Horace Chase spent the whole summer at L'Hommedieu, without any journeys
or absences. His wife rode with him several times a week; she drove out
with Dolly in the phaeton; she led her usual life. Usual, that is, to a
certain extent; for, personally, she was listless, and the change in her
looks was growing so much more marked that at last every one, save her
husband, noticed it. When September came, Chase went to New York on
business. He was absent two weeks. When he returned he found his wife
lying on the sofa. She left the sofa for a chair when he came in; but,
after the first day, she no longer made this effort; she remained on the
couch, hour after hour, with her eyes closed. Once or twice, when her
husband urged it, she rode out with him. But her figure drooped so, as
she sat in the saddle, that he did not ask her to go again. He began to
feel vaguely uneasy. She seemed well; but her silence and her pallor
troubled him. As she herself was impenetrable--sweet, gentle, and
dumb--he was finally driven to speak to Dolly.
"You say she seems well," Dolly answered. "But that is just the trouble;
she seems so, but she is not. What she needs, in my opinion, is a
complete change--a change of scene and air and associations of all
kinds. Take her abroad for five or six years, and arrange your own
affairs so that you can stay there with her."
"Five or six years? That's a large order; that's _living_ over there,"
Chase said, surprised.
"Yes," answered Dolly, "that is what I mean. Live there for a while."
Then she made what was to her a supreme sacrifice: "_I_ will stay here.
I won't try to go." This was a bribe. She knew that her brother-in-law
found her constant presence irksome.
"Of course I wouldn't hesitate if I thought it would set her up," said
Chase. "I'll see what she says about it."
"If you consult her, that will be the end of the whole thing," answered
Dolly; "you will never go, and neither will she. For she will feel that
you would be sure to dislike it. You ought to arrange it without one
syllable to her, and then _do_ it. And if I were you, I wouldn't
postpone it too long."
"What do you talk that way for?" said Chase, angrily. "You have no right
to keep anything from me if you _know_ anything. What do you think's the
matter with her, that you take that tone?"
"I think she is dying," Dolly answered, stolidly. "Slowly, of course; it
might require three or four years more at the present rate of progress.
If nothing is done to stop it, by next year it would be called nervous
prostration, perhaps. And then, the year after, consumption."
Chase sprang up. "How dare you sit there and talk to me of her dying?"
he exclaimed, hotly. "What the hell do you mean?"
Dolly preserved her composure unbroken. "She has never been very strong.
Nobody can know with absolute accuracy, Mr. Chase; but at least I am
telling you exactly what I think."
"I'll take her abroad at once. I'll live over there forever if it will
do any good," Chase answered, turning to go out in order to hide his
emotion.
"Remember, if you tell her about it beforehand, she will refuse to go,"
Dolly called after him.
Always prompt, that same afternoon Chase started northward. He was on
his way to New York, with the intention of arranging his affairs so that
he could leave them for several years. It would be a heavy piece of
work. But work never daunted him. The very first moment that it was
possible he intended to return to L'Hommedieu, take his wife, and go
abroad by the next steamer, allowing her not one hour for demur. In the
meanwhile, she was to know nothing of the project; it was to take her by
surprise, according to Dolly's idea.
Dolly spent the time of his absence in trying to amuse her sister, or at
least in trying to occupy her and fill the long days. These days, out of
doors, were heavenly in their beauty; the atmosphere of paradise, as we
imagine paradise, was now lent to earth for a time; a fringe of it lay
over the valley of the French Broad. The sunshine was a golden haze; the
hue of the mountains was like violet velvet; there was no wind, the air
was perfectly still; in all directions the forest was glowing and
flaming with the indescribably gorgeous tints of the American autumn.
For a time Ruth had seemed a little stronger; she had taken two or three
drives in the phaeton. Then her listlessness came back with double
force. One afternoon Dolly found her lying with her head on her arm
(like a flower half-broken from its stalk, poor Dolly thought). But the
elder sister began bravely, with a laugh. "Well, it's out, Ruth. It is
announced to-day, and everybody knows it. I mean the engagement of
Malachi and the fair Lilian. But somebody ought really to speak to them,
it is a public matter; it ought to be in the hands of a Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to the Future. Think of her profile, and then of
his, and imagine, if you can, a combination of the two let loose upon an
innocent world!"
Ruth smiled a little, but the smile was faint. She lay for some minutes
longer with closed eyes, and then, wearily, she sat up. "Oh, I am so
tired of this room! I believe I'll go out, after all. Please call
Felicite, and order the phaeton."
"A drive? That is a good idea, as it is such a divine afternoon," said
Dolly. "I will go with you."
"Oh no--with your lame arm." (For rheumatism had been bothering Dolly
all day.) "If you are afraid to have me go alone, I can take Felicite."
"Very well," said Dolly, who thwarted Ruth now in nothing. "May I sit
here while you dress?"
"If you like," answered Ruth, her voice dull and languid.
Dolly pretended to knit, and she made jokes about the approaching
nuptials. "It is to come off during Christmas week, they say. The bishop
is to be here, but he will only pronounce the benediction, for Lilian
prefers to have Mr. Arlington perform the ceremony. You see, she is
accustomed to Mr. Arlington; she usually has him for her marriages, you
know." But in Dolly's heart, as she talked, there were no jokes. For as
Felicite dressed Ruth, the elder sister could not help seeing how wasted
was the slender figure. And when the skilful hand of the Frenchwoman
brushed and braided the thick hair, the hollows at the temples were
conspicuous. Felicite, making no remark about it, shaded these hollows
with little waving locks. But Ruth, putting up her hands impatiently,
pushed the locks all back.
When she returned from her drive two hours later, the sun was setting.
She entered the parlor with rapid step, her arms full of branches of
bright leaves which she had gathered. Their tints were less bright than
her cheeks, and her eyes had a radiance that was startling.
Dolly looked at her, alarmed, though (faithful to her rule) she made no
comment. "Can it be fever?" she thought. But this was not fever.
Ruth decorated the room with her branches. She said nothing of
importance, only a vague word or two about the sunshine, and the beauty
of the brilliant forest; but she hummed to herself, and finally broke
into a song, as with the same rapid step she went upstairs to her room.
A few moments later Miss Billy Breeze was shown in. "I couldn't help
stopping for a moment, Dolly, because I am so perfectly delighted to see
that dear Ruth is _so_ much better; she passed me a little while ago in
her phaeton, looking really brilliant! Her old self again. After all,
the mountain air _has_ done her good. I was so glad that (I don't mind
telling you)--I went right home and knelt down and thanked God," said
the good little woman, with the tears welling up in her pretty eyes.
Miss Billy stayed nearly half an hour. Just before she went away she
said (after twenty minutes of excited talk about Lilian and Malachi),
"Oh, I saw Mr. Willoughby in the street this afternoon; he had ridden up
from The Lodge, so Mr. Bebb told me. I didn't know he was staying
there?"
"Why, has he come back from Carlsbad?" asked Dolly, surprised.
"Oh, I don't mean Mr. Nicholas Willoughby," answered Billy, "I mean
Walter; the nephew, you know. The one who was groomsman at Ruth's
wedding."