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Page 49
The other proceeded with evident effort, laying his head back against the
tree-trunk again. "I am as grateful to you and Mrs. Burns as a man can
possibly be, so grateful that I can't put it into words--"
"Don't try. Go on to something more important."
"I have trespassed on your hospitality--"
"Don't use hackneyed phrases like that. Say something original."
--"as long as I can be willing to do it. I am as much improved as I can
expect to be--for a long time. I can't hang on, a useless invalid on your
hands--"
"Cut it, old man! You're not an invalid, and you're not useless. You're
giving me one of the most interesting studies I've engaged in in a long
time. I'm liable to write a book on you, when I get sufficient data."
Leaver smiled faintly. "Nevertheless, I can't do it, Red. You wouldn't do
it in my place. Be honest--would you?"
"Probably not. I'd be just pig-headed fool enough to argue the case to
myself precisely as you are doing. Well, Jack, I've expected this hour.
It's a pity there isn't more faith and trust in friendship in the world.
We're all deadly afraid of trying our friends too far, so after just
about so long we strike out for ourselves. But since it is as it is, and
you're growing restless, I'll agree that you leave us, if you'll stay for
a while where you'll be under my observation. I've set my heart on making
a complete cure in this case--or, rather, you understand, assisting
Nature to do so. If you go off somewhere I shall lose track of you.
Suppose you stay in the village here for a while longer. I know a
splendid place for you, just round the corner. Quiet, pleasant home,
middle-aged widow and her young son--a lady, and a sensible, cheerful
one--she'll never bore you by talk unless you feel like it--and then the
talk will be worth while. What do you say? You know perfectly well that
you're not yet quite fit to shift for yourself. Be rational, and let me
manage things for you a while longer."
Leaver stood up; in the dim light Burns could not see his face. But he
heard his voice--one which showed tension.
"You don't know what you're asking, old friend. There are reasons why I
feel like getting away, entirely apart from any conditions under your
control. Yet since you ask it of me, and I owe you so much, and since--I
suppose it doesn't really make much difference where I am--I'll stay for
the present."
"Good! I'm much obliged, Jack."
Burns got up, also, and the two strolled away together, in the pleasant
summer dusk.
CHAPTER IX
A PRACTICAL ARTIST
"Here I am! And the goods are here too. Isn't it a miracle? It could
never have been done if I hadn't found a kind friend among the railroad
men, who sent my things by fast freight. Now to settle in a whirlwind of
a hurry and fly back for Granny."
These were Miss Charlotte Ruston's words of greeting as she shook hands
with the occupants of the Macauley car, which had met her at the station
on the last day of July. She looked as fresh and eager to carry out her
plans as if she were not just at the end of a journey.
"I suppose you'll stop for luncheon first," Martha Macauley suggested.
She noted, with the approval of the suburbanite who cares much to be well
dressed, the quietly smart attire of the arriving traveller.
"Indeed I will. Fuel first, fire afterward. But I'm fairly burning to
begin, July weather though it is. How are my hollyhocks? A splendid row?
I've dreamed of those hollyhocks!"
"They are all there--as well as one can see them above the weeds. We
would have had the grass cut for you, but didn't venture to touch so much
as a spear, lest we destroy some picturesque effect," Ellen said, giving
her friend's hand an affectionate grasp as Charlotte took her place
beside her.
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