Part 44 (1/2)
”But I can't,” choked Mrs. Hattie. ”I--I'm going away.”
”Away? Where? What do you mean?” cried Miss Maggie. ”Not to--live!”
”Yes. That's what I came to tell you.”
”Why, Hattie Blaisdell, where are you going?”
”To Plainville--next month.”
”Plainville? Oh, well, cheer up! That's only forty miles from here. I guess we can still see each other. Now, tell me, what does all this mean?”
”Well, of course, it began with Fred--his trouble, you know.”
”But I thought Jim fixed that all up, dear.”
”Oh, he did. He paid the money, and n.o.body there at college knew a thing about it. But there were--other things. Fred told us some of them night before last. He says he's ashamed of himself, but that he believes there's enough left in him to make a man of him yet. But he says he can't do it--there.”
”You mean--he doesn't want to go back to college?” Miss Maggie's voice showed her disappointment.
”Oh, he wants to go to college--but not there.”
”Oh,” nodded Miss Maggie. ”I see.”
”He says he's had too much money to spend--and that 't wouldn't be easy not to spend it--if he was back there, in the old crowd. So he wants to go somewhere else.”
”Well, that's all right, isn't it?”
”Y-yes, oh, yes. Jim says it is. He's awfully happy over it, and--and I guess I am.”
”Of course you are! But now, what is this about Plainville?” ”Oh, that grew out of it--all this. Mr. Hammond is going to open a new office in Plainville and he's offered Jim--James--no, JIM--I'm not going to call him 'James' any more!--the chance to manage it.”
”Well, that's fine, I'm sure.”
”Yes, of course that part is fine--splendid. He'll get a bigger salary, and all that, and--and I guess I'm glad to go, anyway--I don't like Hillerton any more. I haven't got any friends here, Maggie. Of course, I wouldn't have anything to do with the g.a.y.l.o.r.ds now, after what's happened,--that boy getting my boy to drink and gamble, and--and everything. And yet--YOU know how I've strained every nerve for years, and worked and worked to get where my children could--COULD be with them!”
”It didn't pay, did it, Hattie?”
”I guess it didn't! They're perfectly horrid--every one of them, and I hate them!”
”Oh, Hattie, Hattie!”
”Well, I do. Look at what they've done to Fred, and Bessie, too! I shan't let HER be with them any more, either. There aren't any folks here we can be with now. That's why I don't mind going away. All our friends that we used to know don't like us any more, they're so jealous on account of the money. Oh, yes, I know you think I'm to blame for that,” she went on aggrievedly. ”I can see you do, by your face. Jim says so, too. And maybe I am. But it was just so I could get ahead. I did so want to BE somebody!”
”I know, Hattie.” Miss Maggie looked as if she would like to say something more--but she did not say it.
Over at the bookcase Mr. Smith was abstractedly opening and shutting the book in his hand. His gaze was out the window near him. He had not touched the books on the shelves for some time.
”And look at how I've tried and see what it has come to--Bessie so high-headed and airy she makes fun of us, and Fred a gambler and a drunkard, and 'most a thief. And it's all that horrid hundred thousand dollars!”
The book in Mr. Smith's hand slipped to the floor with a bang; but no one was noticing Mr. Smith.