GUST and September passed, and, in passing, seemed as placid and
uneventful as any two months that ever slipped quietly away. To Alice no
day and no week held any especial significance; if she had been asked to
tell the most important event of the two months, she would probably
have said that it was the completion of the set of twelve embroidered
doilies, and the centerpiece to match, the first work she had undertaken
for her new home--the home to be--since her engagement to Lanny had
come about. David Dean could have thought of nothing of particular
importance. Old Mrs. Grelling had died, but she had been at death's door
so long her final passing through was hardly an event, and nothing else
had occurred. Lanny would have said everything was running smoothly;
his pitching arm kept in good condition, his work was steady at the
_Gazette_ office, and Alice's letters to some extent took the place of
the visits to Riverbank which the Sunday ball games made impossible. Old
P. K. Welsh seemed to have forgotten his anger against the dominie, and
used the “Briefs” to lambaste other Riverbankers. Herwig was still in
business and Mary Ann, Mr. Fragg's housekeeper, clung to life. Rose
Hinch was still nursing the old housekeeper and getting Fragg's meals.
'Thusia was no better and no worse. The two months were uneventful. They
were months of which we are accustomed to say: “Everything is going the
same as usual.”
We deceive ourselves. The quiet days build the great catastrophies. The
greatest builder and demolisher is Time, and he works toward his ends
on quiet days as well as on noisy days; works more rapidly and more
insidiously, perhaps. If Time does nothing else to us on quiet days, he
makes us a day older each day. To-day I am the indestructible granite;
to-morrow a speck of dust touches me and is too small to see; the next
day it is a smudge of green; the next it is a lichen; it is a patch of
moss that can be brushed away with the hand; it is a cushion of wood
violets and oxalis; it is a mat in which a seedling tree takes root; the
roots pry and the moisture rots and the granite rock falls apart, and I
am dead.
The two months that passed so quietly and happily for Alice Dean were
equally happy months for Ben Derling. He was never the youth to make
of courtship a hurrah and a race; he hardly considered he was courting
Alice--he was seeing her oftener than he had seen her, and enjoying it.
Alice was but filling in the days and evenings as pleasantly as possible
during Lanny's absence. If Ben had been the eager instigator of their
meetings Alice would have drawn back, but Ben instigated nothing;
Lucille Hardcome stood between them, and was the reason they met. Alice
went to Lucille's because Lucille wished her musical evenings to be a
success; Ben was there because he was a part of the proposed programs.
The two young people were musicians, not susceptible male and female,
and they met as musicians, interested in a common desire to assist
Lucille. By the end of the two months Alice had greater respect and
liking for Ben than she had ever imagined possible. She had thought him
a dull boy; she found him solid, sincere and more than comfortable. By
the end of the two months Ben, not aware that Alice was pledged, had
decided that she was the girl he wished--but no hurry!--to have as a
wife. Lucille was pleased but impatient. Mary Derling, seeing how things
were going, was pleased but not impatient.
Alice was unaware of any change in her feeling for Lanny. She wrote him
letters that were as loving as love letters should be, and Lanny wrote
with equal regularity. He wrote daily. Toward the end of September Alice
was not quite as eager in her reading of his letters, mainly because
their mere arrival was satisfactory evidence that Lanny still loved her.
She wrote a little less frequently; there was not enough news to make
letters necessary, except as expressions of affection. Without knowing
it, she was reluctant to express her affection as unrestrainedly as at
first. She let one of Lanny's letters remain unopened a full day.
Once she passed old P. K. Welsh on the street: he did not notice her,
probably did not know she was Alice Dean, but Alice felt an irritation;
it was too bad Lanny had such a father. Without anything having
happened, the end of the two months found this difference in Alice:
whereas, at the beginning of August she was in love with Lanny, and
eager for the wedding, at the end of September she was in love with him,
and not eager for the wedding. Probably if Lanny had made a few trips to
Riverbank just then it would have made all the difference possible. He
was magnetic; he was not a magnetic correspondent.
The unimportant two months had for David Dean several vastly important
littlenesses. Lucille, preliminary to her “evenings,” asked David to run
in and hear how well her amateurs were progressing, and she asked
Mary Derling, too. She had in mind a trial of the effect of a family
grouping, as if the presence of Mary and David would be an unwitting
approval of growing intimacy of Ben and Alice. David, always music
hungry, enjoyed the evenings of practice; Mary did not care much for
music, and cared a little less for Lucille. She made excuses. After one
evening she declined and went to the manse instead; she enjoyed being
with 'Thusia. At the far end of Lucille's rather spacious parlor David
and Lucille sat, while Ben and Alice tried their music. Lucille talked
of everything that might interest David. She adopted the fiction
that she and the dominie were in close confidence, and attuned her
conversation to the fiction. She was continually saying, “But you and
I know--” and, “You and I, however--” David as consistently declined to
share the appearance of close confidence, but how could he be too harsh
when the twin thoughts of what Lucille was doing for Alice and what he
owed Lucille in cash (and hoped to get from her in subscription) were
always present! The two eventless months also brought the note sixty
days nearer due. They did not bring the subscription Lucille had hinted.
Now and then a flush of worry ran through David--how would he be able to
reduce the amount of the note when the six months were up? Certainly
not out of any savings; his expenses seemed to be running a little in
advance of his salary, as usual.
For 'Thusia's father the two months brought closer and clearer the
certainty that he could not keep the coal business intact much longer.
After the January settlements, or after the April settlements, at
latest, the bank would see that his affairs were hopeless. Concerning
his business, all he hoped now was that he could keep things going until
Mary Ann died. He had an idea, hazy and which he dared not think into
concreteness, that--once out of business--he might make a living doing
something. At the same time he knew he could do nothing of the sort; he
had not the health. He was merely trying to avoid admitting to himself
that he was about to become a charge on David Dean.
The crash--and it was a very gentle crash, and well deadened by the bank
which did not want unprofitable reverberations--came in April. As the
fact reached the newspapers and the public, it appeared that Mr. Fragg
was selling out on account of his failing health, and that before
embarking in another business he would rest and recuperate. His books
showed that when everything was turned into cash he would still be
indebted to the bank, and the coal mines or factors, something over four
thousand dollars. The house was gone, of course. Mary Ann had died in
December, and Mr. Fragg had not tried to replace her; for several months
he had been boarding. It was evident to him and to David that the old
man could not board much longer; there was no money to pay the board
bills. There was one room vacant at the manse, the room that had been
“fixed up” for a maid, under the roof, used now as a storage place since
Alice did the work of the dismissed maid. Here old Mr. Fragg took the
few belongings the room would accommodate.
For many years after this the old man was often seen in Riverbank. Bad
days he was unable to go out; on bright days he walked slowly downtown.
He had his friends, merchants who were glad, or at least willing, to
have him sit in their offices, and with them he spent the days. Now and
then 'Thusia gave him a little money--a dollar or two, all that could be
afforded--and so his life ran to a close. He would have been quite happy
if he could have paid his own way. Love and kindness enveloped him in
David's home; he was the dearly loved grandfather. He would have been
quite happy, without paying his way, if he had not known how hard it was
for even David to live on his salary. He worried about that constantly.