"THE MOTHER AND CHILD"
Little Paul, as I immediately saw as soon as I looked at him, was very
ill. He had, of late, always shown pleasure at my coming; he had babbled
of simple things and of mysteries; his little arms spontaneously came to
me and I would take him in my arms and get moist kisses from his tiny
lips and dandle him and share in his ecstasies over woolly lambs.
Porter came in a few minutes later and declared the trouble to be a
beginning of measles. Eulalie acknowledged that, a week or ten days
before, Baby Paul had come in contact with a blotchy infant in the Park.
She had snatched him up and carried him away, after which she had
thought no more about it. We sent at once for a trained nurse, whom
Eulalie at first considered as an intruder with evil intentions, but
whose gentle ministrations soon won her heart.
"Am I to send immediately for Mrs. Dupont?" I asked the doctor.
"It doesn't look like a very severe case," he answered, "but it might be
better to communicate with her."
A few minutes later I had Frances on the long-distance telephone,
greatest of marvels. I stood in her little hallway in New York, and over
in Buffalo, a half a thousand miles away or so, I heard her dear voice
becoming excited and tremulous.
"I simply must sing to-night," she was saying, "but from the
concert-hall I will rush to the station and take the train. No, don't
take the trouble to meet me, David dear, for I'll jump in a taxi and
come ever so quick, but you can be at the apartment, if you like. No, I
can't tell you the exact time, but it will be the first train after
eleven o'clock. You can look in the time table and find out when it
reaches New York. Thank you a thousand times, David dear!"
When I announced my intention of remaining all night at the flat,
Eulalie gave a clamorous sigh of relief. She proposed to make a bed for
me on the sofa. She regretted that she had but a much worn pair of her
slippers she could offer me, vast pedic recipients she brought me
apologetically and which I felt compelled to decline. She insisted I
should use a rug to wrap around my legs, because that woman in the cap
persisted in leaving the window open. She wanted to know what she could
prepare for my supper?
At last, she left me in peace and the long night began. Sleep! It was
impossible to think of such a thing. The room was kept very dark because
Miss Follansbee explained that children's eyes were very sensitive
during the measles, and easily inflamed. For many hours, from the sofa
on which I sat, I watched this stranger, gradually realizing how capable
and attentive she was. Porter came in again at twelve and remained for a
long time with me, uttering words of encouragement. Yes, he informed me,
children sometimes died of the measles, generally when it became
complicated with pneumonia, but, with good care, the great majority
recovered. There was nothing alarming, so far. The fever would probably
fall a little as soon as the eruption had come out in full force.
He drives a little car now and, I am glad to say, is prospering. I think
he cast his bread upon the waters when he was so kind to Frances. At
her words of advice, a number of singers have consulted him, and he is
doing well. Of course she paid the very moderate fees he asked and told
him, as she has told me, that she would ever be his debtor.
So he went away again, after putting a comforting hand on my shoulder,
and the hours went slowly by in the dimly lighted room, my thoughts
going constantly to the mother who was now speeding towards us. I
remember hoping that she would be able to sleep a little on the train.
To me the hours were long, but, at least, I was near and fairly
reassured; to her, in deep anxiety, they must be agonizing.
It is possible that in the wee small hours I dozed a little, though I
never reclined on the sofa. At any rate Miss Follansbee assured me that
I had a few catnaps. At last the light began to return; carts and autos
began to pass through the busy street; men and women were going by,
hurriedly, seeking the day's work. Eulalie gave me some breakfast, with
much strong and delicious coffee, and Miss Follansbee awaited the coming
of Dr. Porter before retiring for a few hours of rest. He told me that
he was quite satisfied, but I looked at him incredulously, for the
baby's face was of an appalling hue. He insisted that it was all in the
game and would last but for a few days. He promised to return early in
the afternoon and, after he left, Miss Follansbee gave me many
directions and strict injunctions, after which she went to the room that
had been prepared for her, enjoining me to call her if there was the
slightest need.
The shades were lowered and the room kept dark. I sat by the little
crib, thinking and watching, and the baby's harsh little cough
distressed me badly, for I dearly loved him.
So the morning wore on and I rose often and looked out of the window, as
if, by some miracle, the train could have come in ahead of schedule
time. Baby Paul began to moan, and I hastened back to him. He stretched
his little arms out to me, being, perhaps, weary of the hot bed. At any
rate he cried to have me take him up, so that I wrapped him in the
little blanket and lifted him out. In my arms he rested quietly again
and fell asleep, so that I dared not move.
Then I heard the key in the latch, in the hallway outside, and she
rushed in, casting her hat upon the bed. A second later she was
kneeling at my side, weeping and yet glad, glad that he was living, glad
to be again near him. And I dared only whisper a word of welcome to her,
lest he might awaken. But soon he opened his eyes, that were very red,
and blinked in the faint light, and wanted her.
So he was taken from my arms into hers, and she sat with him in a
rocking chair. For some minutes I stood up before her, in my clumsy way,
looking at her. I could do so to my heart's content, for her eyes were
only for Baby Paul. She rocked him, gently, and her wonderful voice
came, sweet and low like the murmur of brooks, the distant song of
birds, the sighing of aspens in a summer night's scented breeze. And so
the baby slept again, secure and comforted in her dear arms.
Then she looked at me, and a smile came to her face. It is possible that
her quick glance detected some slight rumpling of collar and tie, or
some disorder of hair I had last brushed the day before.
"David dear, have you been up all night with him?" she asked.
"Yes, but Miss Follansbee took care of him. I knew I would be perfectly
useless, but then, Baby Paul is Baby Paul, you see, and--and any one has
the right to love a baby. You don't object to that, I'm sure, you--you
like to have me love him, don't you?"
"I just love to see you so fond of him, Dave," she answered.
"Yes, I felt that you did. And that's why I stayed, because I knew you
wouldn't mind. And now I'll go away and--and come back early this
evening to find out how you both are and--and I won't bother you. You'll
tell me if I do, won't you?"
"Of course, Dave, as soon as you grow troublesome, I'll let you know. I
will tell you, when I become tired of you. Oh, Dave dear! You're the
kindest and most lovable creature in the world, and--and it's a joy and
a blessing to have you near!"
"I'm awfully glad," I told her, "because when I can't see you and Baby
Paul, life isn't--it isn't much of a pleasure, you know. And so I'll go
off now and have a bath and fix up a little and then----"
"Then you ought to lie down and have a good nap, because you need a
rest, and don't come back too soon or I'll know you have been
disobedient, Dave."
She was smiling at me, and yet there was a tear hanging on her long
lashes. Surely, the emotion of that summoning and of the hurried anxious
journey had been hard upon her.
So I went out, just as Frieda came bustling in, monstrously alarmed and
immediately made happy by the knowledge that there was, as yet, no
danger, and I went home where I met Mrs. Milliken on the doorstep.
"How d'ye do, Mr. Cole," she said. "You look a bit played out and your
bed ain't been slept in. At your time o' life you want to take more care
of your health. I wanted to say something as I ain't told any one yet.
I'm goin' to give up the house soon. My uncle Ambrose he died and has
left me a little money, so I'm going to be a lady of leisure now and
live with my daughter."
"I wish you joy, Mrs. Milliken. You deserve a rest from your hard
toiling."
I left her and climbed up to my room. It seems that I shall have to give
it up soon. Yet it is the only little corner of the earth I am attached
to. Where shall I go?
The room opposite is vacant still. I have been paying rent for it since
Frances left, being unable to bear the idea of its being occupied by--by
any one else. Besides, I can go in there when I want to and sit in the
armchair and indulge in memories of the days when I saw her so often. I
didn't know I was so happy then, but I realize it now, with no feelings
of regret, because I know her life is so much fuller and happier now
that she is in a world no longer of sadness and anxious care.
And so I saw Frances and Baby Paul every day for another week, and he
got along so well that it was a joy to watch his constant improvement.
Mrs. Gobbins, over by the little lake, answered a letter of mine, saying
that she would be delighted to have Mrs. Dupont there, and the baby, for
as long a time as she cared to stay. Porter had recommended a little
country air.
It was heartbreaking to say good-by. I had meant to go with them, at
least for a day, but at the last minute Ceballo insisted I must attend
the first rehearsal of the "Land o' Love," a play in four acts. So I
went to the theatre, but for the life of me could take little interest
in what went on. I returned home with a dreadful headache, and the next
morning my throat was sore and my limbs ached. When Mrs. Milliken came
up to attend to the room, she found me still in bed and insisted on
sending for Dr. Porter at once.
"Hello! I'm afraid you'll have to go to the babies' ward," he told me,
after a glance.
"What the deuce do you mean?" I said. "I'm as sick as a dog."
"I know you are and I beg your pardon, old man."
"What is it?" I asked him.
"Baby Paul has given you the measles," he answered.
"Nonsense, grown people don't get that."
"They sometimes do," he assured me, after which he prescribed some
medicine and spent several hours with me, that day, while I
anathematized my luck and felt properly ashamed of my infantile
complaint. After this a bad cough came, followed by a pain in my chest,
and the medicine put me asleep, I think, for I woke up to find Frieda on
one side of me and a nurse on the other. It was Miss Follansbee, who had
looked after Baby Paul, and Frieda had gone off and haled her back,
bodily. It was only afterwards that I knew my measles were complicated
with pneumonia.
There was a week that was a sort of nightmare, I think, because for days
I didn't know very much, and tossed about, and felt that pain in my side
most of the time, and struggled unavailingly for a decent long breath
that wouldn't hurt. One day a strange doctor came in with Dr. Porter.
Later, arrived a morning when I felt ever so well and Miss Follansbee
was dozing a little in her chair, looking very weary, and the breathing
was no longer painful and Porter came in and capered about the room and
Frieda smeared her cheeks with the rubbing in of tears of joy. I suppose
I must have been rather badly off during some of those days.
Then came the evening and with it a queer notion that visions and
strange dreams were coming back to me, for through the open door there
sounded a footfall I had been hearing vaguely and longing for. Suddenly,
Frances rushed in and was kneeling by my bed.
"Oh, Dave dearest!" she cried, "You wicked, wicked man! They tell me
that you forbade them to let me know for fear I would bring Baby back
before he was all well! I'll never forgive you!"
As a proof of her anger, I suppose, she had taken up my thin bony hand
and was kissing it.
"Please, please don't," I whispered hoarsely. "You--you'll get it too,
first thing you know, and it's bad when it gets on one's lungs. You
might lose that beautiful dear voice of yours again."
But she rose, shaking her head at me like a mother who feels that her
boy is incorrigible, and dragged a chair by the bed and put her finger
to her lips when I would have spoken again, and laid her soft hand on
mine, whereupon sleep came, dreamless and beautiful.
During the night a hand gave me water, once or twice, and milk, I think,
and I slept again and, when I awoke in the morning, I turned my head.
"Miss Follansbee," I said, "I rather think----"
"I told her that she must have a good night's sleep, Dave," came the
beloved voice, "and I've been playing nurse, ever so poorly, I'm afraid.
But Dr. Porter said that you would be all right now. And--and I've been
so happy to be in the dear old room, and to see the old typewriter, and
the calabash, and to know you are getting well again."
"I--I am thrice blessed," I said, "but it is too bad you took so much
trouble. You must be dreadfully tired."
"I've been tired so long, Dave," she said, with tears coming to her
eyes. "It--it has been such weary waiting."
"The nights are awfully long," I told her.
"The nights and the days, David dearest. I've been waiting such a long,
long time."
She threw herself on her knees by the bed, and took up my hand, stroking
it, and suddenly an amazing light seemed to flood the room, laden with
knowledge, sweeping away fears, bringing a tremulous bliss to my heart.
"Dearest love!" I cried. "Is this true, or is it another dream? How
could I speak of my love to you? How could old Dave cry out to the
beautiful star that was so high up in the wonderful sky? I feared it
would vanish and leave me in utter darkness. Do--do you mean that I may
tell you of my heart's desire?"
"Yes, David dearest! Tell me of it. Tell it forever, for years and years
to come. I've been so hungry for those words you dared not tell."
"I--I am all unshaven and unshorn," I said, "and----"
"But in spite of that, you're my own dearest Dave, with the strength of
a man and the heart of a child."
So she bent over and her dear lips touched mine, and the days of sorrow
were ended.
* * * * *
Some days later she took my arm. It was my first walk. I was to go as
far as the room that had been hers and back again. For this tremendous
excursion I was clad in a gorgeous dressing-gown Frieda had bought for
me, and my cheeks were shaven clean and, somehow, I felt young again, as
if the dear hand in mine had brushed away a score of years.
So I went with her, leaning upon her. She opened the door and led me in.
Frieda was there, and Gordon and Sophia. Near the window there was an
easel, and upon it I saw Gordon's masterpiece, which they had sent with
their love. And the painted "Mother and Child" was mine, as the living
ones also were.