But she would not go to the Kings" to tea. "No," she said, her eyes crinkling with fun, "I"m not going; but you"ve got to; you promised!
And remember, I have "a very severe headache.""
He laughed, with a droll look, and then explained that at home he was never allowed to tell tarradiddles. "Alice has a perfect mania about truth," he said ruefully; "it is sometimes very inconvenient. Yes; I"ll enlarge upon your headache, my dear. But why in thunder did I say yes to that confounded doctor? I"d like to wring your cook"s neck, Nelly!"
"You"ll have a good supper," she consoled him, "and that"s what you want. They say Mrs. King is a great housekeeper. And besides, if you stayed at home you would probably have to entertain Mr. Sam Wright."
"I"ll be darned if I would," he a.s.sured her, amiably, and started off.
He had the good supper, although when the doctor broke to his wife that company was coming, Mrs. King had protested that there was nothing in the house to eat. "And there"s one thing about me, I may not be perfect, but I am hospitable, and--"
"Just give them what we were going to have ourselves."
"Now, William! I must say, flatly and frankly--"
"There"s the office bell," murmured the doctor, sidling away and hearing the reproachful voice lessening in the distance--"how hard I try--nothing fit--"
The office door closed; the worst was over. There would be a good supper--William had no misgivings on that point. Mrs. Richie would talk to him, and he would tease her and make her laugh, and laugh himself. The doctor did not laugh very much in his own house; domestic virtue does not necessarily add to the gayety of life. During the afternoon w.i.l.l.y tried on three different neckties, and twice put cologne on his handkerchief. Then appeared Mr. Pryor to say that Mrs.
Richie had one of her headaches! He was so sorry, but Mrs. King knew what a bad headache was?
"Indeed I do," Martha said, "only too well. But _I_ can"t give way to them. That"s what it is to be a doctor"s wife; the patients get all the prescriptions," Martha said; and William, out of the corner of his eye, saw that she was smiling! Well, well; evidently Mrs. Richie"s defection did not trouble her; the doctor was glad of that. "But I didn"t bargain on entertaining the brother," he said to himself crossly; and after the manner of husbands, he left the entertaining to Martha.
Martha, however, did her duty. She thought Mr. Pryor a very agreeable gentleman; "far more agreeable than his sister," she told William afterwards. "I don"t know why," said Martha, "but I sort of distrust that woman. But the brother is all right; you can see that--and a very intelligent man, too. We discussed a good many points, and I found we agreed perfectly."
Mr. Pryor also had an opinion on that supper-table talk. He said to himself grimly, that Nelly"s bread and jam would have been better. But probably bread and jam, followed by young Sam Wright, would have seemed less desirable than Mrs. King"s excellent supper.
It was about seven when the boy appeared at the Stuffed Animal House.
Had Mr. Pryor been at home, Helena would, no doubt, have found some way of dismissing him; as it was, she let him stay. He was bareheaded; he had seen a bird flapping painfully about in the road, and catching it in gentle hands had discovered that its wing was broken, so put it tenderly in his cap and brought it to Mrs. Richie"s door.
"Poor little thing!" she cried, when he showed it to her. "I wish Mr.
Pryor would come back; he would tell us what to do for it."
"Oh, is he here?" Sam asked blankly.
"Well, not at this moment. He has gone to take tea at Dr. King"s."
Sam"s face lightened with relief.
"You mustn"t tell anybody you saw me this evening," she charged him gayly. "I didn"t go to Mrs. King"s because--I had such a very bad headache!"
"Is it better?" he asked, so anxiously that she blushed.
"Oh, yes, yes. But before tea I--didn"t want to go."
"I"m glad you didn"t," he said, and forgot her in caring for the bird.
He ordered a box and some cotton batting--"and give me your handkerchief." As he spoke, he took it from her surprised hand and tore it into strips; then, lifting the broken wing with exquisite gentleness, he bound it into place. She looked at the bandages ruefully, but Sam was perfectly matter-of-course. "It would have been better without lace," he said; "but it will do. Will you look at him sometimes? Just your touch will cure him, I think."
Mrs. Richie laughed.
"Well, you can laugh, but it"s true. When I am near you I have no pain and no worry; nothing but happiness." He sat down beside her on the old claw-footed sofa near the fire, for it was cool enough these spring evenings to have a little fire. He leaned forward, resting his chin on his fist, and staring into the blaze. Once he put his hand out and touched her dress softly, and smiled to himself. Then abruptly, he came out of his reverie, and spoke with joyous excitement:
"Why! I forgot what I came to tell you about--something extraordinary has happened!"
"Oh, what?" she demanded, with a sweet eagerness that was as young as his own.
"You could never guess," he a.s.sured her. "Tonight, at supper, grandfather suddenly told me that he wanted me to travel for a while-- he wanted me to go away from Old Chester. I was perfectly amazed. "Go hunt up a publisher for your truck," he said. He always calls the drama my "truck,"" Sam said snickering; "but the main thing, evidently, was to have me get away from home. To improve my mind, I suppose. He said all gentlemen ought to travel. To live in one place all the time was very narrowing, he said. I told him I hadn"t any money, and he said he"d give me some. He said, "anything to get you away." It wasn"t very flattering, was it?"
Helena"s face flashed into suspicion. "Why did he want to get you away?" she asked coldly. There was an alarmed alertness in her voice that made the boy look at her.
"He said he wanted me to "be able to know cakes and ale when I saw them,"" Sam quoted. "Isn"t that just like grandfather?"
"Know cakes and ale!" she stammered, and then looked at him furtively.
She took one of the little hand-screens from the mantel, and held it so that he could not see her face. For a minute the pleasant firelit silence fell between them.
"Oh, listen," Sam said in a whisper; "do you hear the sap singing in the log?" He bent forward with parted lips, intent upon the exquisite sound--a dream of summer leaves rustling and blowing in the wind. He turned his limpid stag"s eyes to hers to feel her pleasure.
"I think," Mrs. Richie said with an effort that made her voice hard, "that it would be an excellent thing for you to go away."
"And leave you?"
"Please don"t talk that way. Your grandfather is quite right."
The boy smiled. "I suppose you really can"t understand? It"s part of your loveliness that you can"t. If you could, you would know that I can"t go away. I told him I was much obliged, but I couldn"t leave Old Chester."
"Oh, please! you mustn"t be foolish. I don"t like you when you are foolish. Will you please remember how much older I am than you? Let"s talk of something else. Let"s talk about the little boy who is coming to visit me--his name is David."
"I would rather talk about you, and what you mean to me--beauty and poetry and good--"
"Don"t!" she said sharply,
"Beauty and poetry and goodness."
"I"m not beautiful, and I"m not--poetical."
"And so I worship you," the young man went on in a low happy voice.
"Do please be quiet! I won"t be worshipped."
"I don"t see how you are going to help it," he said calmly. "Mrs.
Richie, I"ve got my skiff; it came yesterday. Will you go out on the river with me some afternoon?"
"Oh, I don"t think I care about boating," she said.
"You don"t!" he exclaimed blankly; "why, I only got it because I thought you would go out with me!"
"I don"t like the water," she said firmly.
Sam was silent; then he sighed. "I wish I"d asked you before I bought it. Father is so unreasonable."
She looked puzzled, for the connection was not obvious.