"I must apologize to Mrs. King," Helena said. "I was so frightened, that I"m afraid I was abrupt."
"Oh, that"s all right," said Martha"s husband, easily, and opened the outer door of the office. "Come."
She followed him down the garden path to the street: there in the darkness, broken by the gay zigzag of the lantern across the flagstones of the sidewalk, William found it easier to speak out:
"I hope you don"t mind my referring to Sam"s being in love, Mrs.
Richie? Of course, we have all known that he had lost his heart. Boys will, you know. And, honestly, I think if ever a boy had excuse for-- that sort of thing, Sam had. But it has distressed me to have you bothered. And to-night is the climax. For him to talk like a--a jack- donkey, because you very properly snubbed him--you mustn"t mind my speaking plainly; I have understood the whole thing from the beginning--makes me mad. You"re really worn out. Confound that boy!
You are too good, Mrs. Richie, that"s the trouble. You let yourself be imposed upon."
Her broken "no--no" seemed to him a lovely humility, and he laughed and shook his head.
"Yes, yes! When I see how gentle women are with us clods of men, I really, I--you know--" William had never since his courting days got into such a bog of sentiment, and he stammered his way out of it by saying that Sam was a perfect nuisance.
When they reached the gateway of the senior warden"s place, Mrs.
Richie said that she would wait. "I"ll stand here in the road; and if you will make some excuse, and find out--"
"Very well," he said. "I"ll come back as quickly as I can, and tell you he"s all right. There isn"t a particle of reason for anxiety, but it"s a better sedative for you than bromide. That"s the why I"m doing it," said William candidly. He gave her the lantern, and said he did not like to leave her. "You won"t be frightened? You can see the house from here, and can call if you want me. I"ll have to stay about ten minutes, or they wouldn"t understand my coming in."
She nodded, impatient at his delay, and he slipped into the shadow of the maples and disappeared. For a minute she could hear the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel of the driveway. She sat down on the gra.s.s by the roadside, and leaned her head against the big white gate-post.
The lantern burned steadily beside her, casting on the ground a shower of yellow spots that blurred into a widening circle of light. Except for the crickets all was still. The cooler air of night brought out the heavy scents of damp earth and leaves, and over in the deep gra.s.s a late May-apple spilled from its ivory cup the heavy odor of death. A bob-white fluted in the darkness on the other side of the road.
Her acute apprehension had ceased. William King was so certain, that, had the reality been less dreadful she would have been ashamed of the fuss she had made. She wanted only this final a.s.surance that the boy was at home, safe and sound; then she would think of her own affairs.
She watched the moths fly about the lantern, and when one poor downy pair of wings touched the hot, domed top and fell fluttering into the road, she bent forward and looked at it, wondering what she could do for it. To kill it would be the kindest thing,--to put it out of its pain. But some obscure connection of ideas made her shudder back from death, even a moth"s death; she lifted the little creature gently, and laid it in the dewy gra.s.s.
Down the Wrights" carriage road she heard a footstep on the gravel; a step that grew louder and louder, the confident, comforting step of the kind friend on whom she relied as she had never relied on any human being.
"What did I tell you?" William called to her, as he loomed out of the darkness into the circle of light from the lantern.
"He is all right?" she said trembling; "you saw him?"
"I didn"t see him, but--"
"Oh," she said blankly.
"I saw those who had, ten minutes before; won"t that do?" he teased her. "I found the Wright family just going to bed--where you ought to be this minute. I said I had just stopped in to say how-do-you-do.
Samuel at once reproved me, because I hadn"t been to evening church."
"And he--Sam? Was he--"
"He was in the house, up-stairs, his mother said. I asked about him sort of casually, and she said he had just come in and gone up to his room. His father made some uncomplimentary remarks about him. Samuel oughtn"t to be so hard on him," William said thoughtfully; "he said he had told Sam that he supposed he might look forward to supporting him for the rest of his life--"as if he were a criminal or an idiot."
Imagine a father saying a thing like that!" William lifted his lantern and turned the wick up. "Now, I"m only hard on him when he is a goose; but his father--_What was that?_"
William King stood bolt upright, motionless, his lips parted. Mrs.
Richie caught at his arm, and the lantern swinging sharply, scattered a flying shower of light; they were both rigid, straining their ears, not breathing. There was no sound except the vague movement of the leaves overhead, and faintly, from across the meadow--"_Bob-white!
bob-white!_"
"I thought--I heard--" the doctor said in a whisper. Helena, clutching at his arm, reeled heavily against him.
"Yes. It was. That was what it was."
"No! Impossible!" he stammered. And they stood listening breathlessly; then, just as the strain began to relax, down through the darkness from the house behind the trees came a cry:
"Dr. King--"
An instant later the sound of flying steps on the gravel, and a girl"s shrill voice: "Dr. King!"
"Here, Lydia!" William said, running towards the little figure; "what"s the matter!"
Helena, in the shadow of the gate-post, only caught a word:
"Sam--"
And the doctor and the child were swallowed up in the night.
When William King came out of that house of confusion and death, he found her huddled against the gate-post, haggard, drenched with dew, waiting for him. He started, with a distressed word, and lifted her in his arms. "Oh, you ought not to be here; I thought you had gone home long ago!"
"_Dead?_"
"Yes."
"He--shot--
"Yes. Poor boy; poor, foolish, crazy boy! But it wasn"t your fault.
Oh, my poor child!"
She shivered away from him, then without a word turned towards Old Chester. The doctor walked at her side. It was nearly three, and very dark. No one saw them as they went through the sleeping streets; at William"s house she stopped, with a silent gesture of dismissal.
"I am going to take you home," he said gently. And a few minutes later he began to tell her about it. "He was dead when I got there. They think it was an accident; and it is best they should. I am afraid I"ll have to explain to my wife, because she saw your apprehension. But n.o.body else need know. Except--I must tell Dr. Lavendar, of course; but not until after the funeral. There is no use complicating things.
But other people can just think it was an accident. It was, in one way. He was insane. Everybody is, who does--that. Poor Samuel! Poor Mrs. Wright! I could not leave them; but I thought you had gone home, or I would have come. Mrs. Richie, promise me one thing: promise me not to feel it was your fault."
She dropped her face in her hands. "Not my fault! ... I killed him."
CHAPTER XXIV
"He was cleaning his father"s pistol, and it went off--" the poor, dazed mother said, over and over. The father said nothing. He sat, his elbow on his knee, his forehead resting in the palm of his hand.
Sometimes his heavy eyes glanced up, but he did not lift his head. He had hardly spoken since the accident. Then, he had said to William King:
"I suppose he undertook to clean my revolver. He always did things at queer times. I suppose it went off. It had a tricky hammer. It went off. By accident--not... He hadn"t any reason to... He said, only yesterday, when he got back, that he couldn"t stay away from home any longer. He said he _had_ to come home. So, you see, there isn"t any reason to think... He was cleaning it. And it went off. The hammer was tricky."
The slow, bewildered words were spoken with his eyes fixed blindly on the floor. At the sight of his dreadful composure, his wife"s loud weeping died into a frightened whimper. He did not repeat the explanation. Dr. Lavendar heard it from Mrs. Wright, as she knelt beside the poor, stony father, patting his hand and mothering him.
"It was an accident, Dr. Lavendar. Sammy took a notion to clean his father"s pistol. And it went off. And oh, he had just come back to us again. And he was so glad to get home. He went to church yesterday morning. I didn"t have to urge him. He wanted to go. I feel sure he had begun to think of his Saviour. Yes; and he wanted to go back to the bank, and write up his ledgers; he was so happy to be among us again. Oh, Dr, Lavendar, he said to me, "I just had to come home, mother, to you and father," And I kissed him, and I said, "Yes, my darling; home is the best place," And he kissed me, Dr, Lavendar.
Sammy was not one to do that--a big boy, you know. Oh, I am so glad he _wanted_ to come home. And now the Lord has taken him. Oh, Samuel, try, try to say: "Blessed be the name of the Lord!""