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Page 19
"So she sent the nurse out and sat down on the side of the bed to
hear what he had to say to her, for he looked very eager and was
smiling in a way to make her heart ache.
"You must remember," continued Mrs. Packard, "that at the time Miss
Thankful was telling this story we were in the very room where it
had all happened. As she reached this part of her narration, she
pointed to the wall partitioning off the corridor, and explained
that this was where the bed stood,--an old wooden one brought down
from her own attic.
"'It creaked when I sat down on it,' said she, 'and I remember that
I felt ashamed of its shabby mattress and the poor sheets. But we
had no better,' she moaned, 'and he did not seem to mind.' I tell
you this that you may understand what must have taken place in her
heart when, a few minutes later, he seized her hand in his and said
that he had a great secret to communicate to her. Though he had
seemed the indifferent brother for years, his heart had always been
with his home and his people, and he was going to prove it to her
now; he had made money, and this money was to be hers and
Charity's. He had saved it for them, brought it to them from the
far West; a pile of money all honestly earned, which he hoped would
buy back their old house and make them happy again in the old way.
He said nothing of his nephew. They had not mentioned him, and
possibly he did not even know of his existence. All was to be for
them and the old house, this old house. This was perhaps why he
was content to lie in the midst of its desolation. He foresaw
better days for those he loved, and warmed his heart at his
precious secret.
"But his sister sat aghast. Money! and so little done for his
comfort! That was her first thought. The next, oh, the wonder and
the hope of it! Now the boy could be saved; now he could have his
luxuries. If only it might be enough! Five thousand, ten
thousand. But no, it could not be so much. Her brother was daft
to think she could restore the old home on what he had been able to
save. She said something to show her doubt, at which he laughed;
and, peering slowly and painfully about him, drew her hands toward
his left side. 'Feel,' said he, 'I have it all here. I would
trust nobody. Fifty, thousand dollars.'
"Fifty thousand dollars! Miss Thankful sprang to her feet, then
sat again, overcome by her delight. Placing her hand on the
wallet he held tied about his body, she whispered, 'Here?'
"He nodded and bade her look. She told me she did so; that she
opened the wallet under his eye and took out five bonds each for
ten thousand dollars. She remembers them well; there was no
mistake in the figures. She held fifty thousand dollars in her
hands for the space of half a minute; then he bade her put them
back, with an injunction to watch over him well and not to let that
woman nurse come near him till she had taken away the wallet
immediately after his death. He could not bear to part with it
while alive.
"She promised. She was in a delirium of joy. In one minute her
life of poverty had changed to one of ecstatic hope. She caressed
her brother. He smiled contentedly, and sank into coma or heavy
sleep. She remained a few minutes watching him. Picture after
picture of future contentment passed before her eyes;
phantasmagoria of joy which held her enthralled till chance drew
her eyes towards the window, and she found herself looking out upon
what for the moment seemed the continuation of her dream. This was
the figure of her nephew, standing in the doorway of the adjoining
house. This entrance into the alley is closed up now, but in those
days it was a constant source of communication between the two
houses, and, being directly opposite the left-hand library window,
would naturally fall under her eye as she looked up from her
brother's bedside. Her nephew! the one person of whom she was
dreaming, for whom she was planning, older by many years than when
she saw him last, but recognizable at once, as the best, the
handsomest--but I will spare you her ravings. She was certainly in
her dotage as concerned this man.
"He was not alone. At his side stood her sister, eagerly pointing
across the alley to herself. It was the appearance of the sister
which presently convinced her that what she saw was reality and no
dream. Charity had risen from her bed to greet the newcomer, and
her hasty toilet was not one which could have been easily imagine,
even by her sister. The long-absent one had returned. He was
there, and he did not know what these last five minutes had done
for them all. The joy of what she had to tell him was too much for
her discretion. Noting how profoundly her brother slept, she
slipped out of the room to the side door and ran across the alley
to her own house. Her nephew was no longer in the doorway where
she had seen him, but he had left the door ajar and she rushed in
to find him. He was in the parlor with Miss Charity, and no sooner
did her eyes fall on them both than her full heart overflowed, and
she blurted out their good fortune. Their wonder was immense and
in the conversation which ensued unnoted minutes passed. Not till
the clock struck did she realize that she had left her brother
alone for a good half-hour: This was not right and she went
hurrying back, the happiest woman in town. But it was a short-
lived happiness. As she reentered the sick-room she realized that
something was amiss. Her brother had moved from where she had left
him, and now lay stretched across the foot of the bed, where he had
evidently fallen from a standing position. He was still breathing,
but in great gasps which shook the bed. When she bent over him in
anxious questioning, he answered her with a ghastly stare, and that
was all. Otherwise, everything looked the same.
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