Livingstone arose and marched up and down the floor.
"Don"t do that," said Van Dorn. "It"ll make you hungrier."
"I suppose Barry"s gone home," reflected Perner, "hasn"t he, Van, by this time?"
"Yes; and he lives seven miles beyond the bridge--too far to walk to-night."
Livingstone paused in his exercise.
"I believe there"s one more mail," he said; "isn"t there, fellows?"
"Why, yes, that"s so!" declared Perner. "And if there isn"t, go down anyway. Maybe somebody"s put something in the Colonel"s mail-box that we can eat or sell."
Livingstone disappeared and was gone for some minutes.
"I guess the wolf"s got him," said Perner.
Then they heard him coming three steps at a time.
"Bully!" said Van Dorn. "That means a check!"
"A check, sure as the world!" echoed Perner, joyfully.
Livingstone plunged in--his face flushed, his eyes shining, and an open letter in his hand.
"How much is it?" asked Van Dorn and Perner together.
Livingstone regarded them as if he did not understand.
"How much is what?" he asked--then added joyously: "Oh, yes--oh, no; it isn"t from the "Decade"--it"s--it"s a _letter_!"
Van Dorn and Perner rose grimly. Van Dorn"s voice was very stern.
"And what do you mean," he demanded, "by looking as you do now over a letter--simply a _letter_?"
But Livingstone was in no wise daunted.
"Sit down, Van!" he shouted, "you and Perny! I"ve always wanted to tell you, and never could quite do it before. Sit down now, and I"ll read you this letter! It"s from the girl that sent in our first subscription.
It"s the best letter that was ever written--from the best girl that G.o.d ever made!"
XXI
THE LETTER LIVINGSTONE READ
MY OWN DEAR FOOLISH TRUE: I wonder if you think that because we have all been asleep, dreaming wonderful dreams,--chasing a rainbow, as you say,--that it is going to make any real difference in our lives now that we are awake. It may seem to make differences for a time--trifling differences in trifling things; it may even give us something to look back on and laugh about--something in the way of experience that to such as Van and Perny and yourself may be of use as material: but as to making any vital difference in whatever makes life full and beautiful and worth having, and that is love,--our love for each other, I mean,--why, True, the very thought of it is so absurd that I try not to be offended with you for even thinking it.
"Do you remember, True, long ago, when you first wrote me about the paper, and I wrote you that, while I was glad for your sake, I was not enthusiastic over the undertaking? That was my real self, True, and was from the heart--the same heart that is more enthusiastic now over the failure of it all than it ever was over the beginning. If I was dazzled for a time by the fair colors in the sky,--if I seized your hand, and with you and Barry and Perny and Van and the Colonel went racing down the wet meadows for the pot of gold,--it does not mean that I am any the less glad to wake up now and find that life is something better than all that; that true life lies in doing conscientiously whatever we can do best; that such dreams only serve to make our best work better, and that still better than all of these is youth and love--our youth, True, and our love for each other.
"No, True; I am not going to take back my promise. What do you suppose I care for the few dollars you have lost? You are no less good and n.o.ble--no less capable than before; and as for the times, they will change--they always do. It almost hurts me to realize that you could think I would ever let you send me off even for what you considered my own good. And I will not go, you see. You can"t send me away--unless, indeed, you do not want me any more, and then, of course, you will say so, and I will go. Forgive me, True; I do not mean that; but I must punish you the least bit because--because I am a woman, I suppose.
"And now, True, about this draft for a thousand dollars which I am sending back to you. It was right, of course, for you to hold it as you did when you felt that it could do no good, and it is better to have it now, when it will. I want you to have it cashed at once, and let Van and Perny have just whatever they need of it to tide them over, and I want you to help the Colonel, too, if you can find him. Then you are to take the rest of it, and, after using whatever you need for yourself, go out and find the smallest and cheapest little apartment in New York that we can live in. Furnish it with the fewest things you can buy, and if there is any money left, we will take a wedding trip on it just as far as it will take us. Then we will come back to our little apartment, you will go back to your beloved art, and we will start really as Mr. Frisby did this time--without a dollar!
I have no preparation to make. Let me know when you are coming and I will be ready.
"And now, True, good-by, with the happiest of New Years for you and your good friends, who will, I am sure, be my good friends, too, though I take you away from them in part. I wonder if it would be right for me to say I am glad we failed? I am afraid that, even if it is wrong, it is the truth. I _know_ it is! There are many things that we could do with wealth, but there are so many things so much sweeter that we might not have; and oh, dear True, I am only a woman, and selfish, after all.
"Always and always your
"DOROTHY.
"P.S. I almost forgot to thank you for the autograph volume.
You could not have pleased me more.
"DORRY."
XXII
THE BREAD LINE
Livingstone did not read quite all the letter. There were lines and paragraphs here and there that he entered, stumbled, and backed out of--taking at last a road around that was so evidently his own as to make Perner remark once:
"Don"t revise, Stony; you can"t improve on the original."
And when he had finished, none of the three spoke for at least a minute.
Then Van Dorn said huskily:
"I knew she was a bully girl when she sent that subscription-- I could tell by the writing."
And Perner added:
"That subscription letter is mine, Stony. As acting manager of the "Whole Family" I claim it."
Then, all at once, they had hold of Livingstone"s hands, and when the three faced the fire again it reflected in their eyes with unusual brightness.
"I can"t get it cashed to-night," Livingstone reflected presently; "it"s too big."
"No; and you are not to get it cashed any night until you find that apartment," said Van Dorn.
Perner nodded.
"Van and I are grateful," he a.s.sented, "but with our few wants, and our marvelous talents, coupled with my ten years" business experience--"