Part 45 (1/2)

”Your head aches!” she exclaimed. ”Let me do something for it. And I've been making it worse with all my foolishness.”

”No, no; that's all right,” he a.s.sured her. ”I tell you what we'll do.

I'll lie down here a bit, and you play something for me. Something quiet. I get so tired down there in La Salle Street, Laura, you don't know.”

And while he stretched out at full length upon the couch, his wife, at the organ, played the music she knew he liked best--old songs, ”Daisy Dean,” ”Lord Lovell,” ”When Stars Are in the Quiet Sky,” and ”Open Thy Lattice to Me.”

When at length she paused, he nodded his head with pleasure.

”That's pretty,” he said. ”Ah, that is blame pretty. Honey, it's just like medicine to me,” he continued, ”to lie here, quiet like this, with the lights low, and have my dear girl play those old, old tunes. My old governor, Laura, used to play that 'Open the Lattice to me,' that and 'Father, oh, Father, Come Home with me Now'--used to play 'em on his fiddle.” His arm under his head, he went on, looking vaguely at the opposite wall. ”Lord love me, I can see that kitchen in the old farmhouse as plain! The walls were just logs and plaster, and there were upright supports in each corner, where we used to measure our heights--we children. And the fireplace was there,” he added, gesturing with his arm, ”and there was the wood box, and over here was an old kind of dresser with drawers, and the torty-sh.e.l.l cat always had her kittens under there. Honey, I was happy then. Of course I've got you now, and that's all the difference in the world. But you're the only thing that does make a difference. We've got a fine place and a mint of money I suppose--and I'm proud of it. But I don't know.... If they'd let me be and put us two--just you and me--back in the old house with the bare floors and the rawhide chairs and the shuck beds, I guess we'd manage. If you're happy, you're happy; that's about the size of it. And sometimes I think that we'd be happier--you and I--chumming along shoulder to shoulder, poor an' working hard, than making big money an'

spending big money, why--oh, I don't know ... if you're happy, that's the thing that counts, and if all this stuff,” he kicked out a careless foot at the pictures, the heavy hangings, the gla.s.s cabinets of bibelots, ”if all this stuff stood in the way of it--well--it could go to the devil! That's not poetry maybe, but it's the truth.”

Laura came over to where her husband lay, and sat by him, and took his head in her lap, smoothing his forehead with her long white hands.

”Oh, if I could only keep you like this always,” she murmured. ”Keep you untroubled, and kind, and true. This is my husband again. Oh, you are a man, Curtis; a great, strong, kind-hearted man, with no little graces, nor petty culture, nor trivial fine speeches, nor false sham, imitation polish. I love you. Ah, I love you, love you, dear!”

”Old girl!” said Jadwin, stroking her hand.

”Do you want me to read to you now?” she asked.

”Just this is pretty good, it seems to me.”

As he spoke, there came a step in the hall and a knock.

Laura sat up, frowning.

”I told them I was not to be disturbed,” she exclaimed under her breath. Then, ”Come in,” she called.

”Mr. Gretry, sir,” announced the servant. ”Said he wished to see you at once, sir.”

”Tell him,” cried Laura, turning quickly to Jadwin, ”tell him you're not at home--that you can't see him.”

”I've got to see him,” answered Jadwin, sitting up. ”He wouldn't come here himself unless it was for something important.”

”Can I come in, J.?” spoke the broker, from the hall. And even through the thick curtains they could hear how his voice rang with excitement and anxiety.

”Can I come in? I followed the servant right up, you see. I know--”

”Yes, yes. Come in,” answered Jadwin. Laura, her face flus.h.i.+ng, threw a fold of the couch cover over her costume as Gretry, his hat still on his head, stepped quickly into the room.

Jadwin met him half way, and Laura from her place on the couch heard the rapidly spoken words between the general and his lieutenant.

”Now we're in for it!” Gretry exclaimed.

”Yes--well?” Jadwin's voice was as incisive and quick as the fall of an axe.

”I've just found out,” said Gretry, ”that Crookes and his crowd are going to take hold to-morrow. There'll be h.e.l.l to pay in the morning.

They are going to attack us the minute the gong goes.”