When an extremely energetic person has spent eighteen months making
connections with a family, he does not find it easy to sever them in a
day. Quin's announcement that he was going to leave the Martels met with
a storm of protest. He had the excellent excuse that when Cass married in
June there would be no room for him, but it took all his diplomacy to
effect the change without giving offense. Rose was tearful, and Cass
furious, and a cloud of gloom enveloped the little brown house.
With the Bartletts it was no easier. On his return from New York he had
found three notes from them, each of which requested an immediate
interview. Madam's stated that she had heard of his dismissal from the
factory and that she was ready to do battle for him to the death.
"Geoffrey Bangs got rid of Ranny," she wrote, "and now he thinks he can
ship you. But I guess I'll show him who is the head of the firm."
The second note was from Miss Isobel and was marked "Confidential." In
incoherent sentences it told of a letter just received from Eleanor, in
which she announced that she was planning to make her professional début
in July, and that as Mr. Phipps was connected with the play in which she
was to appear, she felt that she could accept no further favors from her
grandmother. Miss Isobel implored Quin to come at once and advise her
what to do about telling Madam, especially as they were leaving for Maine
within the next ten days.
The third delicately penned epistle was a gentle effusion from Miss Enid,
who was home on a visit and eager to see "dear Quin, who had been the
innocent means of reuniting her and the dearest man in all the world."
It was these letters that put Quin's desire for flight into instant
action. He must go where he would not be questioned or asked for advice.
The mere mention of Eleanor's name was agony to him. It contracted his
throat and sent the blood pounding through his veins. His hurt was so
intolerable that he shrank from even a touch of sympathy. Perhaps later
on he would be able to face the situation, but just now his one desire
was to get away from everything connected with his unhappiness.
In beating about in his mind for a temporary refuge, he remembered a
downtown rooming-house to which he had once gone with Dirks, the foreman
at Bartlett & Bangs. Here he transferred his few possessions, and
persuaded Rose to tell the Bartletts that he had left town for an
indefinite stay. This he hoped would account for his absence until they
left for their summer vacation.
The ten weeks that followed are not pleasant ones to dwell upon. The
picture of Quin tramping the streets by day in a half-hearted search for
work, and tramping them again at night when he could not sleep, of him
lying face downward on a cot in a small damp room, with all his
confidence and bravado gone, and only his racking cough for company, are
better left unchronicled.
He fought his despair with dogged determination, but his love for Eleanor
had twined itself around everything that was worth while in him. In
plucking it out he uprooted his ambition, his carefully acquired
friendships, his belief in himself, his faith in the future. For eighteen
months he had lived in the radiance of one all-absorbing dream, with a
faith in its ultimate fulfilment that transcended every fear. And now
that that hope was dead, the blackness of despair settled upon him.
That fact that Eleanor had broken faith with him, that she was willing to
renew her friendship with Harold Phipps when she knew what he was, that
she was willing to give up friends and family and her inheritance for the
sake of being with him, could have but one explanation.
Quin used to tell himself this again and again, as he lay in the hot
darkness with his hands clasped across his eyes. He used it as a whip
with which to scourge any vagrant hopes that dared creep into his heart.
Hadn't Miss Nell told him that she didn't care what he said or did, just
so he left her alone? Hadn't she let him come away without expressing a
regret for the past or a hope for the future?
But, even as his head condemned her, his heart rushed to her defense.
After all, she had never said she cared for him. And why should she care
for a fellow like him, with no education, or money, or position? Even
with her faults, she was too good for the best man living. But she cared
for Harold Phipps--and with that bitter thought the turmoil began all
over again.
He was not only unhappy, but intolerably lonely and ill. He missed Rose
and her care for him; he missed Cass's friendship; he missed his visits
to the Bartletts; and above all he missed his work. His interest still
clung to Bartlett & Bangs, and the only times of forgetfulness that he
had were when he and Dirks were discussing the business of the firm.
What made matters worse was the humid heat of the summer. A low
barometer, always an affliction to him, in his present nervous state was
torture. Night after night he lay gasping for breath, and in the morning
he rose gaunt and pale, with hollow rings under his eyes. Having little
desire for food, he often made one meal a day suffice, substituting
coffee for more solid food.
This method of living could have but one result. By the middle of July he
was confined to his bed with a heavy bronchial cold and a temperature
that boded ill. Once down and defenseless, he became a prey to all the
feminine solicitude of the rooming-house. The old lady next door pottered
in and out, putting mustard plasters on his chest and forgetting to take
them off, and feeding him nauseous concoctions that she brewed over a
coal-oil stove. A woman from upstairs insisted on keeping his window and
door wide open, and trying cold compresses on his throat. While the
majorful mother of six across the hall came in each night to sweep the
other two out, close the window and door, and fill the room with
eucalyptus fumes.
Quin let them do whatever they wanted. The mere business of breathing
seemed to be about all he could attend to these days. The only point on
which he was firm was his refusal to notify his friends or to have a
doctor.
"I'll be all right when this beastly weather lets up," he said to Dirks
one Sunday night. "Is there any sign of clearing?"
"Not much. It's thick and muggy and still raining in torrents. I wish
you'd see a doctor."
Pride kept Quin from revealing the fact that he had no money to pay a
doctor. Five weeks without work had completely exhausted his exchequer.
"I'm used to these knockouts," he wheezed with assumed cheerfulness one
Sunday night. "It's not half as bad as it sounds. I'll be up in a day or
so."
Dirks was not satisfied. His glance swept the small disordered room, and
came back to the flushed face on the pillow.
"Don't you want some grub?" he suggested. "I'll get you anything you
like."
"No, thanks; I'm not hungry. You might put the water-pitcher over here by
the bed. My tongue feels like a shredded-wheat biscuit."
Dirks gave him some water, then turned to go.
"Oh, by the way," he said, "Here's a letter for you that's been laying
around at the factory for a couple of days. Nobody knew where to forward
it."
Like a shot Quin was up in bed and holding out an eager hand. But at
sight of the small cramped writing he lay back on his pillow listlessly.
"It's from Miss Isobel Bartlett," he said indifferently. "Wonder what
she's doing back in town in the middle of the summer."
"I hear they are all back," Dirks said. "The old lady is very ill and
they had to bring her home. If you want anything in the night, just pound
on the wall. I'm going to fetch a doctor if you ain't better in the
morning."
When Dirks had gone Quin opened his letter and read:
_Dear Quin:_
I am rushing this off to the factory in the hope that they have your
address and can get into communication with you at once. Mother has
had two dreadful attacks with her appendix, and the doctors say she
cannot survive another. But she refuses point-blank to be operated
on, and my brother and sister and I are powerless to move her. Won't
you come the moment you get this, and try to persuade her? She has
such confidence in your judgment, and you could always do more with
her than any one else. I am almost wild with anxiety and I don't know
which way to turn. Do come at once.
Your friend,
ISOBEL BARTLETT.
Quin sprang out of bed, and then sat down limply, waiting for the
furniture to stop revolving about him. It was evident that he would have
to use his head to save his legs, if he expected to make any progress.
Holding to the bed-post, he brought all his concentration to bear on the
whereabouts of the various garments he had thrown off ten days before.
The lack of a clean shirt and the imperative need of a shave presented
grave difficulties, but he would have gone to Miss Isobel's rescue if he
had had to go in pajamas!
When at last he had struggled into his clothes, he put out his light and
tiptoed past Dirks' door. At the first sniff of night air he began to
cough, and he clapped his hand over his mouth, swearing softly to
himself. On the front steps he hesitated. The rain was falling in sheets,
and the street lights shone through a blur of fog. For the first time,
Quin realized it was a block to the car line, and that he had no
umbrella. Hard experience had taught him the dire results of exposure and
overexertion. But the excitement of once more getting in touch with the
Bartletts, of being of service to Madam, and above all of hearing news of
Eleanor, banished all other considerations. Turning up his coat collar
and pulling his hat over his eyes, he went down the steps and started on
an uncertain run for the corner.