She had spoken rapidly and with the same energy that characterized all her words, but with solemn earnestness. Pliny bowed his head on his two hands, while utter silence reigned; and Theodore, wonder-struck over the turn that the conversation had taken, yet had breath enough left to say
"Lord Jesus, help them, help them. Oh, remember Calvary and the "many mansions," and help them both. Let the decision be now." This prayer he repeated and re-repeated. Then suddenly Pliny arose.
"If ever any one on earth needed help and strength it is I," he said, hoa.r.s.ely. "Yes, I _want_ to give up if I can," and he dropped upon his knees.
In an instant Winny was kneeling, and Theodore"s whole soul was being poured out in prayer for those two. A moment and then Pliny, in low, hoa.r.s.e voice said:
"Lord, help me; I am sinking in deep waters." And Winny added: "Savior of my mother, I am sick of sin; take me out of myself and into thee."
When they arose Theodore stole quietly from the room and left them alone. He went up to his own closet and prayed such prayer of thanksgiving as was recorded in heaven that night, and the angels around the throne had great joy.
Not yet were the shocks and changes coming to these households over. Not two weeks had the millionaire been sleeping his last sleep, when there burst like a bombsh.e.l.l on the business world the startling news that his millions had vanished into vapor, or perhaps it would be speaking more properly to say into poison. Strange, wild speculations, that the acute, far-sighted business man would never have touched for a moment had he been himself, had been entered into while his brain was struggling with the fumes of brandy. Notes had been signed, sales had been made and debts contracted upon an enormous scale; in short, the whole business was in a bewildering entanglement.
"There won"t be five thousand dollars left out of the whole immense property," said Edgar Ryan, one of the lawyers in charge, at the close of a confidential conversation with Theodore, and Theodore, like the rest of the world, stood for a little stunned and aghast over this new calamity.
"I never saw such a tangle in all my days," continued Ryan, earnestly.
"The amount of property shipwrecked is almost incredible. The man was never intoxicated in his life, and yet it may be truthfully said of him that he has let rum swallow all his millions. I tell you, Mallery, you and Habakkuk were undoubtedly correct."
Theodore turned and walked soberly and wearily away. He had not the heart just then to smile over the memory of anything. There followed weary, anxious, hara.s.sing days--days in which Pliny remained doggedly behind the counter, and Theodore almost entirely ignored the store, and gave himself up to following the footsteps of appraisers and auctioneers and policemen, and in trying to shield Mrs. Hastings and Dora, for the red flag floated out from the grand mansion proudly known for years as Hastings" Hall. Oh change! Can anything in all time be compared in swiftness and sharpness and terror to that monster who swoops down upon our hearts and homes, and almost in the twinkling of an eye leaves them desolate? Oh heaven! With all its glories and its joys, can anything in all the bright description equal in peace and rest and comfort that one precious sentence which admits of no thought of change: "And they shall reign forever and ever?"
There were plans innumerable to be made and acted upon. Rick and his wife had gone back ere this to their Western home. Winny had steadily refused their urgent pet.i.tions to accompany them, and worked faithfully on in her honored position in one of the great graded schools. She and Jim had taken board together in a quiet house as far removed from the dear old home as possible. Mrs. Hastings had promptly accepted the invitation of her husband"s brother in Chicago. The invitation had also been extended to Dora, and she had as promptly declined it. Her strong, independent nature a.s.serted itself here. She would not go to live a dependent in her uncle"s home. She would not teach music, for which she p.r.o.nounced herself unfitted by nature and education; but she would take the boys" room next to Winny"s in the aforesaid graded school, and share the quiet little room in the boarding house, whither Winny had carried many of her household treasures.
It was all settled at last, and when Mrs. Hastings was ticketed and checked for Chicago under the escort of one of the firm who was going thither, and the young ladies were quietly domiciled in their new and pleasant room, Pliny and Theodore came to the first breathing place they had found for many a day, and felt absolutely forlorn and disconsolate.
They were together in the store, the last clerk had departed, and their loneliness only served to add to their sense of gloom.
"Well," said Pliny, closing the ledger with a heavy sigh, "if we had a local habitation we"d go to it now, wouldn"t we?"
"Probably," answered Theodore, drumming on the counter with his fingers.
"Where _are_ we going to live, Pliny, anyway?"
"More than I know," was Pliny"s gloomy answer. "In the street for all I seem to care just at present."
And then the office door clicked behind them, and Mr. Stephens appeared.
"I thought you were gone, sir," said Pliny, rising in surprise.
"No, I was waiting your movements. Come, young gentlemen, I want you both to come home with me. There is no use in remonstrating, my boy," he added, laying his hand on Theodore"s shoulder, as the latter would have spoken. "I have had your and Pliny"s rooms ready for you this week past, and have only waited until you were at leisure to take possession. I keep bachelor"s hall, you know, and if ever a man needed something new and fresh about him I do. So do as I want you to for once, just to see how it will seem."
There was much talk about the matter, argument and counter argument; but in the end Mr. Stephens prevailed, as in reality he generally did, when he set his heart upon a thing, despite his statements that Theodore kept him under complete control. Before another week closed the two young men were cozily settled in their new quarters, and really feeling as much at home as though half their lives had been spent there.
There was one other matter which came to Theodore as a source of great satisfaction.
"Mallery," Mr. Stephens had said to him one morning when they were quite alone in the private office, "have you any special interest in the Hastings" place?"
Theodore hesitated a little, and then answered frankly enough:
"Yes, sir, I certainly have. There are many a.s.sociations connected with that house that will always endear it to me."
"Then you may be interested to know that I have become the purchaser of it; and if at any time, for any reason, you should wish to make special disposition of it, it shall always be in a state to await your orders.
Real estate is valuable property, and as good a way as any in which to dispose of surplus funds."
Theodore came out from behind the screen to try to offer some word of thanks, but Mr. Stephens had pushed open the green baize door and vanished.
CHAPTER XXIX.
SOME MORE BABIES.
Mrs. Jenkins" Tommy stood on the sidewalk in front of the store, in a nicely fitting new suit, white vest and kid gloves. It was not yet the middle of the afternoon, but the great store was closed and shuttered and barred. A gentleman came briskly down the street and halted before the young man, with a surprised look on his face as he questioned:
"How now, Tommy, what"s to pay? It isn"t possible your firm has failed and foreclosed? What are you all bolted and barred at this time of day for?"
Tommy arched his eyebrows.
"Have you been out of town, sir?" he asked, in a tone which plainly said, "It isn"t possible that you"ve been _in_ town and not heard the cause of this closed store?"
"Just so," answered the good-natured gentleman. "I"ve been West, and I want to see Messrs. Stephens and Mallery in a twinkling."
"Can"t do it," said Tommy, promptly, and with the air of a policeman.
"They are otherwise engaged, both of them--all three of them, I may say.
Mr. Hastings is in it, too. There"s been a double wedding. Haven"t you heard of it, sir?"
"Not a word," answered his listener, with commendable gravity. "They"ve been as whist as mice. Tell us all about it."
"Well, sir, it was to-day at twelve o"clock, in the First Church--Dr.
Birge"s, you know. He married "em. Splendid ceremony, too! and they looked--well, they all looked just grand, I tell you!"
"Don"t doubt it in the least, Tommy, but who the mischief were they?"
"Why, Mr. Mallery and Miss Hastings, and Mr. Hastings and Miss Winny McPherson, and they"re both of our firm, you know; at least Mr. Hastings he"s our confidential clerk now, and we all say that he"ll be partner one of these days, as sure as guns. We all went to the wedding, every one of us, cash boys and all; then we all went to Mr. Stephens", and had just the grandest kind of a dinner with the brides and grooms. And Dr.
Birge and Mr. Ryan they toasted them."
"Wine or brandy?" interposed the gentleman, slily.
"Neither!" answered indignant Tommy, with flashing eyes and glowing cheeks. "They had pure water, ice water. They don"t have any wine or brandy in that house nor in our firm, I can tell you, sir."
"Good for you, Tommy--stand up for your principles. Well, what came next after you were all toasted and ice-watered? Is Mrs. Hastings, senior, in town? Dear me, how long is it since she went away?"
"It"s pretty near three years. No, she isn"t in town. She"s in feeble health, and they"re going out there to Chicago to see her, the whole tribe of them. They take the four o"clock Express, and we"re all going to the cars with them, about a dozen carriages. It"s time they were on hand, too. I had to come down to the store after a package that was left here, and there they are this minute; and so you see, sir, you can"t see either Mr. Stephens or Mr. Mallery in a twinkling. I ride in the eighth carriage." And at this point Tommy"s shining boots bounded away.