"You"re afraid "fi"s here mother"d come a-visitin," said the girl keenly.
"You"re too young to understand half the trouble that might follow. My plans are too uncertain for me to tangle myself up. You and your mother must go away at once, so I can do what I must do before it"s too late in the season. Here"s a couple of dollars which you can keep for yourself," and he went up to his room, feeling that he could not witness the child"s distress any longer.
He fought hard against despondency and tried to face the actual condition of his affairs. "I might have known," he thought, "that things would have turned out somewhat as they have, with such women in the house, and I don"t see much chance of getting better ones. I"ve been so bent on staying and going on as I used to that I"ve just shut my eyes to the facts." He got out an old account book and pored over it a long time. The entries therein were blind enough, but at last he concluded, "It"s plain that I"ve lost money on the dairy ever since my wife died, and the prospects now are worse than ever. That Weeks tribe will set the whole town talking against me and it will be just about impossible to get a decent woman to come here. I might as well have an auction and sell all the cows but one at once. After that, if I find I can"t make out living alone, I"ll put the place in better order and sell or rent. I can get my own meals after a fashion, and old Jonathan Johnson"s wife will do my washing and mending. It"s time it was done better than it has been, for some of my clothes make me look like a scarecrow. I believe Jonathan will come with his cross dog and stay here too, when I must be away. Well, well, it"s a hard lot for a man; but I"d be about as bad off, and a hundred-fold more lonely, if I went anywhere else.
"I can only feel my way along and live a day at a time. I"ll learn what can be done and what can"t be. One thing is clear: I can"t go on with this Mrs. Mumpson in the house a day longer. She makes me creep and crawl all over, and the first thing I know I shall be swearing like a b.l.o.o.d.y pirate unless I get rid of her.
"If she wasn"t such a hopeless idiot I"d let her stay for the sake of Jane, but I won"t pay her good wages to make my life a burden a day longer," and with like self-communings he spent the evening until the habit of early drowsiness overcame him.
The morning found Jane dispirited and a little sullen, as older and wiser people are apt to be when disappointed. She employed herself in getting breakfast carelessly and languidly, and the result was not satisfactory.
"Where"s your mother?" Holcroft asked when he came in.
"She told me to tell you she was indisposed."
"Indisposed to go to Lemuel Weeks"?"
"I "spect she means she"s sick."
He frowned and looked suspiciously at the girl. Here was a new complication, and very possibly a trick.
"What"s the matter with her?"
"Dunno."
"Well, she had better get well enough to go by this afternoon," he remarked, controlling his irritation with difficulty, and nothing more was said.
Full of his new plans he spent a busy forenoon and then came to dinner.
It was the same old story. He went up and knocked at Mrs. Mumpson"s door, saying that he wished to speak with her.
"I"m too indisposed to transact business," she replied feebly.
"You must be ready tomorrow morning," he called. "I have business plans which can"t be delayed," and he turned away muttering rather sulphurous words.
"He will relent; his hard heart will soften at last--" But we shall not weary the reader with the long soliloquies with which she beguiled her politic seclusion, as she regarded it. Poor, unsophisticated Jane made matters worse. The condition of life among her much-visited relatives now existed again. She was not wanted, and her old sly, sullen, and furtive manner rea.s.serted itself. Much of Holcroft"s sympathy was thus alienated, yet he partially understood and pitied her. It became, however, all the more clear that he must get rid of both mother and child, and that further relations with either of them could only lead to trouble.
The following morning only Jane appeared. "Is your mother really sick?"
he asked.
"S"pose so," was the laconic reply.
"You haven"t taken much pains with the breakfast, Jane."
""Taint no use."
With knitted brows he thought deeply, and silently ate the wretched meal which had been prepared. Then, remarking that he might do some writing, he went up to a small attic room which had been used occasionally by a hired man. It contained a covered pipe-hole leading into the chimney flue. Removing the cover, he stopped up the flue with an old woolen coat. "I suppose I"ll have to meet tricks with tricks,"
he muttered.
Returning to his own apartment, he lighted a fire in the stove and laid upon the kindling blaze some dampened wood, then went out and quietly hitched his horses to the wagon.
The pungent odor of smoke soon filled the house. The cover over the pipe-hole in Mrs. Mumpson"s room was not very secure, and thick volumes began to pour in upon the startled widow. "Jane!" she shrieked.
If Jane was sullen toward Holcroft, she was furious at her mother, and paid no heed at first to her cry.
"Jane, Jane, the house is on fire!"
Then the child did fly up the stairway. The smoke seemed to confirm the words of her mother, who was dressing in hot haste. "Run and tell Mr. Holcroft!" she cried.
"I won"t," said the girl. "If he won"t keep us in the house, I don"t care if he don"t have any house."
"No, no, tell him!" screamed Mrs. Mumpson. "If we save his house he will relent. Grat.i.tude will overwhelm him. So far from turning us away, he will sue, he will plead for forgiveness for his former harshness; his home saved will be our home won. Just put our things in the trunk first. Perhaps the house can"t be saved, and you know we must save OUR things. Help me, quick! There, there; now, now"--both were sneezing and choking in a half-strangled manner. "Now let me lock it; my hand trembles so; take hold and draw it out; drag it downstairs; no matter how it scratches things!"
Having reached the hall below, she opened the door and shrieked for Holcroft; Jane also began running toward the barn. The farmer came hastily out, and shouted, "What"s the matter?"
"The house is on fire!" they screamed in chorus.
To carry out his ruse, he ran swiftly to the house. Mrs. Mumpson stood before him wringing her hands and crying, "Oh, dear Mr. Holcroft, can"t I do anything to help you? I would so like to help you and--"
"Yes, my good woman, let me get in the door and see what"s the matter.
Oh, here"s your trunk. That"s sensible. Better get it outside," and he went up the stairs two steps at a time and rushed into his room.
"Jane, Jane," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Mumpson, sinking on a seat in the porch, "he called me his good woman!" But Jane was busy dragging the trunk out of doors. Having secured her own and her mother"s worldly possessions, she called, "Shall I bring water and carry things out?"
"No," he replied, "not yet. There"s something the matter with the chimney," and he hastened up to the attic room, removed the clog from the flue, put on the cover again, and threw open the window.
Returning, he locked the door of the room which Mrs. Mumpson had occupied and came downstairs. "I must get a ladder and examine the chimney," he said as he pa.s.sed.
"Oh, my dear Mr. Holcroft!" the widow began.
"Can"t talk with you yet," and he hastened on.
"As soon as he"s sure the house is safe, Jane, all will be well."
But the girl had grown hopeless and cynical. She had not penetrated his scheme to restore her mother to health, but understood the man well enough to be sure that her mother"s hopes would end as they had in the past. She sat down apathetically on the trunk to see what would happen next.
After a brief inspection Holcroft came down from the roof and said, "The chimney will have to be repaired," which was true enough and equally so of other parts of the dwelling. The fortunes of the owner were reflected in the appearance of the building.
If it were a possible thing Holcroft wished to carry out his ruse undetected, and he hastened upstairs again, ostensibly to see that all danger had pa.s.sed, but in reality to prepare his mind for an intensely disagreeable interview. "I"d rather face a mob of men than that one idiotic woman," he muttered. "I could calculate the actions of a setting hen with her head cut off better than I can this widow"s. But there"s no help for it," and he came down looking very resolute. "I"ve let the fire in my stove go out, and there"s no more danger," he said quietly, as he sat down on the porch opposite Mrs. Mumpson.
"Oh-h," she exclaimed, with a long breath of relief, "we"ve saved the dwelling. What would we have done if it had burned down! We would have been homeless."
"That may be my condition soon, as it is," he said coldly. "I am very glad, Mrs. Mumpson, that you are so much better. As Jane told you, I suppose, I will pay you the sum I agreed to give you for three months"
service--"
"My dear Mr. Holcroft, my nerves have been too shaken to talk business this morning," and the widow leaned back and looked as if she were going to faint. "I"m only a poor lone woman," she added feebly, "and you cannot be so lacking in the milk of human kindness as to take advantage of me."
"No, madam, nor shall I allow you and Lemuel Weeks to take advantage of me. This is my house and I have a right to make my own arrangements."
"It might all be arranged so easily in another way," sighed the widow.