"Well, you needn"t go to sleep just because Richard is."
My mother-in-law"s impatient voice brought me back to myself. I apologized eagerly.
I have never seen any one enjoy food as my mother-in-law did the simple meal I had prepared for her. She ate every crumb, drank the wine, and drained the pot of tea before she spoke.
"How good that tasted!" she said gratefully as she finished, sinking back against my shoulder. I had not only propped her up with pillows, but had sat behind her as she ate, that she might have the support of my body.
"I think I can take a long nap now," she went on. "When I awake send Richard to me."
I laid her down gently, arranged her pillows, and drew up the covers over her shoulders. She caught my hand and pressed it.
"My own daughter could not have been kinder to me than you have been,"
she said.
"I am glad to have pleased you, Mrs. Graham," I returned. I suppose my reply sounded stiff, but I could not forget the day she came to us, and her contemptuous rejection of d.i.c.ky"s proposal that I should call her "Mother."
She frowned slightly. "Forget what I said that day I came," she said quickly. "Call me Mother, that is, if you can."
For a moment I hesitated. The memory of her prejudice against me would not down. Then I had an illuminative look into the narrowness of my own soul. The sight did not please me. With a sudden resolve I bent down and kissed the cheek of my husband"s mother.
"Of course, Mother," I said quietly.
It must have been two hours at least that I sat watching the sick woman. She left her hand in mine a long time, then, with a drowsy smile, she drew it away, turned over with her face to the wall, and fell into a restful sleep. I listened to her soft, regular breathing until the sunlight faded and the room darkened.
I must have dozed in my chair, for I did not hear Katie come in or go to the kitchen. The first thing that aroused me was a voice that I knew, the high-pitched tones of Lillian Gale Underwood.
"I tell you, d.i.c.ky-bird, it won"t do. She"s got to know the truth."
As Mrs. Underwood"s shrill voice struck my ears, I sprang to my feet in dismay.
My first thought was of the sick woman over whom I was watching. Both Dr. Pett.i.t and the nurse, Miss Sonnot, had warned us that excitement might be fatal to their patient.
And the one thing in the world that might be counted on to excite my mother-in-law was the presence of the woman whose voice I heard in conversation with my husband.
I rose noiselessly from my chair and went into the living room, closing the door after me. Then with my finger lifted warningly for silence I forced a smile of greeting to my lips as Lillian Underwood saw me and came swiftly toward me.
"d.i.c.ky"s mother is asleep," I said in a low tone. "I am afraid I must ask you to come into the kitchen, for she awakens so easily."
Lillian nodded comprehendingly, but d.i.c.ky flushed guiltily as they followed me into the kitchen. Katie had left a few minutes before to run an errand for me.
d.i.c.ky"s voice interrupted the words Lillian was about to speak to me.
I hardly recognized it, hoa.r.s.e, choked with feeling as it was.
"Lillian," he said, "you shall not do this. There is no need for you to bring all those old, horrible memories back. You have buried them and have had a little peace. If Madge is the woman I take her for she will be generous enough not to ask it, especially when I give her my word of honor that there is nothing in my past or yours which could concern her."
"You have the usual masculine idea of what might concern a woman,"
Lillian retorted tartly.
But I answered the appeal I had heard in my husband"s voice even more than in his words.
"You do not need to tell me anything, Mrs. Underwood," I said gently, and at the words d.i.c.ky moved toward me quickly and put his arm around me.
I flinched at his touch. I could not help it. It was one thing to summon courage to refuse the confidence for which every tortured nerve was calling--it was another to bear the affectionate touch of the man whose whole being I had just heard cry out in attempt to protect this other woman.
d.i.c.ky did not notice any shrinking, but Mrs. Underwood saw it. I think sometimes nothing ever escapes her eyes. She came closer to me, gravely, steadily.
"You are very brave, Mrs. Graham, very kind, but it won"t do. d.i.c.ky, keep quiet." She turned to him authoritatively as he started to speak.
"You know how much use there is of trying to stop me when I make up my mind to anything."
She put one hand upon my shoulder.
"Dear child," she said earnestly, "will you trust me till tomorrow?
I had thought that I must tell you right away, but your splendid generous att.i.tude makes it possible for me to ask you this. I can see there is no place here where we can talk undisturbed. Besides, I must take no chance of your mother-in-law"s finding out that I am here.
Will you come to my apartment tomorrow morning any time after 10?
Harry will be gone by then, and we can have the place to ourselves."
"I will be there at 10," I said gravely. I felt that her honesty and directness called for an explicit answer, and I gave it to her.
"Thank you." She smiled a little sadly, and then added: "Don"t imagine all sorts of impossible things. It isn"t a very pretty story, but I am beginning to hope that after you have heard it we may become very real friends."
Preposterous as her words seemed in the light of the things I had heard from the lips of my husband"s mother, they gave me a sudden feeling of comfort.
XIX
LILLIAN UNDERWOOD"S STORY
"Well, I suppose we might as well get it over with."
Lillian Underwood and I sat in the big tapestried chairs on either side of the glowing fire in her library. She had instructed Betty, her maid, to bring her neither caller nor telephone message, until our conference should be ended. The two doors leading from the room were locked and the heavy velvet curtains drawn over them, making us absolutely secure from intrusion.
"I suppose so." The answer was ba.n.a.l enough, but it was physically impossible for me to say anything more. My throat was parched, my tongue thick, and I clenched my hands tightly in my lap to prevent their trembling.
Mrs. Underwood gave me a searching glance, then reached over and laid her warm, firm hand over mine.
"See here, my child," she said gently, "this will never do. Before I tell you this story there is something you must be sure of. Look at me. No matter what else you may think of me do you believe me to be capable of telling you a falsehood when a make a statement to you upon my honor?"
Her eyes met mine fairly and squarely. Mrs. Underwood has wonderful eyes, blue-gray, expressive. They shone out from the atrocious mask of make-up which she always uses, and I unreservedly accepted the message they carried to me.
"I am sure you would not deceive me," I returned quickly, and meant it.
"Thank you. Then before I begin my story I am going to a.s.sure you of one thing, upon--my--honor."
She spoke slowly, impressively, her eyes never wavering from mine.