The Opened Shutters. Clara Louise Burnham
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Название: The Opened Shutters
Автор: Clara Louise Burnham
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
isbn: 4064066176624
isbn:
They shook hands. "If I'd married him," thought Miss Lacey, "that room wouldn't look like that."
The judge softly closed the door behind her. "There, but for the grace of God," he murmured devoutly, "goes Mrs. Calvin Trent." Then he returned to his desk, put on his hat, and sat down at his work.
Before long Dunham returned. His employer beckoned him with a long, bony finger.
The young man's eyes glistened, and he tiptoed forward obediently.
"What's the matter with you?" uneasily. "She—the lady has gone?"
"Certainly, Judge. I saw her just now disappearing up the street."
"Well, listen. I have decided not to go to Boston Wednesday morning. You will go in my place."
"Yes?"
"Miss Lacey is going on the same train."
"Ah," Dunham nodded slowly and with becoming gravity.
"You will have a seat in the parlor car. She will not have. Martha would think that nonsense; but her errand will be at the same place as yours. My sister married her brother. Both are dead, and they have left a daughter who has come out of the West to Boston to seek us. I suspect there may be a good deal of wool clinging to her."
"A lamb, of course," murmured Dunham.
"The disposition of this girl is costing Miss Lacey considerable worry, and me quite as much, although I don't think best to let Martha know it. I intended to go to the hotel to meet her myself; but"—
The younger man smiled, and the judge saw that he understood.
"I shall prepare some memoranda for you. What I am ready to buy is peace. You understand? You will be cautious, and not let me in for anything except perhaps immediate expenses. Follow Miss Lacey's lead; but let her lead. Eh?"
"Certainly, Judge Trent. As I said before, I can manage this with one hand tied behind me. It isn't as if it were the Evans case."
"The Evans case!" Judge Trent growled scornfully. "The Evans case is a bagatelle to this. Now you see to it that you're wise as a serpent in this matter. First and foremostly, and last and lastly, I won't have that girl in my house. Understand?"
"Oh, surely. I understand."
"Let Miss Lacey make the decisions and you be cautious."
"Ay, ay, Judge," returned Dunham airily.
CHAPTER III
A RAILWAY TRIP
The speculator on a large scale feels no more elated over the rescue of a fortune from anticipated loss than did Miss Lacey in the recovery of her one thousand dollars. In the expansion of ideas which it caused she determined to celebrate by taking a chair in the parlor car for Boston on Wednesday morning.
John Dunham boarded the train just as it was pulling out of the station, and as he approached his seat suddenly heard himself greeted:—
"It is Sir Walter," said a pleased voice. "I wasn't sure till you took your hat off."
The young man paused in the act of hanging up his hat and looked down upon the occupant of the next chair. She was regarding him with interest.
"Why, good-morning, Miss Lacey," he responded, and perhaps his smile would not have been so pronounced but for the quick consideration of Judge Trent's situation had he not transferred his ticket this morning.
Dunham even wondered if Miss Lacey might not have learned in some way who it was that had engaged this chair and made her arrangements accordingly. However, the surprise with which she recognized him was certainly genuine.
"Aren't these seats comfortable?" she went on as he sank into his. "I never traveled in one before. I'm just being reckless this morning."
Her triumphant, half-defiant regard did not indicate that she was laboring under any disappointment.
Upon Dunham's acquiescence she continued: "Perhaps, being in the office, you know about my windfall?"
"I hadn't heard, but I'm glad there was a windfall."
Miss Martha scrutinized the speaker's countenance approvingly. "He's about as pleasant-looking a man as I ever laid eyes on," she thought.
"It isn't exactly a windfall, because it's only my own come back to me; but it's money I never expected to see again, and if Cal—if Judge Trent wasn't a good deal smarter than the average I never should have, either."
"Not many people can get ahead of him," returned Dunham.
"I guess not," said Miss Lacey, and she bridled proudly in a manner not lost upon her neighbor. "So I just said to myself this morning, 'What's the use of always being so careful?' Said I, 'I believe I'll see for once how it feels to go to Boston like a nabob.'"
Dunham smiled and nodded, perceiving that Miss Martha felt that her extravagance must be explained even if it could not be justified.
The extra alertness of her look suffered a slight cloud as she continued: "One thing that made me feel reckless was that affairs are taking a turn that may make me be more careful and more economical than I ever was before, and I just thought before I found out I'd have one good time!"
As she finished, the defiant expression returned, and she cast a glance at her companion which seemed to challenge his disapproval. "I notice you don't—I notice lots of folks don't mind the extravagance."
"Ah, but Judge Trent pays my expenses, you see."
Miss Lacey drew herself up under the smiling regard. "He came very near paying mine," was her unspoken thought, and she would have been astonished to know how close her companion came to reading it.
"Of course that makes a difference," she returned, and she regarded her neighbor curiously, wishing she knew just what his business arrangement was with the judge.
"And I would have known, too, if I'd married him," she thought.
Dunham had been handling a magazine, watching for the moment when he could open it; but gaining more and more the impression that Miss Lacey felt his companionship to be a perquisite which rendered more reasonable the price of her chair, he dropped the periodical in his lap.
"Well, for my part, Miss Lacey," he said, leaning his head back definitely, "I think some well-distributed extravagance isn't so disreputable."
"Perhaps not," she returned, "but if you were a lone spinster without a bank account you might have your doubtful moments."
There was a hint of childlike excitement in the speaker's manner which Dunham found rather touching.
"Don't pretend to me that you ever have doubtful moments," he said, regarding the alert face with curiosity as to how it had appeared in those days when Judge Trent had wanted "just that one girl."
"My!" exclaimed Miss Lacey. "I'm having a doubtful moment right СКАЧАТЬ