Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life. Clara Louise Burnham

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СКАЧАТЬ back to rest upon her son. “Get your coat quick, 'Zekiel. Here's the telegram. Take the car that passes the park gate, and stop at the station. That's the nearest place.”

      Ezekiel obediently struggled into the coat hanging conveniently near. “What does the telegram say?—'Run away, little girl, the ogre isn't hungry'?”

      “Not much! She's coming. He's sending for the brat.”

      “Poor brat! How did it happen?”

      “Just some more of my lady's doings,” answered Mrs. Forbes angrily. “Of course she had to put in her oar and exasperate Mr. Evringham until he did it to spite her.”

      “Cutting off his own nose to spite his face, eh?” asked Zeke, taking the slip of paper.

      “Yes, and mine. It's going to come heavy on me. I could have shaken that woman with her airs and graces. Catch her or Mamzell lifting their hands!”

      “Yet they want her, do they?”

      “No, Stupid! That's why she's coming. Can't you understand?”

      “Blessed if I can,” returned the boy as he left the barn; “but I know one thing, I pity the kid.”

      Mr. Evringham received a prompt answer to his message. His son appointed, as a place of meeting, the downtown hotel where he and his wife purposed spending the night before sailing.

      Father and son had not met for years, and Mr. Evringham debated a few minutes whether to take the gastronomic and social risk of dining with Harry en famille at the noisy hotel above mentioned, or to have dinner in assured comfort at his club—finally deciding on the latter course.

      It was, therefore, nearly nine o'clock before his card was presented to Mr. and Mrs. Harry, to whom it brought considerable relief of mind, and they hastened down to the dingy parlor with alacrity.

      “You see we thought you might accept our invitation to dinner,” said Harry heartily, as he grasped his parent's passive hand; “but your business hours are so short, I dare say you have been at home since the middle of the afternoon.” As he spoke the hard lines of his father's impassive face smote him with a thousand associations, many of them bringing remorse. He wondered how much his own conduct had had to do with graving them so deeply.

      His wife's observant eyes were scanning this guardian of her child from the crown of his immaculate head to the toes of his correct patent leathers. His expressionless eyes turned to her. “This is your wife?” he asked, again offering the passive hand.

      “Yes, father, this is Julia,” responded Harry proudly. “I'm sorry the time is so short. I do want you to know her.”

      The young man's face grew eloquent.

      “That is a pleasure to come,” responded Mr. Evringham mechanically. He turned stiffly and cast a glance about. “You brought your daughter, I presume?”

      “Yes, indeed,” answered Mrs. Evringham. “Harry was so glad to receive your permission. We had made arrangements for her provisionally with friends in Chicago, but we were desirous that she should have this opportunity to see her father's home and know you.”

      Mr. Evringham thought with regret of those friends in Chicago. Many times in the last two days he had deeply repented allowing himself to be exasperated into thus committing himself.

      “Do sit down, father,” said Harry, as his wife seated herself in the nearest chair.

      Mr. Evringham hesitated before complying. “Well,” he said perfunctorily, “you have gone into something that promises well, eh Harry?”

      “It looks that way. I'm chiefly occupied these days in being thankful.” The young man smiled with an extraordinary sweetness of expression, which transfigured his face, and which his father remembered well as always promising much and performing nothing. “I might spend a lot of time crying over spilt milk, but Julia says I mustn't,”—he glanced across at his wife, whose dark eyes smiled back—“and what Julia says goes. I intend to spend a year or two doing instead of talking.”

      “It will answer better,” remarked his father.

      “Yes, sir,” Harry's voice grew still more earnest. “And by that time, perhaps, I can express my regret to you, for things done and things left undone, with more convincingness.”

      The older man made a slight gesture of rejection with one well-kept hand. “Let bygones be bygones,” he returned briefly.

      “When I think,” pursued Harry, his impulsive manner in strange contrast to that of his listener, “that if I had been behaving myself all this time, I might have seen dear old Lawrence again!”

      Mr. Evringham kept silence.

      “How are Madge and Eloise? I thought perhaps Madge might come in and meet us at the train.”

      “They are in the best of health, thank you. Eh—a—I think if you'll call your daughter now we will go. It's rather a long ride, you know. No express trains at this hour. When you return we will have more of a visit.”

      Harry and his wife exchanged a glance. “Why Jewel is asleep,” answered the young man after a pause. “She was so sleepy she couldn't hold her eyes open.”

      “You mean you've let her go to bed?” asked Mr. Evringham, with a not very successful attempt to veil his surprise and annoyance.

      “Why—yes. We supposed she would see us off, you know.”

      “Your memory is rather short, it strikes me,” returned his father. “You sail at eight A.M., I believe. Did you think I could get in from Bel-Air at that hour?”

      “No. I thought you would naturally remain in the city over night. You used to stay in rather frequently, didn't you?”

      “I've not done so for five years; but you couldn't know that. Is it out of the question to dress the child again? I hope she is too healthy to be disturbed by a trifle like that.”

      Mrs. Evringham cast a startled look at her father-in-law. “It would disappoint Jewel very much not to see us off,” she returned.

      Mr. Evringham shrugged his shoulders. “Let it go then. Let it go,” he said quickly.

      Harry's plain face had grown concerned. “Is Mrs. Forbes with you still?” he asked.

      “Oh, yes. I couldn't keep house without Mrs. Forbes. Well,” rising, “if you young people will excuse me, I believe I will go to the club and turn in.”

      “Couldn't you stand it here one night, do you think?” asked Harry, rising. “The club is rather far uptown for such an early start.”

      “No. I'll be on hand. I'm used to rising early for a canter. I'll take it with a cab horse this time. That will be all the difference.” And with this attempt at jocularity, Mr. Evringham shook hands once more and departed, swallowing his ill-humor as best he could. Any instincts of the family man which might once have reigned in him had long since been inhibited. This episode was a cruel invasion upon his bachelor habits.

      Left alone, Harry СКАЧАТЬ