When Helen reached home that night she found the little flat dominated once again by the big, breezy presence of Herbert"s friend.
"I"ve been telling him more about Herbert," Mrs. Raymond began joyously, as soon as Helen entered the room. "I"ve been telling him about his letters to me, and the peppermints and the lace tie, you know, and how _good_ Herbert is to me. We"ve had such a nice visit!"
"Have you? I"m so glad!" returned Helen, a little unsteadily; and only the man knew the meaning of the quick look of relieved grat.i.tude that came to her face.
At the door some minutes later, Carroll found a small packet thrust into his fingers. He caught both the hand and the packet in a firm clasp.
"You"re true blue, little girl," he breathed tremulously, "and I"m going to keep tabs on Bert after this. I "ll _make_ him keep straight for her--and for _you_. He"s only a bit weak, after all. And you"ll see me again soon--very soon," he finished, as he crushed her hand in a grip that hurt. Then he turned and stumbled away, as if his eyes did not see quite clearly.
"Now, wasn"t he nice?" murmured Mrs. Raymond, as the girl closed the hall door. "And--didn"t he say that he"d call again sometime?"
"Yes, mother."
"Well, I"m sure, I hope he will. He isn"t Herbert, of course, but he _knows_ Herbert."
"He--does, mother." There was a little break in Helen"s voice, but Mrs.
Raymond did not notice it.
"Dearie me! Well, he"s gone now, and I _am_ hungry. My dinner didn"t seem to please, somehow."
"Why, mother, it was n"t--codfish; was it?"
"N-no. It was chicken. But then, like enough it _will_ be codfish to-morrow."
Helen Raymond dreamed that night, and she dreamed of love, and youth, and laughter. But it was not the shimmer of spangled tulle nor the chatter of merry girls that called it forth. It was the look in a pair of steadfast blue eyes, and the grip of a strong man"s hand.
A Mushroom of Collingsville
There were three men in the hotel office that Monday evening: Jared Parker, the proprietor; Seth Wilber, town authority on all things past and present; and John Fletcher, known in Collingsville as "The Squire"--possibly because of his smattering of Blackstone; probably because of his silk hat and five-thousand-dollar bank account. Each of the three men eyed with unabashed curiosity the stranger in the doorway.
"Good-evening, gentlemen," began a deprecatory voice. "I--er--this is the hotel?"
In a trice Jared Parker was behind the short counter.
"Certainly, sir. Room, sir?" he said suavely, pushing an open book and a pen halfway across the counter.
"H"m, yes, I--I suppose so," murmured the stranger, as he hesitatingly crossed the floor. "H"m; one must sleep, you know," he added, as he examined the point of the pen.
"Certainly, sir, certainly," agreed Jared, whose face was somewhat twisted in his endeavors to smile on the prospective guest and frown at the two men winking and gesticulating over by the stove.
"H"m," murmured the stranger a third time, as he signed his name with painstaking care. "There, that"s settled! Now where shall I find Professor Marvin, please?"
"Professor Marvin!" repeated Jared stupidly.
"Yes; Professor George Marvin," bowed the stranger.
"Why, there ain"t no Professor Marvin, that I know of."
"Mebbe he means old Marvin"s son," interposed Seth Wilber with a chuckle.
The stranger turned inquiringly.
"His name"s "George," all right," continued Seth, with another chuckle, "but I never heard of his professin" anythin"--"nless "t was laziness."
The stranger"s face showed a puzzled frown.
"Oh--but--I mean the man who discovered that ants and--"
"Good gorry!" interrupted Seth, with a groan. "If it"s anythin" about bugs an" snakes, he"s yer man! Ain"t he?" he added, turning to his friends for confirmation.
Jared nodded, and Squire Fletcher cleared his throat.
"He"s done nothing but play with bugs ever since he came into the world," said the Squire ponderously. "A most unfortunate case of an utterly worthless son born to honest, hard-working parents. He"ll bring up in the poor-house yet--or in a worse place. Only think of it--a grown man spending his time flat on his stomach in the woods counting ants" legs and bugs" eyes!"
"Oh, but--" The stranger stopped. The hotel-keeper had the floor.
"It began when he wa"n"t more"n a baby. He pestered the life out of his mother bringing snakes into the sittin"-room, and carrying worms in his pockets. The poor woman was most mortified to death about it.
Why, once when the parson was there, George used his hat to catch b.u.t.terflies with--smashed it, too."
"Humph!" snapped the Squire. "The little beast filled one of my overshoes once, to make a swimming-tank for his dirty little fish."
"They could n"t do nothin" with him," chimed in Seth Wilber. "An" when he was older, "twas worse. If his father set him ter hoein" pertaters, the little scamp would be found h"istin" up old rocks an" boards ter see the critters under "em crawl."
"Yes, but--" Again the stranger was silenced.
"And in school he did n"t care nothing about "rithmetic nor jography,"
interrupted Jared. "He was forever scarin" the teacher into fits bringin" in spiders an" caterpillars, an" asking questions about "em."
"Gorry! I guess ye can"t tell me no news about George Marvin"s schoolin"," snarled Seth Wilber--"me, that"s got a son Tim what was in the same cla.s.s with him. Why, once the teacher set "em in the same seat; but Tim could n"t stand that--what with the worms an"
spiders--an" he kicked so hard the teacher swapped "round."
"Yes; well--er--extraordinary, extraordinary--very!--so it is,"
murmured the stranger, backing toward the door. The next moment he was out on the street asking the first person he met for the way to George Marvin"s.
On Tuesday night a second stranger stopped at the hotel and asked where he could find Professor Marvin. Jared, Seth, and Squire Fletcher were there as before; but this time their derisive stories--such as they managed to tell--fell on deaf ears. The stranger signed his name with a flourish, engaged his room, laughed good-naturedly at the three men--and left them still talking.
On Wednesday two more strangers arrived, and on Thursday, another one.
All, with varying manner but unvarying prompt.i.tude, called for Professor George Marvin.
Jared, Seth, and the Squire were dumfounded. Their mystification culminated in one grand chorus of amazement when, on Friday, the Squire came to the hotel hugging under his arm a daily newspaper.
"Just listen to this!" he blurted out, banging his paper down on the desk and spreading it open with shaking hands. As he read, he ran his finger down the column, singling out a phrase here and there, and stumbling a little over unfamiliar words.
The recent ento-mo-logical discoveries of Professor George Marvin have set the scientific world in a flurry. . . . Professor Marvin is now unanimously conceded to be the greatest entomologist living. He knows his Hex-a-poda and Myri-a-poda as the most of us know our alphabet. . . . The humble home of the learned man has become a Mecca, toward which both great and small of the scientific world are bending eager steps. . . . The career of Marvin reads like a romance, and he has fought his way to his present enviable position by sheer grit, and ability, having had to combat with all the narrow criticism and misconceptions usual in the case of a progressive thinker in a small town. Indeed, it is said that even now his native village fails to recognize the honor that is hers.