Thor knew that with Uncle Sim"s perspicacity this might be a leading question, but he made the answer he considered the most diplomatic in the circ.u.mstances. "She is if--if Claude is in love with her. But--but why do you call her that, Uncle Sim?"
"Because she"s a little witch. Most determined little piece I know. Hard working; lots of pluck; industrious as the devil. Whole soul set on attaining her ends."
Thor considered it prudent to return to the point from which he had been diverted. "Well, if the people I care for most are in trouble that I can get them out of--"
"Oh, if you can get them out of it--"
"Well, I can."
"Then that"s all right. Only the case must be rather rare. Haven"t often seen the attempt made except with one result--not that of getting people out of trouble, but of getting oneself in. But every one to his taste, Thor. Wouldn"t stop you for the world. Only advise you not to be in a hurry."
"There"s no question of being in a hurry when things have to be done _now_."
"All right, Thor. You know better than I. I"m one of those slowpokes who look on the fancy for taking a hand in other people"s affairs as I do on the taste for committing suicide--there"s always time. If you don"t do it to-day, you can to-morrow--which is a reason for putting it off, ain"t it?"
There was more than impatience in Thor"s protest as he cried, "But how can you put it off when there"s some one--some one who"s--who"s unhappy?"
"I see. Comes back to that. But I don"t mind some one"s being unhappy.
Don"t care a tuppenny d.a.m.n. Do "em good. I"ve seen more people unhappy than I could tell you about in a year; and nine out of ten were made men and women by it who before that had been only rags."
"I"m afraid I can"t accept that cheerful doctrine, Uncle Sim--"
"All right, Thor. Don"t want you to. Wouldn"t interfere with you any more than with any one else. Free country. Got your own row to hoe. If you make yourself miserable in the process, why, it"ll do you as much good as it does all the rest. Nothing like it. Wouldn"t save you from it for anything. But there"s a verse of an old song that you might turn over in your mind--old song written about two or three thousand years ago: "Oh, tarry thou the Lord"s leisure--""
Thor tossed his head impatiently. "Oh, pshaw!"
"But it goes on: "And be strong." You can be awful strong when you"re tarrying the Lord"s leisure, Thor, because then you know you"re not making any d.a.m.n-fool mistakes."
Thor spoke up proudly: "I"d rather _make_ mistakes--than do nothing."
"That"s all right, Thor; splendid spirit. Don"t disapprove of it a mite.
Go ahead. Make mistakes. It"ll be live and learn. Not the least afraid.
I"ve often noticed that when young fellows of your sort prefer their own haste to the Lord"s leisure there"s a Lord"s haste that hurries on before "em, so as to be all ready to meet "em when they come a cropper in the ditch."
Thor turned away sharply. "I guess I"ll beat it, Uncle Sim."
The old man, swinging his lantern, shambled along by his nephew"s side, as the latter made for the road again. "Oh, I ain"t trying to hold you back, Thor. Now, am I? On the contrary, I say, go ahead. Rush in where angels fear to tread; and if you don"t do anything else you"ll carry the angels along with you. You may make an awful fool of yourself, Thor--but you"ll be on the side of the angels and the angels"ll be on yours."
Though dinner was over by the time Thor reached home, his stepmother sat with him while he ate it. It was a new departure for her. Thor could not remember that she had ever done anything of the sort before. She sat with him and served him, asking no questions as to why he was late. She seemed to divine a trouble on his part beyond her power to console, and for which the only sympathy she dared to express was that of small kindly acts. He understood this and was grateful.
He found her society soothing. This, too, surprised him. He felt so battered and sore that the mere presence of one who approached him from an affectionate impulse had the effect on him of a gentle hand. Never before in his life had he been conscious of woman"s genius for comforting, possibly because never before in his life had he needed comfort to the same degree.
No reference was made by his stepmother or himself to the scene with Mrs. Willoughby in the afternoon, but it was not hard for him to perceive that in some strange way it was stirring the victim of it to newness of life. It was not that she admitted the application of Bessie"s charges to herself; they only startled her to the knowledge that there were heights and depths in human existence such as her imagination had never plumbed. Her nature was making a feeble effort to expand, as the petals of a bud that has been kept hard and compact by a backward spring may unfold to the heat of summer.
When he had finished his hasty meal, Thor rose and kissed her, saying, "Thank you, mumphy," using the pet name that had not been on his lips since childhood. She drew his face downward with a sudden sob, a sob quite inexplicable except on the ground that her poor, withered, strangled little soul was at last trying to live.
Having gone up-stairs to his room, Thor shut the door and bolted it in his desire for solitude. He changed his coat and kicked off his boots.
When he had lighted a pipe he threw himself on the old sofa which had done duty as couch at the foot of his bed ever since he was a boy. It was the att.i.tude in which he had always been best able to "think things out."
Now that he had eaten a sufficient dinner, he felt physically less bruised, though mentally there was more to torture him. He regretted having seen Uncle Sim. He hated the alternative of letting things alone.
There was a sense in which action would have been an anodyne to suffering, and had it not been for Uncle Sim he would have had no scruple in making use of it.
It was all very well to talk of letting people settle their own affairs; but how _could_ they settle them, in these particular cases, without his intervention? As far as power went he was like a fairy prince who had only to wave a wand to see the whole scene transfigured. If he hadn"t asked Uncle Sim"s advice he would be already waving it, instead of lolling on his back, with his right foot poised over his left knee and dangling a heelless slipper in the air. He felt shame at the very att.i.tude of idleness.
True, there were the two distinct lines of action--that of making a number of people happy now, and that of holding back that they might fight their own battles. By fighting their own battles they might emerge from the conflict the stronger--after forty or fifty years! Those who were unlikely to live so long--Len and Bessie Willoughby, for example--would probably go down rebelling and protesting to their graves. But Claude and Rosie and Lois might all grow morally the stronger. There was that possibility. It was plain. Claude and Rosie might marry on the former"s fifteen hundred dollars a year, have children, and bring them up in poverty as model citizens; but whatever the high triumph of their middle age, Thor shrank from the thought of the interval for both. And Lois, too, might live down grief, disappointment, small means, and loneliness; might become hardened and toughened and beaten to endurance, and grow to be the best and bravest and kindest old maid in the world. Uncle Sim would probably consider that in these n.o.ble achievements the game would be worth the candle; but he, Thor Masterman, didn"t. The more he developed the possibilities of this future for every one concerned, himself included, the more he loathed it.
It was past eleven before he reached the point of loathing at which he was convinced that action should begin; but once he reached it, he bounded to his feet. He felt wonderfully free and vigorous. If certain details could be settled there and then--he couldn"t wait till the morrow--he thought that, in spite of everything, he should sleep.
He had heard Claude go to his room, which was on the same floor as his own, an hour earlier. Claude was probably by this time in bed and asleep, but the elder brother couldn"t hesitate for that. Within less than a minute he had crossed the pa.s.sage, entered Claude"s bedroom, and turned on the electric light.
Claude"s profile sunk into the middle of the pillow might have been carved in ivory. His dark wavy hair fell back picturesquely from temple and brow. Under the coverings his slim form made a light, graceful line.
The room was at once dainty and severe. A striped paper, brightened by a design of garlands, knots, and flowers _a la Marie Antoinette_, made a background for white furniture in the style of Louis XVI., modern and inexpensive, but carefully selected by Mrs. Masterman. The walls were further lightened by colored reprints of old French scenes, discreetly amorous, collected by Claude himself.
Thor stood for some seconds in front of the bed before the brother opened his eyes. More seconds pa.s.sed while the younger gazed up at the elder. "What the dev--!" Claude began, sleepily.
But Thor broke in, promptly, "Claude, why didn"t you ever tell me you knew Rosie Fay?"
Claude closed his eyes again. The expected had happened. Like Rosie, he resolved to meet the moment cautiously, creating no more opposition than he could help. "Why should I?" he parried, without hostility.
"Because I asked you, for one thing."
He opened his eyes. "When did you ever ask me?"
"At the bank; one day when I found you there. It must have been two months ago."
Claude stirred slightly under the bedclothes. "Oh, then."
"Yes, then. Why didn"t you tell me?"
"I didn"t see how I could. What good would it have done, anyhow?"
It was on Thor"s tongue to say, "It would have done the good of not telling lies," but he suppressed that. One of his objects was to be conciliating. He had other objects, which he believed would be best served by taking a small chair and sitting on it astride, close to Claude"s bed. An easy, fraternal air was maintained by the effect of the pipe still hanging by its curved stem from the corner of his mouth. He began to think highly of himself as a comedian.
"I wish you had told me," he said, quietly, "because I could have helped you."
Claude lay still. His eyes grew brilliant. "Helped me--how?"
"Helped you in whatever it is you"re trying to do." He added, with significance, "You are trying to do something, aren"t you?"
Claude endeavored to gain time by saying, "Trying to do what?"
"You"re--" Thor hesitated, but dashed in. "You"re in love with her?"
It was still to gain time that Claude replied, "What do you think?"