FATHER AND SON
After an absence from his native city of three years and a half,
Frederick Graves was returning to Ithaca, a very sick man. He had
learned from Helen's letters to Madelene that Tessibel Skinner had a
small son. His brother-in-law's exasperation at Young for giving the
squatter girl and her little son a home at the lake had also been
reflected in the correspondence. He had been able to glean but the bare
outlines of the story, because Ebenezer and Helen had been abroad most
of the time, and his impatient spirit chafed to know the intimate
particulars of Tessibel's life. Jealousy of Young tormented him.
Hopeless brooding over his situation, and Madelene's continual nagging
had made him a neurasthenic wreck. Worn by insomnia and almost starved
by a nervous dyspepsia, he could no longer maintain even a pretense of
usefulness in the business. Madelene, thoroughly disillusioned, herself
worn out by his sullen and savage temper, had brought him back to
Ithaca, hoping the familiar sights and sounds of the home-land might
help him.
They arrived one rainy night at the station, where Ebenezer met them
with the carriage. He greeted both effusively, and his manner perhaps
was more cordial because of his brother-in-law's death-stricken face.
"You'll buck up now you're home, Fred," he said, after he had kissed his
sister and helped them into the carriage.
"Maybe, but I doubt it," the invalid replied wearily.
"Nonsense, Fred," his wife broke out. "You make me tired. You're always
whining. Of course, you're going to get well."
Too fatigued to argue, Frederick leaned back upon the cushions. Except
for an occasional word, they were silent during the long drive through
the rain.
Home at last, they found Helen waiting in the great hall. To Madelene,
who preceded the men into the house, she looked much older, more
dignified. Lines of worry around her eyes and mouth told the girl that
her sister-in-law's life with Ebenezer had not been entirely easy.
After kissing Madelene, Helen extended her hand to Frederick.
"I hope you'll be better soon, Fred," she encouraged. "Our country
fare'll put some flesh on your bones.... You look after the invalid,
Ebenezer, and I'll take Madelene upstairs."
The two women walked upstairs together. Waldstricker gazed after them,
pride and joy in his eyes. His wife and his sister reunited brought him
a feeling of content. Frederick, fussing with his coat and rubbers,
seemed hardly aware of their going.
"I'm glad to have you back, Fred," began Waldstricker, anxious to
express the gratification he felt.
"We're glad to get back, of course," Frederick responded coldly. He
followed the elder into the library and threw himself on a lounge to
rest until dinner.
In the room above, Helen helped Madelene off with her things and
listened to her chatter about the journey. She could detect a sullen
dissatisfaction with Frederick running like a dark thread through the
current of her talk. It was clear to Helen that Madelene had lost her
regard for her husband. Apparently, she cared so little that she didn't
feel it necessary to hide or explain her feelings.
"And, now I want to see little Elsie," gushed Madelene. "I've been crazy
to see her ever since she was born."
"She's such a darling," smiled Helen, "and is the very joy of her
father's heart.... Come on in the nursery."
For a few seconds Madelene leaned over the sleeping child, a rosy child
with thick blonde curls. A keen sense of the emptiness of her own arms
stirred in her an envy of the complacent young matron standing at the
foot of the little white bed. Perhaps Fred would've been different if
they'd had a little one.
"I'd love to have a baby," she breathed discontentedly. "But--"
During the significant pause, Helen linked her arm through the
speaker's.
"Let's go down to dinner," she suggested. "You must be famished after
your long ride."
At the table, the conversation touched many matters relating to the
happenings in the lives of the long separated families. Madelene plied
her knife and fork industriously, and jumped from topic to topic,
expressing a lively interest in all the events in Ithaca.
"And your brother, dear?" she asked her hostess. "Is he still at the
lake place?"
Helen threw a quick glance at her husband, whose lips sank at the
corners, his face coloring to a deep red.
When his sister asked the question, the glass from which the elder had
been drinking struck the table sharply, as though he wished to emphasize
his displeasure.
"Yes, he lives there," he broke in. "In your father's old place, Fred.
His lease is not up for almost a year."
"Helen wrote me he had the Skinner girl and her baby with him," said
Mrs. Graves. "Wasn't that a funny thing for him to do, Ebbie?"
Waldstricker pushed back angrily.
"Funny! Funny!" he ejaculated. "It isn't decent, and I've told him so,
too."
Frederick's face flushed, and he toyed nervously with the silver at the
side of his plate.
"But, Ebenezer, you don't mean she's living with him, do you?" he
faltered, leaning forward.
"They live there together, Young and the girl and her--" Ebenezer's
anger almost made him forget the conventional respect he owed his wife
and sister, "--her son," he concluded lamely. "That's all I know, and
it's enough. He's had the best houses in Ithaca closed to him on her
account."
Indignation at her husband's injustice burnt a red spot in Helen's
cheeks and kindled a flame of unusual animation in her placid blue eyes.
"You know better, Ebenezer," she retorted. "Forrie's given her a
father's care, and every one worth while honors him for it."
Frederick, kept in his attitude of tense attention by a sudden revival
of his jealousy of Young, sighed audibly and settled back in his chair.
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Helen," he said earnestly.
"Oh, are you, Fred?" cried Madelene. "So your old interest in that girl
isn't dead, yet? Well, all I can say is, I am sorry she didn't get you,
but I'll bet she's glad, now, she didn't."
Waldstricker looked keenly from the speaker to her husband. But
Frederick had again put on his mask of apathetic indifference and
answered his wife's gibe only by a shrug of his shoulders. Noting her
brother's scowling face, she went on maliciously.
"You'd better keep away from the lake place, my dear husband, or you'll
have both Ebbie and Forrie after you."
"Will you have your tea now, Madelene?" Helen was alarmed at the
threatened tempest, and hoped to change the subject.
"Yes, thanks, dear," and to her brother, "After all, Ebbie, Forrie
probably knows his own business best. You know he's quite partial to the
squatters and always did things for 'em."
Mrs. Waldstricker summoned the servant, and while the dishes were being
removed, Ebenezer sat and glowered from Frederick, white and distrait,
to his wife, who was explaining to Madelene the way she'd made the salad
dressing. When the servant had gone, Waldstricker began again.
"I'm out of patience with Deforrest! If he'd let me alone, I'd had all
the squatters off the lake side before this and probably would have
located Bishop."
"You've heard nothing of him, Ebbie, I suppose?" asked Madelene. "It
does seem queer a dwarf could disappear like that and not a word about
him from any part of the world."
Waldstricker's powerful hand clenched the teaspoon in his fingers so
violently as to bend the handle.
"No, I haven't," he growled. "I've a notion he's being harbored by some
of the squatters. But I want Deforrest to understand this--"
"Oh, let's talk of something else besides squatters," cried Madelene.
"Helen, your salad was divine.... Tell me, Ebbie, how you enjoy little
Elsie. I think she's lovely."
"Lovely!" he repeated in a very different tone. "Lovely is no word for
that child. She's an angel, isn't she, Helen?"
Helen smiled dubiously.
"An angel, very much spoiled, I fear."
"No such thing," argued Waldstricker, glad of an opportunity to air his
favorite theory. "Now Helen thinks the child's spoiled because she drops
on the floor and kicks and cries until she gets what she wants. I tell
her it's human nature, and perfectly right for my child to have her own
way. Thank God, there's nothing in the world she can't have."
Then looking from Frederick to his sister, he made a heavy attempt to be
humorous.
"What's the matter of you two? You've been married longer than Helen and
I. When are you going to start your family?"
Frederick maintained his pose of bored unconcern and an angry flush
mounted to Madelene's face.
"You think you're smart, Eb," she retorted. "Fred's all the baby I can
look after, and goodness knows he's trouble enough!"
"But, now, you're here, dear," Mrs. Waldstricker extended the olive
branch again, "we'll help you look after him.... I do hope the
weather'll clear so we can get out. The lake's been simply beautiful
this summer."
"Just after I returned from Europe, I tried to dispossess Deforrest,"
Ebenezer told Fred, "but he beat me in court. I wanted to clean up the
scandalous mess. I felt he was breaking God's law in harboring a woman
of that kind. But I'm only biding my time." His voice sank as he cast
his eyes slowly from one to another, at last, fixing them ominously upon
his wife. "Biding my time," he growled deeply, laying his napkin on the
table.
The gloom of his manner spread over the diners like a cloud. Helen's
face expressed consternation; Frederick's discouragement, and Madelene's
impatience.
"I must say this is pleasant," snapped Mrs. Graves. "Ebbie, I forbid you
to speak of those people again tonight."
Helen made a little move as though to rise. In her capacity as
peacemaker, it seemed advisable to change the scene of hostilities.
"Let's go to the drawing room," she invited.... "Fred, don't you think
you'd better go to bed?"
"Yes, I'm all tired out. I think I will."
At the drawing room door, he turned to the stairs.
"Good-night, all," he added, and went slowly up to his room.
Reclining in a big chair, Frederick recalled the talk at the supper
table and let his fancy rove in dreams of Tessibel and his son.
What a cruel persecutor Ebenezer was! How Helen had suffered during his
outrageous harangue! The young man ground his teeth. So Ebenezer was but
biding his time to do some terrible harm to Tessibel and her little boy,
his boy! Frederick breathed deeply, and pressed his hand upon his heart.
Would the thing never stop beating that way! Would it never in this
world quit that awful hurt when he thought of the squatter country! He
undressed hastily and went to bed, nor did he speak when Madelene crept
softly in beside him.