|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 66
Miller walked away, speechless with astonishment, but he had found his
tongue by the time he got back. He went into the private office, hat in
hand, and waited patiently until Mr. Forbes looked up.
"Well?"
"Wiggins says to tell you, sir, that he will write to you to-morrow, but
if you'll excuse me, sir, for meddling in what is none of my business,
I'd like you to know before then what a little heaven on earth you have
made in that tenement-house. Wiggins was so weak he could hardly sit up,
and he cried for pure joy, at the thought of getting away. He says he
knows it will save his life. He kept wringing my hand, over and over,
and saying, 'It isn't just the money and all that it will do for me in
the way of unloading me of that debt and getting my strength back, but
it's the kindness of it, Miller, the heavenly kindness of it! Doing all
this for me as if he had been my brother!'"
"Thank you, Miller," said Mr. Forbes, waving him hastily aside and
turning again to his letters. He seemed impatient, but there was a glow
in his heart that made the world seem pleasanter all day.
On his way home he stopped at a jeweller's, and selected a little ring.
It was only a simple twist of gold tied in a lover's knot, but inside he
had them engrave the word, _"Tusitala,"_ and ordered it sent to the
hotel that evening.
Late that night it was brought up to his room, where he sat writing a
letter to Eugenia. He had just finished the paragraph: "I am sending you
by this mail a sort of talisman. Maybe the daily sight of it on your
finger will be a helpful reminder of that noble life that shall never be
forgotten, while the Road of the Loving Heart endures. It is so easy to
forget to take time to be kind. I find it so in my daily rush of
business. I shall carry your letter with me as a reminder. Tell your
little friend Betty so. The ripple she started will circle farther than
she ever dreamed."
"How queer for me to be saying anything like that to Eugenia," he
thought. "How much she must have changed to be able to write me the
letter she did." He opened the box and took out the little ring. As he
turned it around on the tip of his finger, he remembered that it was
almost time for her to be coming home. The house party would soon be at
an end.
"Hardly worth while to send it to her," he thought. "She will be coming
home so soon. When we are down at the seashore, I will give it to her."
The letter she had written him lay open on the table before him. That
letter, blotted with penitent tears, had brought a new tenderness into
his heart for her. It had revealed a different Eugenia from the one he
had been accustomed to thinking of as his little daughter. Somehow she
seemed nearer and dearer than she had ever done before, and he wanted to
take her in his arms and tell her so. The next instant the thought
flashed across his mind, "Well, why not? This is the time I have
arranged to take my vacation, and there is nothing to hinder my going
down to Kentucky after her. Jack Sherman is always urging me to visit
Locust, and I'll give the child a surprise. She dislikes to travel with
only Eliot."
Eugenia knew nothing of the telegram her Cousin Elizabeth received next
morning, so several days later she could hardly believe her eyes, when
she saw her father spring out of the carriage in front of the house, and
come bounding up the steps, between the white pillars of the
vine-covered porch. Tall, handsome, smiling, he came toward her, his
arms outstretched, and, after one amazed glance, she ran into them,
crying, "Oh, papa! papa! I'm so glad!"
"I couldn't do without my little girl any longer," he said. "I had to
come for her."
Mrs. Sherman came out just then with the warmest of welcomes, and
Eugenia rushed up-stairs for a moment, to tell Betty about her surprise
and to hurry Joyce and Lloyd down to greet her father.
"I am going to begin all over again now," she said to herself, as she
went up the stairs. "I'll be as good, and sweet to him as he deserves.
I'll let him see how proud I am of him, too. It's queer, but somehow I
really love him better since I have thought so much about Betty's Memory
roads. Well, I shall certainly try my best from now on to leave a happy
one behind for him."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|