"Conrad would put him up, Sue---" Anna said jealously.
"My dear, wait--wait until you hear the full iniquity of that old divil of a Wallace! Well, he ordered c.o.c.ktails, and he "dear boyed" Bill, and they sat down to dinner. Then he began to taffy the "Protest," he said that the railroad men were all talking about it, and he asked Bill what he valued it at. Bill said it wasn"t for sale. I can imagine just how graciously he said it, too! Well, old Mr. Wallace laughed, and he said that some of the railroad men were really beginning to enjoy the way Billy pitched into them; he said he had started life pretty humbly himself; he said that he wanted some way of reaching his men just now, and he thought that the "Protest" was the way to do it. He said that it was good as far as it went, but that it didn"t go far enough. He proposed to work its circulation up into hundreds of thousands, to buy it at Billy"s figure, and to pay him a handsome salary,--six thousand was hinted, I believe,--as editor, under a five-year contract! Billy asked if the policy of the paper was to be dictated, and he said, no, no, everything left to him! Billy came home dazed, my dear, and I confess I was dazed too. Mr. Wallace had said that he wanted Billy, as a sort of side-issue, to live in San Rafael, so that they could see each other easily,--and I wish you could see the house he"d let us have for almost nothing! Then there would be a splendid round sum for the paper, thirty or forty thousand probably, AND the salary! I saw myself a lady, Nance, with a "rising young man" for a husband---"
"But, Sue--but, Sue," Anna said eagerly, "Billy would be editor--Billy would be in charge--there would be a contract--n.o.body could call that selling the paper, or changing the policy of the "Protest"---"
"Exactly what I said!" laughed Susan. "However, the next morning we rushed over to the Cudahys--you remember that magnificent old person you and Conrad met here? That"s Clem. And his wife is quite as wonderful as he is. And Clem of course tore our little dream to rags---"
"Oh, HOW?" Anna exclaimed regretfully.
"Oh, in every way. He made it betrayal, and selling the birthright.
Billy saw it at once. As Clem said, where would Billy be the minute they questioned an article of his, or gave him something for insertion, or cut his proof? And how would the thing SOUND--a railroad magnate owning the "Protest"?"
"He might do more good that way than in any other," mourned Anna rebelliously, "and my goodness, Sue, isn"t his first duty to you and the children?"
"Bill said that selling the "Protest" would make his whole life a joke," Susan said. "And now I see it, too. Of course I wept and wailed, at the time, but I love greatness, Nance, and I truly believe Billy is great!" She laughed at the artless admission. "Well, you think Conrad is great," finished Susan, defending herself.
"Yes, sometimes I wish he wasn"t--yet," Anna said, sighing. "I never cooked a meal for him, or had to mend his shirts!" she added with a rueful laugh. "But, Sue, shall you be content to have Billy slave as he is slaving now," she presently went on, "right on into middle-age?"
"He"ll always slave at something," Susan said, cheerfully, "but that"s another funny thing about all this fuss--the boys were simply WILD with enthusiasm when they heard about old Wallace and the "Protest," trust Clem for that! And Clem a.s.sured me seriously that they"d have him Mayor of San Francisco yet!--However," she laughed, "that"s way ahead! But next year Billy is going east for two months, to study the situation in different cities, and if he makes up his mind to go, a newspaper syndicate has offered him enough money, for six articles on the subject, to pay his expenses! So, if your angel mother really will come here and live with the babies, and all goes well, I"m going, too!"
"Mother would do anything for you," Anna said, "she loves you for yourself, and sometimes I think that she loves you for--for Jo, you know, too! She"s so proud of you, Sue---"
"Well, if I"m ever anything to be proud of, she well may be!" smiled Susan, "for, of all the influences of my life--a sentence from a talk with her stands out clearest! I was moping in the kitchen one day, I forget what the especial grievance was, but I remember her saying that the best of life was service--that any life"s happiness may be measured by how much it serves!"
Anna considered it, frowning.
"True enough of her life, Sue!"
"True of us all! Georgie, and Alfie, and Virginia! And Mary Lou,--did you know that they had a little girl? And Mary Lou just divides her capacity for adoration into two parts, one for Ferd and one for Marie-Louise!"
"Well, you"re a delicious old theorist, Sue! But somehow you believe in yourself, and you always do me good!" Anna said laughing. "I share with Mother the conviction that you"re rather uncommon--one watches you to see what"s next!"
"Putting this child in her crib is next, now," said Susan flushing, a little embarra.s.sed. She lowered Josephine carefully on the little pillow. "Best--girl--her--mudder--ever--did--HAB!" said Susan tenderly as the transfer was accomplished. "Come on, Nance!" she whispered, "we"ll go down and see what Bill is doing."
So they went down, to add a score of last touches to the orderly, homelike rooms, to cut grape-fruit and taste cranberry sauce, to fill vases with chrysanthemums and ferns, and count chairs for the long table.
"This is fun!" said Susan to her husband, as she filled little dishes with nuts and raisins in the pantry and arranged crackers on a plate.
"You bet your life it"s fun!" agreed Billy, pausing in the act of opening a jar of olives. "You look so pretty in that dress, Sue," he went on, contentedly, "and the kids are so good, and it seems dandy to be able to have the family all here! We didn"t see this coming when we married on less than a hundred a month, did we?"
He put his arm about her, they stood looking out of the window together.
"We did not! And when you were ill, Billy--and sitting up nights with Mart"s croup!" Susan smiled reminiscently.
"And the Thanksgiving Day the milk-bill came in for five months--when we thought we"d been paying it!"
"We"ve been through some TIMES, Bill! But isn"t it wonderful to--to do it all together--to be married?"
"You bet your life it"s wonderful," agreed the unpoetic William.
"It"s the loveliest thing in the world," his wife said dreamily. She tightened his arm about her and spoke half aloud, as if to herself. "It IS the Great Adventure!" said Susan.