The evening after the fire Mrs. Sewell sat talking it over with her husband, in the light of the newspaper reports, which made very much more of Lemuel"s part in it than she liked. The reporters had flattered the popular love of the heroic in using Mrs. Harmon"s version of his exploits, and represented him as having been most efficient and daring throughout, and especially so in regard to the Evanses.
"Well, that doesn"t differ materially from what they told us themselves," said Sewell.
"You know very well, David," retorted his wife, "that there couldn"t have been the least danger at any time; and when he helped her to get Mr. Evans downstairs, the fire was nearly all out."
"Very well, then; he would have saved their lives if it had been necessary. It was a case of potential heroism, that contained all the elements of self-sacrifice."
Mrs. Sewell could not deny this, but she was not satisfied. She was silent a moment before she asked, "What do you suppose that wretched creature will do now?"
"I think very likely he will come to me," answered Sewell.
"I dare say." The bell rang. "And I suppose that"s he now!"
They listened and heard Miss Vane"s voice at the door, asking for them.
Mrs. Sewell ran down the stairs and kissed her. "Oh, I"m _so_ glad you came. Isn"t it wonderful? I"ve just come from them, and she"s taking the whole care of him, as if he had always been the sick one, and she strong and well."
"What do you mean, Lucy? He isn"t ill!"
"Who isn"t?"
"What are you talking about?"
"About Mr. Evans--"
"Oh!" said Miss Vane, with cold toleration. She arrived at the study door and gave Sewell her hand. "I scarcely knew him, you know; I only met him casually here. I"ve come to see," she added nervously, "if you know where Lemuel is, Mr. Sewell. Have you seen anything of him since the fire? How n.o.bly he behaved! But I never saw anything he wasn"t equal to!"
"Mrs. Sewell objects to his saving human life," said Sewell, not able to deny himself.
"I don"t see how you can take the slightest interest in him," began Mrs.
Sewell, saying a little more than she meant.
"You would, my dear," returned Miss Vane, "if you had wronged him as I have."
"Or as I," said Sewell.
"I"m thankful I haven"t, then," said his wife. "It seems to me that there"s nothing else of him. As to his n.o.ble behaviour, it isn"t possible you believe those newspaper accounts? He didn"t save any one"s life; there was no danger!"
Miss Vane, preoccupied with her own ideal of the facts, stared at her without replying, and then turned to Sewell.
"I want to find him and ask him to stay with me till he can get something else to do." Sewell"s eyebrows arched themselves involuntarily. "Sibyl has gone to New York for a fortnight; I shall be quite alone in the house, and I shall be very glad of his company,"
she explained to the eyebrows, while ignoring them. Her chin quivered a little, as she added, "I shall be _proud_ of his company. I wish him to understand that he is my _guest._"
"I suppose I shall see him soon," said Sewell, "and I will give him your message."
"Will you tell him," persisted Miss Vane, a little hysterically, "that if he is in any way embarra.s.sed, I insist upon his coming to me immediately--at _once?_"
Sewell smiled, "Yes."
"I know that I"m rather ridiculous," said Miss Vane, smiling in sympathy, "and I don"t blame Mrs. Sewell for not entering into my feelings. n.o.body could, who hadn"t felt the peculiar Lemuel glamour."
"I don"t imagine he"s embarra.s.sed in any way," said Sewell. "He seems to have the gift of lighting on his feet. But I"ll tell him how peremptory you are, Miss Vane."
"Well, upon my word," cried Mrs. Sewell, when Miss Vane had taken leave of them in an exaltation precluding every recurrent attempt to enlighten her as to the true proportions of Lemuel"s part in the fire, "I really believe people like to be made fools of. Why didn"t _you_ tell her, David, that he had done nothing?"
"What would have been the use? She has her own theory of the affair.
Besides, he did do something; he did his duty, and my experience is that it"s no small thing to do. It wasn"t his fault that he didn"t do more."
He waited some days for Lemuel to come to him, and he inquired each time he went to see the Evanses if they knew where he was. But they had not heard of him since the night of the fire.
"It"s his shyness," said Evans; "I can understand how if he thought he had put me under an obligation he wouldn"t come near me--and couldn"t."
Evans was to go out of town for a little while; the proprietors of the _Sat.u.r.day Afternoon_ insisted upon his taking a rest, and they behaved handsomely about his salary. He did not want to go, but his wife got him away finally, after he had failed in two or three attempts at writing.
Lemuel did not appear to Sewell till the evening of the day when the Evanses left town. It seemed as if he had waited till they were gone, so that he could not be urged to visit them. At first the minister scolded him a little for his neglect; but Lemuel said he had heard about them, and knew they were getting along all right. He looked as if he had not been getting along very well himself; his face was thin, and had an air at once dogged and apprehensive. He abruptly left talking of Evans, and said, "I don"t know as you heard what happened that night before the fire just after I got back from your house?"
"No, I hadn"t."
Lemuel stopped. Then he related briefly and cleanly the whole affair, Sewell interrupting him from time to time with murmurs of sympathy, and "Tchk, tchk, tchk!" and "Shocking, shocking!" At the end he said, "I had hoped somehow that the general calamity had swallowed up your particular trouble in it. Though I don"t know that general calamities ever do that with particular troubles," he added, more to himself than to Lemuel; and he put the idea away for some future sermon.
"Mr. Evans stopped and said something to me that night. He said we had to live things down, and not die them down; he wanted I should wait till Sat.u.r.day before I was sure that I couldn"t get through Tuesday. He said, How did we know that death was the end of trouble?"
"Yes," said the minister, with a smile of fondness for his friend; "that was like Evans all over."
"I sha"n"t forget those things," said Lemuel. "They"ve been in my head ever since. If it hadn"t been for them, I don"t know what I should have done."
He stopped, and after a moment"s inattention Sewell perceived that he wished to be asked something more. "I hope," he said, "that nothing more has been going wrong with you?" and as he asked this he laid his hand affectionately on the young man"s shoulder, just as Evans had done.
Lemuel"s eyes dimmed and his breath thickened. "What has become of the person--the discharged convict?"
"I guess I had better tell you," he said; and he told him of the adventure with Berry and Williams.
Sewell listened in silence, and then seemed quite at a loss what to say; but Lemuel saw that he was deeply afflicted. At last he asked, lifting his eyes anxiously to Sewell"s, "Do you think I did wrong to say the thief was a friend of mine, and get him off that way?"
"That"s a very difficult question," sighed Sewell. "You had a duty to society."
"Yes, I"ve thought of that since!"
"If I had been in your place, I"m afraid I should be glad not to have thought of it in time; and I"m afraid I"m glad that, as it is, it"s too late. But doesn"t it involve you with him in the eyes of the other young man?" "Yes, I presume it does," said Lemuel. "I shall have to go away."
"Back to Willoughby Pastures?" asked Sewell, with not so much faith in that panacea for Lemuel"s troubles as he had once had.
"No, to some other town. Do you know of anything I could get to do in New York?"
"Oh, no, no!" said the minister. "You needn"t let this banish you. We must seek this young Mr.--"
"Berry."
"--Mr. Berry out, and explain the matter to him."