GONE!
"I am waiting, Dr. Wright," said Helen, after the notary public had
taken his departure and Douglas had gone to put finishing touches to the
very rapid packing of steamer trunks, Mrs. Carter helping in her
pathetically inefficient way. Helen stood at the top of the stairs to
intercept the doctor as he left the patient's room.
"Waiting for what?"
"For you to tell me you were astonished to find me in my father's room
when you had given express orders that none of us were to see him."
"But I was not astonished."
"Oh, you expected to find me?"
"I did not know whether I should find you, but I knew very well you
would go there."
"So you thought I would sneak in and sneak out?"
"I did not call it sneaking but I was pretty sure you had no confidence
in me and would do your own sweet will. I hope you are satisfied now
that it was best not to excite your father."
"But I did not excite him. He just talked in that terrible way himself.
You are cruel to say I made him worse!"
"But I did not say so. Certainly, however, you made him no better. He
said himself he waked when you came in and you did not deny it. Of
course, sleep is always 'kind Nature's sweet restorer.' If you will let
me pass, I will now go to see Miss Douglas about ordering your car for
the train this evening. We have only about an hour's time and there is
still a great deal to do. There is the expressman now for the trunks."
"Can't even trust me to order the chauffeur to have the car at the
door," cried Helen bitterly to herself as the doctor went past her. "I
am of no use to any one in the whole world and I wish I were dead."
The look of agony in the girl's face made an impression on the young man
in spite of the strong resentment he felt toward her. He was somewhat
like Helen in that he was not accustomed to disapproval, and being
flouted by this schoolgirl was not a pleasant morsel to swallow. He felt
sure of his diagnosis of Mr. Carter's case, for, having served for
several years as head assistant in a large sanitarium in New York, he
was well acquainted with the symptoms of nervous prostration. Of course,
his sending the patient on a sea voyage instead of placing him in a
sanitarium was somewhat of a risk, but he felt it was the best thing to
do, reading the man's character as he had.
Helen's scorn and doubt of him and her seeming selfishness had certainly
done little to recommend her in his eyes, but gentleness and sympathy
were the strongest points in George Wright's make-up, and as he went by
the girl he could read in her face agony, extreme agony and desperation.
He went up the steps again, two at a time, and said gently:
"Miss Helen, would you be so kind as to see about the car for me? Order
it for 7.45. I am going to put them on at the downtown station and get
them all installed in the drawing-room with the door shut so they need
not see all the Richmond people who are sure to be taking this night
train to New York and getting on at Elba, the uptown stop."
"Yes--and thank you."
"By Jove," thought the young man, "that girl is some looker! If she had
the sense of her sister Douglas, I believe she would be pretty nice,
too."
Helen's whole countenance had changed. From the proud, scornful girl,
she had turned again into her own self, the Helen her sisters knew and
loved.
"You might see that Bobby is kept kind of quiet, too. Tell him I will
take him out with me again soon and let him blow my horn and poke out
his arm when we turn the corners, if he will be quiet for an hour."
"All right," said Helen meekly, wondering at her own docility in so
calmly being bossed by this person whom she still meant to despise. She
interviewed the chauffeur, ordering the car at the proposed time, and
then captured Bobby, who was making his way to his father's room. She
inveigled him into the back yard where she kept him in a state of bliss,
having her supper out there with him and playing tea party to his
heart's content, even pretending to eat his wonderful mud "pies an'
puddin's."
It was almost time for the dread departure and still she kept watch over
Bobby. The mother came out in the back yard to kiss her children
good-by. Poor little mother! The meadow brook has surely come on rocky
places now. What effect is it to have? Perhaps the channel will be
broadened and deepened when the shoals are past. Who knows?
Gone, at last! No one even to wave farewell, so implicitly did the
Carter household obey the stern mandates of the doctor. Even the negro
servants kept in the background while their beloved master and mistress
were borne away by the smoothly rolling car.
"Seems mos' lak a funeral," sobbed Oscar, "lak a funeral in yellow
feber times down in Mobile, whar I libed onct. Nobody went to them
funerals fer fear er ketching sompen from de corpse. Saddes' funerals
ebber I seed."
The girls were sure those funerals could not have been any sadder than
this going away of their parents. Once more they gathered in the
library, as forlorn a family as one could find in the whole world, they
were sure. Their eyes were red and their noses redder. Douglas had had
the brunt of the labor in getting the packing done and had held out
wonderfully until it was all over, and now she had fallen in a little
heap on the sofa and was sobbing her soul out.
Nan was doing her best to comfort her while Lucy was bawling like a baby
on Helen's shoulder, truce between the two declared for the time being.
"I feel just like the British would if the Rock of Gibraltar had turned
into brown sugar and melted into the sea," declared Helen, when the
storm had blown itself out and a calmness of despair had settled down on
all of them.
"That's just it," agreed Nan. "Father has always been just like
Gibraltar to us. His picture would have done just as well for the
Prudential Life Insurance ad as Gibraltar did."
"If you could just have heard him talk as he did to me. Oh, girls, I
feel as though I had killed him!" and Helen gave a dry sob that made
Lucy put an arm around her. "I have sworn a solemn swear to myself: I am
not going to wear a single silk stocking nor yet a pair of them until
Father comes home, and not then unless he is well. I have some old
cotton ones that I got for the Camp-Fire Girls' hike, the only ones I
ever had since I can remember, and I am going to wear those until I can
get some more. I hate 'em, too! They make my toes feel like old rusty
potatoes in a bag."
This made the girls laugh. A laugh made them feel better. Maybe behind
the clouds the sun was, after all, still shining and they would not have
to wear rubbers and raincoats forever.
"You remind me of the old man we saw up at Wytheville who had such very
long whiskers, having sworn never to cut them off or trim them until the
Democrats elected a President," drawled Nan. "Those whiskers did some
growing between Cleveland's and Wilson's Administrations. You remember
when Wilson was elected and he shaved them off, his wife made a big sofa
cushion out of them; and the old man had become so used to the great
weight on his chin, that now he was freed from it, his chin just
naturally flew up in the air and made him look like his check rein was
too tight."
"Yes, I remember," declared Lucy; "and his wife said she was going to
strap the cushion back on where his whiskers used to be if he didn't
stop holding his head so haughty." Another laugh and the sun came out in
their hearts.
Dr. Wright had assured them that their father would be well. He had
had many patients who had been in much worse condition who were now
perfectly well. Mr. Carter's case had been taken hold of in time and the
doctor was trusting to his splendid constitution and the quiet of the
ocean to work wonders in him. In the meantime, it was necessary for the
girls to begin to think about what they were to do.
"I think we had better not try to come to any conclusion to-night," said
Douglas, "we are all of us so worn out, at least I am. We will sleep on
it and then to-morrow get together and all try to bring some plan and
idea. There was almost no money left in the bank after the tickets for
the voyage were bought and money put in Mother's bag for incidentals."
"Poor little Muddy, just think of her having to be the purse bearer! I
don't believe she knows fifty cents from a quarter," sighed Nan.
"Well, Mother will have to go to school just like the rest of us. I
fancy we only know the difference in size and not much about the value
of either. Dr. Wright wrote a check for the amount in bank, showing from
Father's check book, and after he had paid for the tickets, he left the
rest for me to put to my account. I am awfully mortified, but I don't
know how to deposit money--and as for writing a check--I'd sooner write
a thesis on French history. I know I could do it better."
Douglas smothered a little sigh. This was no time to think of self or to
repine about her private ambitions, but somehow the thought would creep
in that this meant good-by to college for her. She had planned to take
examinations for Bryn Mawr early in June and was confident of passing.
She had her father's ability to stick to a thing until it was
accomplished, and no matter how distasteful a subject was to her, she
mastered it. This was her graduating year at school. Now all joy of the
approaching commencement was gone. She was sorry that her dress was
already bought, and in looking over the check book, she had found it was
paid for, too. Forty dollars for one dress and that of material that had
at the best but little wearing quality! Beautiful, of course, but when a
family had been spending money as freely as this family had always done,
what business had one of them with a forty dollar white dress with no
wear to it when the balance in the bank showed only eighty-three
dollars and fifty-nine cents?
A sharp ringing of the front door bell interrupted Douglas's musings and
made all of the sisters conscious of their red eyes and noses.
"Who under Heaven? It is nine o'clock!"
"Cousin Lizzie Somerville, of course. She always rings like the house
was on fire."
It was Miss Elizabeth Somerville, a second cousin of their father. She
came into the library in rather unseemly haste for one of her usual
dignity.
"Where is your father?" she demanded, without the ceremony of greeting
the girls. "I must see him immediately. Your mother, too, of course, if
she wants to come down, but I must see your father."
"But he is gone!"
"Gone where? When will he return?"
"In about two months," said Helen coolly. Helen was especially gifted in
tackling Cousin Lizzie, who was of an overbearing nature that needed
handling. "He and Mother have gone to Bermuda."
"Bermuda in the summer! Nonsense! Tell me when I can see him, as it is
of the greatest importance. I should think you could see that I am in
trouble and not stand there teasing me," and since it was to be a day of
tears, Cousin Lizzie burst out crying, too.
"Oh, Cousin Lizzie, I am so sorry! I did not mean to tease. I am not
teasing. Father is ill, you must have noticed how knocked up he has been
looking lately, and the doctor has taken him with Mother to New York.
They have just gone, and they are to sail on a slow steamer to Bermuda
and Panama in the morning. Please let us help you if we can."
"You help! A lot of silly girls! It is about my nephew Lewis!" and the
poor lady wept anew.