired, but perhaps I'd better go along with you, and cheer her
up?"
"Oh, no," he called back over his shoulder; "it isn't necessary."
Then he added hastily, "but it's very kind in you, Martha, to think of
it."
"I'd just as lieves," she insisted flushing with pleasure.
He tried to get his thoughts in order as he and Jinny climbed the hill.
He knew what, sooner or later, he must say to Mrs. Richie, and he
thought with relief, that if she were really ill, he could not say it
that day. But the sight of David had brought his duty home to him. He
had thought about it for days, and tried to see some way of escape; but
every way was blocked by tradition or religion. Once he had said
stumblingly to Dr. Lavendar, that it was wonderful how little harm came
to a child from bad surroundings, and held his breath for the reply.
"An innocent child in a bad home," said Dr. Lavendar cheerfully,
"always makes me think of a water-lily growing out of the mud."
"Yes!" said the doctor, "the mud doesn't hurt it."
"Not the lily; but unfortunately, Willy, my boy, every child isn't a
lily. I wouldn't want to plant one in the mud to see how it would grow,
would you?"
And William admitted that he would not.
After that he even put the matter to his wife "Martha, you're a
sensible woman, I'd like to ask you about a case."
"Oh, well," said Martha simpering, "I don't pretend to any very great
wisdom, but I do know something about sickness."
"This isn't sickness; it's about a child. Do you think a child is
susceptible to the influence of an older person who is not of the
highest character? If, for instance, the mother was--not good, do you
suppose a child would be injured?"
"Not good?" said Martha, horrified. "Oh, William' Somebody in Upper
Chester, I suppose?"
"But she is a devoted mother; you couldn't be more conscientious
yourself. So do you think her conduct could do any harm to a child?"
"Oh, Willy! A child in the care of a bad woman? Shocking!"
"Not bad--not bad--" he said faintly.
"Most shocking! Of course a child would be susceptible to such
influences."
William drew arabesques on the table-cloth with his fork, "Well, I
don't know--" he began.
"_I_ know!" said Martha, and began to lay down the law. For if Martha
prided herself upon anything, besides her common sense, it was the
correctness of her views upon the training of children. But she stopped
long enough to say, "William, please! the table-cloth." And William put
his fork down.
He thought of his wife's words very often in the next few days. He
thought of them when David stood rattling the knob of the dining-room
door, and saying "Maggie says please come and see Mrs. Richie." He
thought of them as Jinny pulled him slowly up the hill.
Sarah was lying in wait for him at the green gate. Maggie had sent for
him, she said; and having put the responsibility where it belonged, she
gave him what information she could. Mrs. Richie wasn't well enough to
see her brother before he went away on the stage; she wouldn't eat any
breakfast, and she looked like she was dead. And when she (Sarah) had
given her a note from Mr. Pryor, she read it and right afterwards kind
of fainted away like. An' when she come to, she (Sarah) had said,
"Don't you want the doctor?" An' Mrs. Richie said "No." "But Maggie was
scared, Dr. King; and she just sent David for you."
"Quite right," said William King, "Let Mrs. Richie know I am here."
He followed the woman to Helena's door, and heard the smothered
dissenting murmur within; but before Sarah, evidently cowed, could give
him Mrs. Richie's message that she was much obliged, but did not
wish--William entered the room. She was lying with her face hidden in
her pillows; one soft braid fell across her shoulder, then sagged down
and lay along the sheet, crumpled and wrinkled with a restless night.
That braid, with its tendrils of little loose locks, was a curious
appeal. She did not turn as he sat down beside her, and he had to lean
over to touch her wrist with his quiet fingers.
"I did not send for you," she said in a muffled voice; "there is
nothing the matter."
"You haven't had any breakfast," said William King. "Sarah, bring Mrs.
Richie some coffee."
"I don't want--"
"You must have something to eat."
Helena drew a long, quivering breath; "I wish you would go away. There
is nothing the matter with me."
"I can't go until you feel better, Mrs. Richie."
She was silent. Then she turned a little, gathering up the two long
braids so that they fell on each side of her neck and down across her
breast; their soft darkness made the pallor of her face more marked.
She was so evidently exhausted that when Sarah brought the coffee, the
doctor slipped his hand under her shoulders and lifted her while she
drank it.
"Don't try to talk; I want you to sleep."
"Sleep! I can't sleep."
"You will," he assured her.
She lay back on her pillows, and for the first time she looked at him.
"Dr. King, he has quarrelled with me."
William flinched, as though some wound had been touched; then he said,
"Don't talk of it now."
She turned her face sharply away from him, burying it in her pillow.
"Mrs. Richie, you must try to eat something. See, Maggie has sent you
some very nice toast."
"I won't eat. I wish you would go."
There was silence for a moment. Then, suddenly, she cried out, "Well?
What are you going to do, all of you? What did Dr. Lavendar say?"
"Dr. Lavendar doesn't know anything about it."
"I don't know why I told you! I was out of my head, I think. And now
you despise me."
"I don't despise you."
She laughed. "Of course you do."
"Mrs. Richie, I'm too weak myself to despise anybody."
"I wish you would go away," she repeated.
"I will; but you must have a sedative first."
"David's bromide?" she said sarcastically, "A broken finger, or a
broken--well, anything. Dr. King--you won't tell Dr. Lavendar?"
"Tell? What kind of a man do you suppose I am! I wish you would tell
him yourself, though."
"Tell him myself?" she gave him another swift look that faltered as her
eyes met his. "You are crazy! He would take David away."
"Mrs. Richie," said William miserably, "you know you can't keep David."
"Not keep David!"
She sat up in bed, supported on each side by her shaking hands; she was
like a wild creature at bay, she looked him full in the face. "Do you
think I would give him up, just to please you, or Dr. Lavendar, when I
quarrelled with Lloyd, to keep him? Lloyd wouldn't agree that I should
have him. Yes; if it hadn't been for David, you wouldn't have the right
to despise me! Why, he's all I've got in the world."
William King was silent.
"You think I am wicked! But what harm could I possibly do him?" Her
supporting arms shook so that the doctor laid a gentle hand on her
shoulder.
"Lie down," he said, and she fell back among her pillows.
"Who could do more for him than I can? Who could love him so much? He
has everything!" she said faintly.
"Please take this medicine," William interposed, and his calm,
impersonal voice was like a blow, "Oh, you despise me! But if you
knew--"
"I don't despise you," he said again. And added, "I almost wish I did."
But this she did not hear. She was saying desperately, "I will never
give David up. I wish I hadn't told you; but I will never give him up!"
"I am going now," the doctor said. "But sometime I am afraid I must
tell you how I feel about David. But I'll go now. I want you to try to
sleep."
When he had gone, she took from under her pillow that letter which had
made her "faint like." It was brief, but conclusive:
"The matter of the future has seemed to settle itself--I think wisely;
and I most earnestly hope, happily, for you. The other proposition
would have meant certain unhappiness all round. Keep your boy; I am
sure you will find him a comfort. I am afraid you are a little too
excited to want to see me again immediately. But as soon as you decide
where you will go, let me know, and let me be of any service in finding
a house, etc. Then, when you are settled and feel equal to a visit,
I'll appear. I should certainly be very sorry to let any little
difference of opinion about this boy interfere with our friendship.
L.P."
Sitting up in bed, she wrote in lead-pencil, two lines;
"I will never see you again. I never want to hear your name again."
She did not even sign her name.