"Yes, but they"re all taken," said Kate. "There isn"t a vacant house on Orchard Avenue."
"Oh yes, there is," said Martha. "The old Hampstead house is vacant."
"Oh, of course," said Kate. "But then I don"t believe Mrs. Hannigan would like it there. I wonder where they can be going to move to?"
"I"m sure I don"t know," sighed Martha. "It must be to some place we don"t know about."
"Well." said Carrie Dungen, after a general reflective silence, "it"s easy enough to find out, anyhow."
"Who knows--around here?" asked Kate.
"Why, Mrs. Smith, and there she is in her garden," said Carrie, jumping to her feet. As she dashed out of the door, Kate and Martha crowded at the window. Carrie"s voice rang out from near the steps.
"Mrs. Smith! Mrs. Smith! Do you know where the Hannigans are going to move to?"
XXIII
The autumn smote the leaves, and the trees of Whilomville were panoplied in crimson and yellow. The winds grew stronger, and in the melancholy purple of the nights the home shine of a window became a finer thing. The little boys, watching the sear and sorrowful leaves drifting down from the maples, dreamed of the near time when they could heap bushels in the streets and burn them during the abrupt evenings.
Three men walked down the Niagara Avenue. As they approached Judge Hagenthorpe"s house he came down his walk to meet them in the manner of one who has been waiting.
"Are you ready, judge?" one said.
"All ready," he answered.
The four then walked to Trescott"s house. He received them in his office, where he had been reading. He seemed surprised at this visit of four very active and influential citizens, but he had nothing to say of it.
After they were all seated, Trescott looked expectantly from one face to another. There was a little silence. It was broken by John Twelve, the wholesale grocer, who was worth $400,000, and reported to be worth over a million.
"Well, doctor," he said, with a short laugh, "I suppose we might as well admit at once that we"ve come to interfere in something which is none of our business."
"Why, what is it?" asked Trescott, again looking from one face to another. He seemed to appeal particularly to Judge Hagenthorpe, but the old man had his chin lowered musingly to his cane, and would not look at him.
"It"s about what n.o.body talks of--much," said Twelve. "It"s about Henry Johnson."
Trescott squared himself in his chair. "Yes?" he said.
Having delivered himself of the t.i.tle, Twelve seemed to become more easy. "Yes," he answered, blandly, "we wanted to talk to you about it."
"Yes?" said Trescott.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""It"s About What n.o.body Talks Of--Much," Said Twelve"]
Twelve abruptly advanced on the main attack. "Now see here, Trescott, we like you, and we have come to talk right out about this business.
It may be none of our affairs and all that, and as for me, I don"t mind if you tell me so; but I am not going to keep quiet and see you ruin yourself. And that"s how we all feel."
"I am not ruining myself," answered Trescott.
"No, maybe you are not exactly ruining yourself," said Twelve, slowly, "but you are doing yourself a great deal of harm. You have changed from being the leading doctor in town to about the last one. It is mainly because there are always a large number of people who are very thoughtless fools, of course, but then that doesn"t change the condition."
A man who had not heretofore spoken said, solemnly, "It"s the women."
"Well, what I want to say is this," resumed Twelve: "Even if there are a lot of fools in the world, we can"t see any reason why you should ruin yourself by opposing them. You can"t teach them anything, you know."
"I am not trying to teach them anything." Trescott smiled wearily.
"I--It is a matter of--well--"
"And there are a good many of us that admire you for it immensely,"
interrupted Twelve; "but that isn"t going to change the minds of all those ninnies."
"It"s the women," stated the advocate of this view again.
"Well, what I want to say is this," said Twelve. "We want you to get out of this trouble and strike your old gait again. You are simply killing your practice through your infernal pigheadedness. Now this thing is out of the ordinary, but there must be ways to--to beat the game somehow, you see. So we"ve talked it over--about a dozen of us--and, as I say, if you want to tell us to mind our own business, why, go ahead; but we"ve talked it over, and we"ve come to the conclusion that the only way to do is to get Johnson a place somewhere off up the valley, and--"
Trescott wearily gestured. "You don"t know, my friend. Everybody is so afraid of him, they can"t even give him good care. n.o.body can attend to him as I do myself."
"But I have a little no-good farm up beyond Clarence Mountain that I was going to give to Henry," cried Twelve, aggrieved. "And if you--and if you--if you--through your house burning down, or anything--why, all the boys were prepared to take him right off your hands, and--and--"
Trescott arose and went to the window. He turned his back upon them.
They sat waiting in silence. When he returned he kept his face in the shadow. "No, John Twelve," he said, "it can"t be done."
There was another stillness. Suddenly a man stirred on his chair.
"Well, then, a public inst.i.tution--" he began.
"No," said Trescott; "public inst.i.tutions are all very good, but he is not going to one."
In the background of the group old Judge Hagenthorpe was thoughtfully smoothing the polished ivory head of his cane.
XXIV
Trescott loudly stamped the snow from his feet and shook the flakes from his shoulders. When he entered the house he went at once to the dining-room, and then to the sitting-room. Jimmie was there, reading painfully in a large book concerning giraffes and tigers and crocodiles.
"Where is your mother, Jimmie?" asked Trescott.
"I don"t know, pa," answered the boy. "I think she is up-stairs."
Trescott went to the foot of the stairs and called, but there came no answer. Seeing that the door of the little drawing-room was open, he entered. The room was bathed in the half-light that came from the four dull panes of mica in the front of the great stove. As his eyes grew used to the shadows he saw his wife curled in an arm-chair. He went to her. "Why, Grace." he said, "didn"t you hear me calling you?"
She made no answer, and as he bent over the chair he heard her trying to smother a sob in the cushion.
"Grace!" he cried. "You"re crying!"
She raised her face. "I"ve got a headache, a dreadful headache, Ned."
"A headache?" he repeated, in surprise and incredulity.