He looked at them closely in a puzzled way. He read a label aloud in a dragging voice.
"Ann Hutchinson, Liverpool. What"s--what"s Liverpool?
"Oh, come," encouraged Little Ann, "you know that. It"s a place in England. We"re going back to England."
He stood and gazed fixedly before him. Then he began to rub his fingers across his forehead. Ann knew the straining look in his eyes.
He was making that horrible struggle to get back somewhere through the darkness which shut him in. It was so painful a thing to see that even Hutchinson turned slightly away.
"Don"t!" said Little Ann, softly, and tried to draw him away.
He caught his breath convulsively once or twice, and his voice dragged out words again, as though he were dragging them from bottomless depths.
"Going--back--to--England--back to England--to England."
He dropped into a chair near by, his arms thrown over its back, and broke, as his face fell upon them, into heavy, deadly sobbing--the kind of sobbing Tembarom had found it impossible to stand up against.
Hutchinson whirled about testily.
"Dang it!" he broke out, "I wish Tembarom"d turn up. What are we to do?" He didn"t like it himself. It struck him as unseemly.
But Ann went to the chair, and put her hands on the shuddering shoulder, bending over the soul-wrung creature, the wisdom of centuries in the soft, expostulatory voice which seemed to reach the very darkness he was lost in. It was a wisdom of which she was wholly unaware, but it had been born with her, and was the building of her being.
""Sh! "S-h-h!" she said. "You mustn"t do that. Mr. Tembarom wouldn"t like you to do it. He"ll be in directly. "Sh! "Sh, now!" And simple as the words were, their soothing reached him. The wildness of his sobs grew less.
"See here," Hutchinson protested, "this won"t do, my man. I won"t have it, Ann. I"m upset myself, what with this going back and everything. I can"t have a chap coming and crying like that there. It upsets me worse than ever. And you hangin" over him! It won"t do."
Strangeways lifted his head from his arms and looked at him.
"Aye, I mean what I say," Hutchinson added fretfully.
Strangeways got up from the chair. When he was not bowed or slouching it was to be seen that he was a tall man with square shoulders.
Despite his unshaven, haggard face, he had a sort of presence.
"I"ll go back to my room," he said. "I forgot. I ought not to be here."
Neither Hutchinson nor Little Ann had ever seen any one do the thing he did next. When Ann went with him to the door of the hall bedroom, he took her hand, and bowing low before her, lifted it gently to his lips.
Hutchinson stared at him as he turned into the room and closed the door behind him.
"Well, I"ve read of lords and ladies doin" that in books," he said, "but I never thought I should see a chap do it myself."
Little Ann went back to her mending, looking very thoughtful.
"Father," she said, after a few moments, "England made him come near to remembering something."
"New York"ll come near making me remember a lot of things when I"m out of it," said Mr. Hutchinson, sitting down heavily in his chair and rubbing his head. "Eh, dang it! dang it!"
"Don"t you let it, Father," advised Little Ann. "There"s never any good in thinking things over."
"You"re not as cheerful yourself as you let on," he said. "You"ve not got much color to-day, my la.s.s."
She rubbed one cheek a little, trying to laugh.
"I shall get it back when we go and stay with grandmother. It"s just staying indoors so much. Mr. Tembarom won"t be long now; I"ll get up and set the table. The things are on a tray outside."
As she was going out of the room, Jim Bowles and Julius Steinberger appeared at the door.
"May we come in?" Jim asked eagerly. "We"re invited to the oyster stew, and it"s time old T. T. was here. Julius and me are just getting dippy waiting up-stairs to hear if he"s made good with Galton."
"Well, now, you sit down and be quiet a bit, or you"ll be losing your appet.i.tes," advised Ann.
"You can"t lose a thing the size of mine," answered Jim, "any more than you could lose the Metropolitan Opera-house."
Ann turned her head and paused as though she were listening. She heard footsteps in the lower hall.
"He"s coming now," she announced. "I know his step. He"s tired. Don"t go yet, you two," she added as the pair prepared to rush to meet him.
"When any one"s that tired he wants to wash his face, and talk when he"s ready. If you"ll just go back to your room I"ll call you when I"ve set the table."
She felt that she wanted a little more quiet during the next few minutes than she could have if they remained and talked at the top of elated voices. She had not quite realized how anxiously she had been waiting all day for the hour when she would hear exactly what had happened. If he was all right, it would be a nice thing to remember when she was in England. In this moderate form she expressed herself mentally. "It would be a nice thing to remember." She spread the cloth on the table and began to lay out the plates. Involuntarily she found herself stopping to glance at the hall bedroom door and listen rather intently.
"I hope he"s got it. I do that. I"m sure he has. He ought to."
Hutchinson looked over at her. She was that like her mother, that la.s.s!
"You"re excited, Ann," he said.
"Yes, Father, I am--a bit. He"s--he"s washing his face now." Sounds of splashing water could be heard through the intervening door.
Hutchinson watched her with some uneasiness.
"You care a lot for that lad," he said.
She did not look fluttered. Her answer was quite candid.
"I said I did, Father. He"s taking off his boots."
"You know every sound he makes, and you"re going away Sat.u.r.day, and you"ll never see him again."
"That needn"t stop me caring. It never did any one any harm to care for one of his sort."
"But it can"t come to anything," Hutchinson began to bl.u.s.ter. "It won"t do--"
"He"s coming to the door, he"s turning the handle," said Little Ann.
Tembarom came in. He was fresh with recent face-washing, and his hair was damp, so that a short lock curled and stood up. He had been up- town making frantic efforts for hours, but he had been making them in a spirit of victorious relief, and he did not look tired at all.
"I"ve got it!" he cried out the moment he entered. "I"ve got it, by jingo! The job"s mine for keeps."
"Galton"s give it to you out and out?" Hutchinson was slightly excited himself.