Madame Zen.o.bie contrived to be near enough, as they reached the lower floor, to come in for a share of the meagre adieu. She gave her hand with a dainty grace and a bow that might have been imported from Paris.
Dr. Sevier paused on the front step, half turned toward the open door where the husband still tarried. That was not speech; it was scarcely action; but the young man understood it and was silent. In truth, the Doctor himself felt a pang in this sort of farewell. A physician"s way through the world is paved, I have heard one say, with these broken bits of other"s lives, of all colors and all degrees of beauty. In his reminiscences, when he can do no better, he gathers them up, and, turning them over and over in the darkened chamber of his retrospection, sees patterns of delight lit up by the softened rays of bygone time. But even this renews the pain of separation, and Dr. Sevier felt, right here at this door-step, that, if this was to be the last of the Richlings, he would feel the twinge of parting every time they came up again in his memory.
He looked at the house opposite,--where there was really nothing to look at,--and at a woman who happened to be pa.s.sing, and who was only like a thousand others with whom he had nothing to do.
"Richling," he said, "what brings you to New Orleans, any way?"
Richling leaned his cheek against the door-post.
"Simply seeking my fortune, Doctor."
"Do you think it is here?"
"I"m pretty sure it is; the world owes me a living."
The Doctor looked up.
"When did you get the world in your debt?"
Richling lifted his head pleasantly, and let one foot down a step.
"It owes me a chance to earn a living, doesn"t it?"
"I dare say," replied the other; "that"s what it generally owes."
"That"s all I ask of it," said Richling; "if it will let us alone we"ll let it alone."
"You"ve no right to allow either," said the physician. "No, sir; no," he insisted, as the young man looked incredulous. There was a pause. "Have you any capital?" asked the Doctor.
"Capital! No,"--with a low laugh.
"But surely you have something to"--
"Oh, yes,--a little!"
The Doctor marked the southern "Oh." There is no "O" in Milwaukee.
"You don"t find as many vacancies as you expected to see, I suppose--h-m-m?"
There was an under-glow of feeling in the young man"s tone as he replied:--
"I was misinformed."
"Well," said the Doctor, staring down-street, "you"ll find something.
What can you do?"
"Do? Oh, I"m willing to do anything!"
Dr. Sevier turned his gaze slowly, with a shade of disappointment in it.
Richling rallied to his defences.
"I think I could make a good book-keeper, or correspondent, or cashier, or any such"--
The Doctor interrupted, with the back of his head toward his listener, looking this time up the street, riverward:--
"Yes;--or a shoe,--or a barrel,--h-m-m?"
Richling bent forward with the frown of defective hearing, and the physician raised his voice:--
"Or a cart-wheel--or a coat?"
"I can make a living," rejoined the other, with a needlessly resentful-heroic manner, that was lost, or seemed to be, on the physician.
"Richling,"--the Doctor suddenly faced around and fixed a kindly severe glance on him,--"why didn"t you bring letters?"
"Why,"--the young man stopped, looked at his feet, and distinctly blushed. "I think," he stammered--"it seems to me"--he looked up with a faltering eye--"don"t you think--I think a man ought to be able to recommend _himself_."
The Doctor"s gaze remained so fixed that the self-recommended man could not endure it silently.
"_I_ think so," he said, looking down again and swinging his foot.
Suddenly he brightened. "Doctor, isn"t this your carriage coming?"
"Yes; I told the boy to drive by here when it was mended, and he might find me." The vehicle drew up and stopped. "Still, Richling," the physician continued, as he stepped toward it, "you had better get a letter or two, yet; you might need them."
The door of the carriage clapped to. There seemed a touch of vexation in the sound. Richling, too, closed his door, but in the soft way of one in troubled meditation. Was this a proper farewell? The thought came to both men.
"Stop a minute!" said Dr. Sevier to his driver. He leaned out a little at the side of the carriage and looked back. "Never mind; he has gone in."
The young husband went upstairs slowly and heavily, more slowly and heavily than might be explained by his all-day unsuccessful tramp after employment. His wife still rested in the rocking-chair. He stood against it, and she took his hand and stroked it.
"Tired?" she asked, looking up at him. He gazed into the languishing fire.
"Yes."
"You"re not discouraged, are you?"
"Discouraged? N-no. And yet," he said, slowly shaking his head, "I can"t see why I don"t find something to do."
"It"s because you don"t hunt for it," said the wife.
He turned upon her with flashing countenance only to meet her laugh, and to have his head pulled down to her lips. He dropped into the seat left by the physician, laid his head back in his knit hands, and crossed his feet under the chair.
"John, I do _like_ Dr. Sevier."
"Why?" The questioner looked at the ceiling.
"Why, don"t you like him?" asked the wife, and, as John smiled, she added, "You know you like him."
The husband grasped the poker in both hands, dropped his elbows upon his knees, and began touching the fire, saying slowly:--