"Father always wants things used," Sam explained. "Do you really dislike boating?"
"You absurd boy!" she said laughing; "of course you will use it; don"t talk nonsense!"
Sam looked into the fire. "Do you ever have the feeling," he said in an empty voice, "that nothing is worth while? I mean, if you are disappointed in anything? A feeling as if you didn"t care, at all, about anything? I have it often. A sort of loss of appet.i.te in my mind. Do you know it?"
"Do I know it?" she said, and laughed so harshly that the boy drew back. "Yes, Sam; I know it."
Sam sighed; "I hate that skiff."
And at that she laughed again, but this time with pure gayety. "Oh, you foolish boy!" she said. Then she glanced at the clock. "Sam, I have some letters to write to-night--will you think I am very ungracious if I ask you to excuse me?" Sam was instantly apologetic.
"I"ve stayed too long! Grandfather told me I ought never to come and see you--"
"_What!_"
"He said I bothered you."
"You don"t bother me," she protested; "I mean, when you talk about your play you don"t bother me. But to-night--"
"Of course," said Sam simply, and took himself off after one or two directions about the bird.
When the front door closed behind him she went back to her seat by the lamp, and took up her novel; but her eyes did not see the printed page. Suddenly she threw the book down on the table. It was impossible to read; Sam"s talk had disturbed her to the point of sharp discomfort. What did old Mr. Wright mean by "knowing cakes and ale"?
And his leer yesterday had been an offence! Why had he looked at her like that? Did he--? Was it possible--! She wished she had spoken to Lloyd about it. But no; it couldn"t be; it was only his queer way; he was half crazy, she believed. And it would do no good to speak to Lloyd. The one thing she must not do, was to let any annoyance of hers annoy him. Yet below her discomfort at Sam"s sentimentality and his grandfather"s strange manner lay a deeper discomfort--a disturbance at the very centres of her life.... _She was afraid._
She had been afraid for a long time. Even before she came to Old Chester she was a little afraid, but in Old Chester the fear was intensified by the consciousness of having made a mistake in coming.
Old Chester was so far away. It had seemed desirable when she first thought of it; it was so near Mercer where business very often called him. Besides, New York, with its throngs of people, where she had lived for several years, had grown intolerable; in Old Chester she and Lloyd had agreed she would have so much more privacy. But how differently things had turned out! He did not have to come to Mercer nearly so often as he had expected. Those visions of hers--which he had not discouraged--of weekly or certainly fortnightly visits, had faded into lengthening periods of three weeks, four weeks--the last one was more than six weeks ago. "He can"t leave his Alice!" she said angrily to herself; "_I_ remember the time when he did not mind leaving her." As for privacy, the great city, with its hurrying indifferent crowds, was more private than this village of insistent friendliness.
She leaned back in her chair and pressed her hands over her eyes; then sat up quickly--she must not cry! Lloyd hated red eyes. But oh, she was afraid!--afraid of what? She had no answer; as yet her fear was without a name. She picked up her book, hurriedly; "I"ll read," she said to herself; "I won"t think!" But for a long time she did not turn a page.
However, by the time Mr. Pryor came back from the tea-party she was outwardly tranquil, and looked up from her novel to welcome him and laugh at his stories of his hostess. But he was instant to detect the troubled background of her thoughts.
"You are lonely," he said, lounging on the sofa beside her; "when that little boy comes you"ll have something to amuse you;" he put a caressing finger under her soft chin.
"I didn"t have that little boy, but I had another," she said ruefully.
"Did your admirer call?"
She nodded.
"What!" he exclaimed, for her manner told him.
"He tried to be silly," she said. "Of course I snubbed him. But it makes me horribly uncomfortable somehow."
Lloyd Pryor got up and slowly scratched a match under the mantel- piece; he took a long time to light his cigar. Then he put his hands in his pockets, and standing with his back to the fire regarded his boots. Helena was staring straight ahead of her with melancholy eyes.--("Do you ever have the feeling," the boy had said, "that nothing is worth while?")
Lloyd Pryor looked at her furtively and coughed. "I suppose," he said--and knocked the ashes from his cigar with elaborate care--"I suppose your adorer is a good deal younger than you?"
She lifted her head sharply, "Well, yes;--what of it?"
"Oh, nothing; nothing at all. In the first place, the health of our friend, Frederick, is excellent. But if this fellow were not younger; and if apoplexy or judgment should--well; why, perhaps--"
"Perhaps what?"
"Of course, Helena, my great desire is for your happiness; but in my position I--I am not as free as I once was to follow my own inclinations. And if--"
"Oh, my _G.o.d!_" she said violently.
She fled out of the room with flying feet. As he followed her up the stairs he heard her door slam viciously and the bolt slip. He came down, his face flushed and angry. He stood a long while with his back to the fire, staring at the lamp or the darkness of the uncurtained window. By and by he shook his head and set his jaw in sullen determination; then he went up-stairs and knocked softly at her door.
There was no answer. Again, a little louder; silence.
"Nelly," he said; "Nelly, let me speak to you--just a minute?"
Silence.
"Nelly!"
Silence.
"d.a.m.n!" said Lloyd Pryor, and went stealthily back to the parlor where the fire was out and the lamp flickering into smoky darkness.
A quarter of an hour later he went up-stairs again.
"How _could_ you say it!" "I didn"t mean it, Nelly; it was only a joke." "A joke! Oh, a cruel joke, a cruel joke!" "You know I didn"t mean it. Nelly dearest, I didn"t mean it!" "You do love me?" "I love you.... Kiss me...."
CHAPTER VIII
"Well, now," said Dr. Lavendar that Sunday evening when he and David came into the study after tea; "I suppose you"d like me to tell you a story before you go to bed?"
"A Bible story?"
"Why, yes," Dr. Lavendar admitted, a little taken aback.
"No, sir," said David.
"You don"t want a Bible story!"
The little boy shook his head.
"David," said Dr. Lavendar chuckling, "I think I like you."
David made no response; his face was as blank as an Indian"s. He sat down on a stool by the fire, and once he sighed. Danny had sniffed him, slowly, and turned away with a bored look; it was then that he sighed. After a while he got up and wandered about the room, his hands gripped in front of him, his lips shut tight. Dr. Lavendar watched him out of the tail of his eye, but neither of them spoke. Suddenly David climbed up on a chair and looked fixedly at a picture that hung between the windows.
"That is a Bible picture," Dr. Lavendar observed.
"Who," said David, "is the gentleman in the water?"