As Sidney turned back into the house, she met Palmer. He had come out in the hall, and had closed the door into the parlor behind him. His arm was still in splints, and swung suspended in a gay silk sling.
The sound of laughter came through the door faintly.
"How is he to-day?" He meant Johnny, of course. The boy"s face was always with him.
"Better in some ways, but of course--"
"When are they going to operate?"
"When he is a little stronger. Why don"t you come into see him?"
"I can"t. That"s the truth. I can"t face the poor youngster."
"He doesn"t seem to blame you; he says it"s all in the game."
"Sidney, does Christine know that I was not alone that night?"
"If she guesses, it is not because of anything the boy has said. He has told nothing."
Out of the firelight, away from the chatter and the laughter, Palmer"s face showed worn and haggard. He put his free hand on Sidney"s shoulder.
"I was thinking that perhaps if I went away--"
"That would be cowardly, wouldn"t it?"
"If Christine would only say something and get it over with! She doesn"t sulk; I think she"s really trying to be kind. But she hates me, Sidney.
She turns pale every time I touch her hand."
All the light had died out of Sidney"s face. Life was terrible, after all--overwhelming. One did wrong things, and other people suffered; or one was good, as her mother had been, and was left lonely, a widow, or like Aunt Harriet. Life was a sham, too. Things were so different from what they seemed to be: Christine beyond the door, pouring tea and laughing with her heart in ashes; Palmer beside her, faultlessly dressed and wretched. The only one she thought really contented was K. He seemed to move so calmly in his little orbit. He was always so steady, so balanced. If life held no heights for him, at least it held no depths.
So Sidney thought, in her ignorance!
"There"s only one thing, Palmer," she said gravely. "Johnny Rosenfeld is going to have his chance. If anybody in the world can save him, Max Wilson can."
The light of that speech was in her eyes when she went out to the sleigh again. K. followed her out and tucked the robes in carefully about her.
"Warm enough?"
"All right, thank you."
"Don"t go too far. Is there any chance of having you home for supper?"
"I think not. I am to go on duty at six again."
If there was a shadow in K."s eyes, she did not see it. He waved them off smilingly from the pavement, and went rather heavily back into the house.
"Just how many men are in love with you, Sidney?" asked Max, as Peggy started up the Street.
"No one that I know of, unless--"
"Exactly. Unless--"
"What I meant," she said with dignity, "is that unless one counts very young men, and that isn"t really love."
"We"ll leave out Joe Drummond and myself--for, of course, I am very young. Who is in love with you besides Le Moyne? Any of the internes at the hospital?"
"Me! Le Moyne is not in love with me."
There was such sincerity in her voice that Wilson was relieved.
K., older than himself and more grave, had always had an odd attraction for women. He had been frankly bored by them, but the fact had remained.
And Max more than suspected that now, at last, he had been caught.
"Don"t you really mean that you are in love with Le Moyne?"
"Please don"t be absurd. I am not in love with anybody; I haven"t time to be in love. I have my profession now."
"Bah! A woman"s real profession is love."
Sidney differed from this hotly. So warm did the argument become that they pa.s.sed without seeing a middle-aged gentleman, short and rather heavy set, struggling through a snowdrift on foot, and carrying in his hand a dilapidated leather bag.
Dr. Ed hailed them. But the cutter slipped by and left him knee-deep, looking ruefully after them.
"The young scamp!" he said. "So that"s where Peggy is!"
Nevertheless, there was no anger in Dr. Ed"s mind, only a vague and inarticulate regret. These things that came so easily to Max, the affection of women, gay little irresponsibilities like the stealing of Peggy and the sleigh, had never been his. If there was any faint resentment, it was at himself. He had raised the boy wrong--he had taught him to be selfish. Holding the bag high out of the drifts, he made his slow progress up the Street.
At something after two o"clock that night, K. put down his pipe and listened. He had not been able to sleep since midnight. In his dressing-gown he had sat by the small fire, thinking. The content of his first few months on the Street was rapidly giving way to unrest. He who had meant to cut himself off from life found himself again in close touch with it; his eddy was deep with it.
For the first time, he had begun to question the wisdom of what he had done. Had it been cowardice, after all? It had taken courage, G.o.d knew, to give up everything and come away. In a way, it would have taken more courage to have stayed. Had he been right or wrong?
And there was a new element. He had thought, at first, that he could fight down this love for Sidney. But it was increasingly hard. The innocent touch of her hand on his arm, the moment when he had held her in his arms after her mother"s death, the thousand small contacts of her returns to the little house--all these set his blood on fire. And it was fighting blood.
Under his quiet exterior K. fought many conflicts those winter days--over his desk and ledger at the office, in his room alone, with Harriet planning fresh triumphs beyond the part.i.tion, even by Christine"s fire, with Christine just across, sitting in silence and watching his grave profile and steady eyes.
He had a little picture of Sidney--a snap-shot that he had taken himself. It showed Sidney minus a hand, which had been out of range when the camera had been snapped, and standing on a steep declivity which would have been quite a level had he held the camera straight.
Nevertheless it was Sidney, her hair blowing about her, eyes looking out, tender lips smiling. When she was not at home, it sat on K."s dresser, propped against his collar-box. When she was in the house, it lay under the pin-cushion.
Two o"clock in the morning, then, and K. in his dressing-gown, with the picture propped, not against the collar-box, but against his lamp, where he could see it.
He sat forward in his chair, his hands folded around his knee, and looked at it. He was trying to picture the Sidney of the photograph in his old life--trying to find a place for her. But it was difficult.
There had been few women in his old life. His mother had died many years before. There had been women who had cared for him, but he put them impatiently out of his mind.
Then the bell rang.
Christine was moving about below. He could hear her quick steps. Almost before he had heaved his long legs out of the chair, she was tapping at his door outside.
"It"s Mrs. Rosenfeld. She says she wants to see you."