Part 44 (1/2)
”Certainly. But let us do nothing hastily. Let me think this over to-night, and we can discuss it again in the morning. You have told me so much that I am anxious to consider every point very carefully. Will that do?”
Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Garton.
She was delighted to see Douglas, and at once began to question him about his adventures at Rixton.
”Let us have a cup of cocoa first, Kit,” her husband suggested. ”And a piece of your nice cake, too,” he added.
”Starving as usual,” Mrs. Garton smilingly replied. ”Didn't you have your dinner?”
”Why, yes, but it's nearly eleven now, and you promised to be home at ten.”
When the cocoa had been made and brought into the study, Mrs. Garton looked quizzically at Douglas.
”If I met you on the street I would not recognise you,” she remarked.
”So that's the way you treat your friends, is it!” her husband bantered.
”Oh, I don't mean that, Charles,” she protested. ”But I never saw Mr.
Stanton dressed that way before.”
”No wonder you wouldn't recognise me,” Douglas smilingly replied. ”It is a splendid disguise at times. Even Dr. Rannage didn't know me when he came to Rixton.”
”What, were you at that meeting?” Garton asked.
”So you heard of it, then?”
”Sure. Why, Dr. Rannage was furious when he came home, and at a recent session of the Board of Missions he expressed his opinion in no uncertain manner, so I understand.”
”And he is not over it yet,” Mrs. Garton remarked. ”I was talking to him for a while to-night, and he told me about his terrible experience up there. He said that it was not a fit place to send any man, and that the people were most ignorant and uncouth.”
”They were too much for Dr. Rannage, though,” Douglas replied. He then told them in detail about the meeting that night at the Corner. ”Dr.
Rannage made a fool of himself,” he said in conclusion. ”He was not the proper person to send there.”
”Won't you tell me something about Rixton?” Mrs. Garton asked, ”and what you have been doing since you left the city?”
”Tell her about your wrestling bout with Jake Jukes,” Garton suggested, ”and the widow and her news-bag of a son, and also about the old shoemaker and his wayward daughter. Yes, and about the old professor and his daughters.”
”You have given me a big contract,” Douglas laughingly replied.
”I know I have, but Kit must hear it.”
It was late when the three at last rose to retire. But Douglas did not mind, for he was glad to have such interested listeners. But the part of his story that was nearest his heart he did not tell. Not even to the Gartons would he reveal his love for Nell, and all that she meant to him.
Douglas walked with Garton down the street the next morning toward the lawyer's office.
”Well, what is your decision as to the Stubbles' affair?” the latter asked. ”I suppose you have it all cut and dried.”
”Not altogether,” was the reply. ”I spent much of the night thinking it over, but am not fully decided yet. But there is one thing I would like you to do.”