AN UNEXPECTED EMERGENCY
'Rill seemed to understand what was in Janice's mind and heart. She
kept on with strained vehemence:
"I know what they all say! And my mother is as bad as any of them.
They say Hopewell was intoxicated. He was sick, and the bartender
mixed him something to settle his stomach. I think maybe he put some
liquor in it unbeknown to Hopewell. Or something!
"The poor, dear man was ill all night, Janice, and he never did
remember how he got home from the dance. Whatever he drank seemed to
befuddle his brain just as soon as he came out into the night air.
That should prove that he's not a drinking man."
"I--I am sorry for you, dear," Janice said softly. "And I am sorry
anybody saw Mr. Drugg that evening on his way home."
"Oh, I know you saw him, Janice--and Marty Day and my mother. Mother
can be as mean as mean can be! She has never liked Hopewell, as you
know."
"Yes, I know," admitted Janice.
"She keeps throwing such things up to me. And her tongue is never
still. It is true Hopewell's father was a drinking man."
"Indeed?" said Janice, curiously.
"Yes," sighed 'Rill Drugg. "He was rather shiftless. Perhaps it is
the nature of artists so to be," she added reflectively. "For he was
really a fine musician. Had Hopewell had a chance he might have been
his equal. I often think so," said the storekeeper's bride proudly.
"I know that the elder Mr. Drugg taught the violin."
"Yes. And he used to travel about over the country, giving lessons and
playing in orchestras. That used to make Mrs. Drugg awfully angry.
She wanted him to be a storekeeper. She made Hopewell be one. How she
ever came to marry such a man as Hopewell's father, I do not see."
"She must have loved him," said Janice wistfully.
"Of course!" cried the bride, quite as innocently. "She couldn't have
married him otherwise."
"And was Hopewell their only child?"
"Yes. He seldom saw his father, but he fairly worshiped him. His
father was a handsome man--and he used to play his violin for Hopewell.
It was this very instrument my husband prizes so greatly now. When Mr.
Drugg died the violin was hid away for years in the garret.
"You've heard how Hopewell found it, and strung it himself, and used to
play on it slyly, and so taught himself to be a fiddler, before his
mother had any idea he knew one note from another. She was extremely
deaf at the last and could not hear him playing at odd times, up in the
attic."
"My!" said Janice, "he must have really loved music."
"It was his only comfort," said the wife softly. "When he was
twenty-one what little property his father had left came to him. But
his mother did not put the violin into the inventory; so Hopewell said:
'Give me the fiddle and you can have the rest.'"
"He loved it so!" murmured Janice appreciatively:
"Yes. I guess that was almost the only time in his life that Hopewell
really asserted himself. With his mother, at least. She was a very
stubborn woman, and very stern; more so than my own mother. But Mrs.
Drugg had to give in to him about the violin, for she needed Hopewell
to run the store for her. They had little other means.
"But she made him marry 'Cinda Stone," added 'Rill. "Poor 'Cinda! she
was never happy. Not that Hopewell did not treat her well. You know,
Janice, he is the sweetest-tempered man that ever lived.
"And that is what hurts me more than anything else," sobbed the bride,
dabbling her eyes with her handkerchief. "When they say Hopewell gets
intoxicated, and is cruel to me and to Lottie, it seems as though--as
though I could scratch their eyes out!"
For a moment Hopewell's wife looked so spiteful, and her eyes snapped
so, that Janice wanted to laugh. Of course, she did not do so. But to
see the mild and sweet-tempered 'Rill display such venom was amusing.
The store door opened with a bang. The girl and the woman both started
up, Lottie remaining asleep.
"Hush! Never mind!" whispered Janice to 'Rill. "I'll wait on the
customer."
When she went out into the front of the store, she saw that the figure
which had entered was in a glistening slicker. It had begun to rain.
"Why, Frank Bowman! Is it you?" she asked, in surprise.
"Oh! how-do, Janice! I didn't expect to find you here."
"Nor I you. What are you doing away up here on the hill?" Janice asked.
Frank Bowman did not look himself. The girl could not make out what
the trouble with him was, and she was puzzled.
"I guess you forgot I told you I was moving," he said hesitatingly.
"Oh, I remember! And you've moved up into this neighborhood?"
"Not exactly. I am going to lodge with the Threads, but I shall
continue to eat Marm Parraday's cooking."
"The Threads?" murmured Janice.
"You know. The little, crooked-backed man. He's janitor of the
school. His wife has two rooms I can have. Her brother has been
staying with them; but he's lost his job and has gone up into the
woods. It's a quiet place--and that's what I want. I can't stand the
racket at the hotel any longer," concluded the civil engineer.
But Janice thought he still looked strange and spoke differently from
usual. His glance wandered about the store as he talked.
"What did you want to buy, Frank?" she asked. "I'm keeping store
to-night." She knew that 'Rill would not want the young man to see her
tears.
"Oh--ah--yes," Bowman stammered. "What did I want?"
At that Janice laughed outright. She thought highly of the young civil
engineer, and she considered herself a close enough friend to ask,
bluntly:
"What ever is the matter with you, Frank Bowman? You're acting
ridiculously."
He came nearer to her and whispered: "Where's Mrs. Drugg?"
Janice motioned behind her, and her face paled. What had happened?
"I--I declare I don't know how to tell her," murmured the young man,
his hand actually trembling.
"Tell her what?" gasped Janice.
"Or even that I ought to tell her," added Frank Bowman, shaking his
head.
Janice seized him by the lapel of his coat and tried to shake him.
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" she demanded.
"What is the matter, Janice?" called 'Rill's low voice from the back.
"Never mind! I can attend to _this_ customer," Janice answered gaily.
"It's Frank Bowman."
Then she turned swiftly to the civil engineer again and whispered:
"What is it about? Hopewell?"
"Yes," he returned in the same low tone.
"What is the matter with him?" demanded the girl greatly worried.
"He's down at the Inn----"
"I know. He went there to play at a dance tonight. That's why I am
here--to keep his wife company," explained Janice.
"Well," said Bowman. "I went down to get some of my books I'd left
there. They're having a high old time in that big back room,
downstairs. You know?"
"Where they are going to have the Assembly Ball?"
"Yes," he agreed.
"But it's nothing more than a dance, is it?" whispered Janice.
"Hopewell was hired to play----"
"I know. But such playing you never heard in all your life," said
Bowman, with disgust. "And the racket! I wonder somebody doesn't
complain to Judge Little or to the Town Council."
"Not with Mr. Cross Moore holding a mortgage on the hotel," said
Janice, with more bitterness than she usually displayed.
"You're right there," Bowman agreed gloomily.
"But what about Hopewell?"
"I believe they have given him something to drink. That Joe Bodley,
the barkeeper, is up to any trick. If Hopewell keeps on he will
utterly disgrace himself, and----"
Janice clung to his arm tightly, interrupting his words with a little
cry of pity. "And it will fairly break his wife's heart!" she said.