"Let me leave it with you. Well worth reading. But I'd like to have it
back."
"No, take it with you, gel." The words were sharp. "Haven't much time
for reading anything these days. Happen I'll lose it or something." It
was lame and obvious, but Josiah had been taken too much by surprise
to do anything better. Gerty was annoyed with Ethel. She had no right
to be so tactless. None knew so well as Ethel the state of the case
in regard to Sally. At the same time Gerty's respect for Josiah which
amounted to genuine regard was a little wounded. He ought to have been
big enough to have read the letter.
Ethel had contrived to banish the ease and the sunshine from the
proceedings. The light of genial humor in the eyes of her father
yielded to the truculence of that earlier epoch so familiar to Amelia.
It was a great pity that it should be so; and after a tense moment the
gallant Gerty did her best to pour oil on the vexed waters. "The other
day in the _Tribune_ they were praising you finely, Josiah."
"Was they?" The King's English was not his strong point in moments of
tension. But in any moment, as Gerty knew, he had his share of the
legitimate vanity of the rising publicist. "What did they say?"
"The _Tribune_ said you deserved well, not only of your fellow
townsmen, but of the country at large for the excellent work you had
done in the last nine months for the national cause. They said your
work on the Recruiting and Munitions Committees had been most valuable."
Josiah was visibly mollified by this piping. "Very decent of the
_Tribune_."
"You'll make an excellent mayor, Josiah. Your turn next year, isn't it?"
Josiah nodded. The light came again into his eyes. "There's no saying
what sort of a mayor I'll make. It's a stiff job when you come to
tackle it. Big responsibility in times like these."
"You are not the man to shirk responsibility."
Josiah allowed that he was not, but the office of mayor in a place like
Blackhampton in times like these was no sinecure for a man with a sense
of civic duty. Once more he clouded. From what he heard things were
looking pretty bad. If England was going to win the war she should have
to find a better set of brains.
"But surely the Allies are quite as clever as the Germans?"
"They may be, but they haven't shown it so far. We are a scratch lot of
amateurs against a team of trained professionals. The raw material is
just as good, if not better, but it takes time to lick it in to shape.
And we've got to learn to use it." His gloom deepened. "Still we shall
never give in to the Hun ... not in a hundred years."
Ethel concurred in this robust sentiment. And then again she obtusely
referred to Sally's letter. It was such a wonderful letter that her
father really ought to read it. He was clearly annoyed by her tactless
persistence. In order to cloak his feelings he called upon Melia in the
old peremptory way to come and look at his tomatoes.
As they rose for that purpose, Mrs. Doctor Cockburn rose also. She must
really be going; it was the cook's evening out. Gwenneth and Gwladys
were bidden to say good-by to Grandpa. They did so shyly but rather
prettily.
"Now let me see you shake hands with your Auntie Melia," said Josiah.
Gwenneth and Gwladys accomplished this task less successfully. They
were half terrified by this shabby, gloomy, silent woman who had not a
word to say.