CHAPTER IV.
GONE!
"I am waiting, Dr. Wright," said Helen, after the notary public hadtaken his departure and Douglas had gone to put finishing touches to thevery rapid packing of steamer trunks, Mrs. Carter helping in herpathetically inefficient way. Helen stood at the top of the stairs tointercept the doctor as he left the patient's room.
"Waiting for what?"
"For you to tell me you were astonished to find me in my father's roomwhen you had given express orders that none of us were to see him."
"But I was not astonished."
"Oh, you expected to find me?"
"I did not know whether I should find you, but I knew very well youwould go there."
"So you thought I would sneak in and sneak out?"
"I did not call it sneaking but I was pretty sure you had no confidencein me and would do your own sweet will. I hope you are satisfied nowthat it was best not to excite your father."
"But I did not excite him. He just talked in that terrible way himself.You are cruel to say I made him worse!"
"But I did not say so. Certainly, however, you made him no better. Hesaid himself he waked when you came in and you did not deny it. Ofcourse, sleep is always 'kind Nature's sweet restorer.' If you will letme pass, I will now go to see Miss Douglas about ordering your car forthe train this evening. We have only about an hour's time and there isstill a great deal to do. There is the expressman now for the trunks."
"Can't even trust me to order the chauffeur to have the car at thedoor," cried Helen bitterly to herself as the doctor went past her. "Iam of no use to any one in the whole world and I wish I were dead."
The look of agony in the girl's face made an impression on the young manin spite of the strong resentment he felt toward her. He was somewhatlike Helen in that he was not accustomed to disapproval, and beingflouted by this schoolgirl was not a pleasant morsel to swallow. He feltsure of his diagnosis of Mr. Carter's case, for, having served forseveral years as head assistant in a large sanitarium in New York, hewas well acquainted with the symptoms of nervous prostration. Of course,his sending the patient on a sea voyage instead of placing him in asanitarium was somewhat of a risk, but he felt it was the best thing todo, reading the man's character as he had.
Helen's scorn and doubt of him and her seeming selfishness had certainlydone little to recommend her in his eyes, but gentleness and sympathywere the strongest points in George Wright's make-up, and as he went bythe girl he could read in her face agony, extreme agony and desperation.He went up the steps again, two at a time, and said gently:
"Miss Helen, would you be so kind as to see about the car for me? Orderit for 7.45. I am going to put them on at the downtown station and getthem all installed in the drawing-room with the door shut so they neednot see all the Richmond people who are sure to be taking this nighttrain to New York and getting on at Elba, the uptown stop."
"Yes--and thank you."
"By Jove," thought the young man, "that girl is some looker! If she hadthe sense of her sister Douglas, I believe she would be pretty nice,too."
Helen's whole countenance had changed. From the proud, scornful girl,she had turned again into her own self, the Helen her sisters knew andloved.
"You might see that Bobby is kept kind of quiet, too. Tell him I willtake him out with me again soon and let him blow my horn and poke outhis arm when we turn the corners, if he will be quiet for an hour."
"All right," said Helen meekly, wondering at her own docility in socalmly being bossed by this person whom she still meant to despise. Sheinterviewed the chauffeur, ordering the car at the proposed time, andthen captured Bobby, who was making his way to his father's room. Sheinveigled him into the back yard where she kept him in a state of bliss,having her supper out there with him and playing tea party to hisheart's content, even pretending to eat his wonderful mud "pies an'puddin's."
It was almost time for the dread departure and still she kept watch overBobby. The mother came out in the back yard to kiss her childrengood-by. Poor little mother! The meadow brook has surely come on rockyplaces now. What effect is it to have? Perhaps the channel will bebroadened and deepened when the shoals are past. Who knows?
Gone, at last! No one even to wave farewell, so implicitly did theCarter household obey the stern mandates of the doctor. Even the negroservants kept in the background while their beloved master and mistresswere borne away by the smoothly rolling car.
"Seems mos' lak a funeral," sobbed Oscar, "lak a funeral in yellowfeber times down in Mobile, whar I libed onct. Nobody went to themfunerals fer fear er ketching sompen from de corpse. Saddes' funeralsebber I seed."
The girls were sure those funerals could not have been any sadder thanthis going away of their parents. Once more they gathered in thelibrary, as forlorn a family as one could find in the whole world, theywere sure. Their eyes were red and their noses redder. Douglas had hadthe brunt of the labor in getting the packing done and had held outwonderfully until it was all over, and now she had fallen in a littleheap on the sofa and was sobbing her soul out.
Nan was doing her best to comfort her while Lucy was bawling like a babyon Helen's shoulder, truce between the two declared for the time being.
"I feel just like the British would if the Rock of Gibraltar had turnedinto brown sugar and melted into the sea," declared Helen, when thestorm had blown itself out and a calmness of despair had settled down onall of them.
"That's just it," agreed Nan. "Father has always been just likeGibraltar to us. His picture would have done just as well for thePrudential Life Insurance ad as Gibraltar did."
"If you could just have heard him talk as he did to me. Oh, girls, Ifeel as though I had killed him!" and Helen gave a dry sob that madeLucy put an arm around her. "I have sworn a solemn swear to myself: I amnot going to wear a single silk stocking nor yet a pair of them untilFather comes home, and not then unless he is well. I have some oldcotton ones that I got for the Camp-Fire Girls' hike, the only ones Iever had since I can remember, and I am going to wear those until I canget some more. I hate 'em, too! They make my toes feel like old rustypotatoes in a bag."
This made the girls laugh. A laugh made them feel better. Maybe behindthe clouds the sun was, after all, still shining and they would not haveto wear rubbers and raincoats forever.
"You remind me of the old man we saw up at Wytheville who had such verylong whiskers, having sworn never to cut them off or trim them until theDemocrats elected a President," drawled Nan. "Those whiskers did somegrowing between Cleveland's and Wilson's Administrations. You rememberwhen Wilson was elected and he shaved them off, his wife made a big sofacushion out of them; and the old man had become so used to the greatweight on his chin, that now he was freed from it, his chin justnaturally flew up in the air and made him look like his check rein wastoo tight."
"Yes, I remember," declared Lucy; "and his wife said she was going tostrap the cushion back on where his whiskers used to be if he didn'tstop holding his head so haughty." Another laugh and the sun came out intheir hearts.
Dr. Wright had assured them that their father would be well. He hadhad many patients who had been in much worse condition who were nowperfectly well. Mr. Carter's case had been taken hold of in time and thedoctor was trusting to his splendid constitution and the quiet of theocean to work wonders in him. In the meantime, it was necessary for thegirls to begin to think about what they were to do.
"I think we had better not try to come to any conclusion to-night," saidDouglas, "we are all of us so worn out, at least I am. We will sleep onit and then to-morrow get together and all try to bring some plan andidea. There was almost no money left in the bank after the tickets forthe voyage were bought and money put in Mother's bag for incidentals."
"Poor little Muddy, just think of her having to be the purse bearer! Idon't believe she knows fifty cents from a quarter," sighed Nan.
"Well, Mother will have to go to school just like the rest of us. Ifancy we only know the difference in size and not
much about the valueof either. Dr. Wright wrote a check for the amount in bank, showing fromFather's check book, and after he had paid for the tickets, he left therest for me to put to my account. I am awfully mortified, but I don'tknow how to deposit money--and as for writing a check--I'd sooner writea thesis on French history. I know I could do it better."
Douglas smothered a little sigh. This was no time to think of self or torepine about her private ambitions, but somehow the thought would creepin that this meant good-by to college for her. She had planned to takeexaminations for Bryn Mawr early in June and was confident of passing.She had her father's ability to stick to a thing until it wasaccomplished, and no matter how distasteful a subject was to her, shemastered it. This was her graduating year at school. Now all joy of theapproaching commencement was gone. She was sorry that her dress wasalready bought, and in looking over the check book, she had found it waspaid for, too. Forty dollars for one dress and that of material that hadat the best but little wearing quality! Beautiful, of course, but when afamily had been spending money as freely as this family had always done,what business had one of them with a forty dollar white dress with nowear to it when the balance in the bank showed only eighty-threedollars and fifty-nine cents?
A sharp ringing of the front door bell interrupted Douglas's musings andmade all of the sisters conscious of their red eyes and noses.
"Who under Heaven? It is nine o'clock!"
"Cousin Lizzie Somerville, of course. She always rings like the housewas on fire."
It was Miss Elizabeth Somerville, a second cousin of their father. Shecame into the library in rather unseemly haste for one of her usualdignity.
"Where is your father?" she demanded, without the ceremony of greetingthe girls. "I must see him immediately. Your mother, too, of course, ifshe wants to come down, but I must see your father."
"But he is gone!"
"Gone where? When will he return?"
"In about two months," said Helen coolly. Helen was especially gifted intackling Cousin Lizzie, who was of an overbearing nature that neededhandling. "He and Mother have gone to Bermuda."
"Bermuda in the summer! Nonsense! Tell me when I can see him, as it isof the greatest importance. I should think you could see that I am introuble and not stand there teasing me," and since it was to be a day oftears, Cousin Lizzie burst out crying, too.
"Oh, Cousin Lizzie, I am so sorry! I did not mean to tease. I am notteasing. Father is ill, you must have noticed how knocked up he has beenlooking lately, and the doctor has taken him with Mother to New York.They have just gone, and they are to sail on a slow steamer to Bermudaand Panama in the morning. Please let us help you if we can."
"You help! A lot of silly girls! It is about my nephew Lewis!" and thepoor lady wept anew.