When Carol returned she looked suspiciously from the stern white face on the pillow to the disturbed one of her caller.
"David is tired, Mrs. Sater," she said gently. "Let"s go out in the other room and visit. I have made him laugh too much to-day, and he is weak. Come along and maybe I can sell you some more furniture." Then to David, brightly, "It was Mrs. Adams, David, she wanted to know if we needed any nice fresh eggs." She flashed a smile at him and his lips answered, but his eyes were mute. Carol looked back at him from the doorway, questioning, but finally followed Mrs. Sater into the next room.
"Mrs. Sater, you will excuse me now, won"t you?" she said. "But I have a feeling that David needs me. He looks so tired. You will come in again, and--"
"Certainly, my dear, David first by all means. Run right along. And if you need any more fresh eggs, just let me know."
"Yes, thank you, yes."
"Carol," whispered the kindly woman earnestly, "why don"t you go home and stay with your father until David is better? They will take such good care of him at the hospital, and he will need you when he is well, and it isn"t safe, Carol, it positively is not safe. Why won"t you do as he tells you?"
Carol stood up, very straight and very tall. "Mrs. Sater," she said, "you know I am an old-fashioned Methodist. And I believe that G.o.d wanted David to have me in his illness, when he is idle. If He hadn"t, the illness would have come before our marriage. But I think G.o.d foresaw it coming and thought maybe I could do David good when he was laid aside. I know I am a silly little goose, but David loves me, and is happy when I am with him, and enjoys me more than anything else in the world. I am going with him. I know G.o.d expects me to do my part."
And Mrs. Sater went away, after kissing Carol"s cheek, which already was paling a little with anxiety.
Carol ran back to David and sat on the floor beside him, pulling his hand from beneath the cover and kissing the white, blue-veined fingers.
She crooned and gurgled over him as a mother over a little child, but did not speak until at last he turned to her and said abruptly:
"Carol, won"t you go home until I get well? Please dear, for my sake."
Carol kissed the thumb once more and frowned at him. "You want to flirt with the nurses when you get out there, and are trying to get me out of the road. Every one says nurses are dangerous."
"Carol, please."
"Mrs. Sater has been talking to you. Oh, I knew it. She is a nice, kind, Christian woman, and loves us both, but, David, why doesn"t G.o.d teach some people to mind their own business? She is a good Christian, I know, dear, but I do believe there is still a little work of grace to be done in her."
David smiled a little, sadly.
"Carol, it would break my heart if you got this from me."
"I won"t get it. They will teach us how to be careful and sanitary, and take proper precautions, and things like that. I am going to be very, very careful. Why, honey, I won"t get it. But, David, I would rather get it than go away and leave you. I couldn"t do that. I should never be happy again if I left you when you were needing me."
David turned his face to the wall. "Maybe, dear," he said very gently, "maybe it would be better if you did go home,--better for me. I need perfect rest you know, and we talk and laugh so much and have such good times together. I don"t know, possibly I might get well faster--alone."
For a long moment Carol gazed at him in horror. "David," she gasped.
"Don"t say that. Dear, I will go home if it makes you worse to have me. I will do anything. I only want to help you. But I will be very nice and quiet, like a mouse, and never say a word, and not laugh once, if you take me with you. David, do I make you feel sicker? Does my chatter weary you? I thought I was helping to amuse you."
"Carol, I can"t lie like that even to send you away from me. Maybe I ought to, but I can"t. Why, sweetheart, you are the only thing left in the world. You are the world to me now. Dear, I said it for your sake, not for mine, Carol, never for mine."
Slowly the smiles struggled through the anguish in her face, and she resumed her kissing of his fingers.
"Silly old goose," she murmured; "big old silly goose. Just because he"s a preacher he wants to boss all the time. Can"t boss me. I won"t be bossed. I like to boss myself. I won"t let my beautiful old David go off out there to flirt with the nurses and Indian girls and whoever else is out there. I should say not. I"ll stick right along, and whenever a woman turns our way, I"ll shout, "Married! He is mine!""
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Silly old goose," she murmured.]
David laughed at her pa.s.sionate discussion to herself.
"Besides, I have been learning a lot of things. I"ve been talking to the doctor privately when you couldn"t hear."
"Indeed!"
"Oh, yes, and we are great friends. He says if we just live clean, white, sanitary lives, I am safe. I must keep strong and fat, and the germs can"t get a start. And he has been telling me lots of nice things to do. David, I know I can help you. The doctor said so. He says I must be happy and gay, and be positively sure you will be well again in time, and I can do you more good than a tonic. Yes, he said that very thing, Doctor O"Hara did. Now please beg my pardon, and maybe I"ll forgive you."
David promptly did, and peace was restored.
A committee of brotherly ministers was sent out from the Presbytery to find how things were going in the little manse in the Heights. Very gently, very tenderly they made their inquiries of Carol, and Carol answered frankly.
"With the furniture money we have six hundred dollars," she told them, rather proudly.
"That"s just fine. It will take you to Albuquerque and keep you straight for a few months, and by that time we"ll have things in hand back here. You know, Mrs. Duke, you and David belong to us and we are going to see you through. And then when it is all over we"ll get him a church out there,--why, everything is going splendidly. Now remember, it may be a few months, or it may be ten years, but we are back of you and we are going to see you through. Don"t ever wonder where next month"s board is to come from. It will come. It isn"t charity, Mrs.
Duke. It is just the big brotherhood of the church, that"s all. We are going to be your brothers, and fathers, and--mothers, too, if you will have us."
The devoted mansers rallied around them, weeping over them, giving them good advice along with other more material, but not more helpful, a.s.sistance and declaring they always knew David was too good to live.
And when Carol resentfully a.s.sured them that David was still very much alive, and maybe wasn"t as good as they thought, they retaliated by suggesting that her life was in no danger on that score.
On the occasion of Doctor O"Hara"s last visit, Carol followed him out to the porch.
"You haven"t presented your bill," she reminded him. "And it"s a good thing for you we are preachers or we might have slipped away in the night."
"I haven"t any bill against you," he said, smiling kindly down at her.
Carol flushed. "Doctor," she protested. "We expected to pay you. We have the money. We don"t want you to think we can"t afford it. We knew you were an expensive doctor, but we wanted you anyhow."
He smiled again. "I know you have the money, but, my dear little girl, you are going to need every cent of it and more too before you get rid of this specter. But I couldn"t charge David anything if he were a millionaire. Don"t you understand,--this is the only way we doctors have of showing what we think of the big work these preachers are doing here and there around the country?"
"But, doctor," said Carol confusedly, "we are--Presbyterians, you know--we are Protestants."
The doctor laughed. "And I am a Catholic. But what is your point?
David is doing good work, not my kind perhaps, and not my way, but I hope, my dear, we are big enough and broad enough to take off our hats to a good worker whether he does things just our way or not."
Carol looked abashed. She caught her under lip between her teeth and kept her eyes upon the floor for a moment. Finally she faced him bravely.
"I wasn"t big or broad,--not even a little teensy bit," she said honestly. "I was a little, shut-in, self-centered goose. But I believe I am learning things now. You are grand," she said, holding out her slender hand.
The doctor took it in his. "Carol, don"t forget to laugh when you get to Albuquerque. You will be sick, and sorry, and there will be sobs in your heart, and your soul will cry aloud, but--keep laughing, for David is going to need it."
Carol went directly to her husband.
"David, I am learning lots of perfectly wonderful things. If I live to be a thousand years old,--oh, David, I believe by that time I can love everybody on earth, and have sympathy for all and condemnation for none; and I will really know that nearly every one in the world is _very good_, and those that are not are _pretty_ good."
David burst into laughter at her words. "Poorly expressed, but finely meant," he cried. "Are you trying to become the preacher in our family?"
"All packed up and ready to start," she said thoughtfully, "and to-morrow night we leave our darling little manse, and our precious old mansers and turn cowboy. Aren"t you glad you didn"t send me home?"
CHAPTER X